Mental Strength: Julie Foudy And Bryan Price on Working On The 4th Pillar
Julie Foudy is one of the world’s most accomplished female soccer players.
This must-read article is written by columnist Bryan Price, a performance and mindset coach who founded Top Mental Game.
Julie Foudy was co-captain for nine years, a dominant midfielder for the U.S. Women’s National Team from 1987 through 2004 and captain from 2000 through her retirement. In her 18-year national team tenure, including 271 international caps, the U.S. women won two FIFA Women’s World Cup titles (1991, 1999), two Olympic gold medals (1996, 2004), and a silver medal in 2000. She began working as an analyst for ESPN in 2005 and founded the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy in 2006. She was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in August 2007. 
Julie sat down with SoccerToday columnist Bryan Price at the Top Mental Game Soccer Summit to discuss the importance of mental games to her career.
Bryan Price: When were you first introduced to mental skills training and how did it impact your career?
Julie Foudy: It is and has been one of the most essential parts of my career.
Our U.S. Women’s National Team had the opportunity to work with the amazing Dr. Colleen Hacker who came onto our team after we lost the 1995 World Cup. We had won the 1991 World Cup but didn’t have a mental skills component for the 1995 Women’s World Cup. Although we trained super hard and were physically fit, we were not at our best mentally. And it showed. We lost to Norway in the semi-final, a game we should’ve won.
Afterward, Tony DiCicco, our coach then, decided to bring in a mental skills coach.
So he brought in Colleen Hacker and let me tell you, Dr. Hacker was like a godsend to us.
AT FIRST, WE WERE ALL LIKE, “WHAT? A MENTAL SKILLS COACH? THIS IS WEIRD.”
Julie Foudy
We wondered if we were going to be lying down on a couch. What was this?We didn’t know anything about it because it wasn’t that common back then.
Colleen came in, and it was life-altering in the sense that she taught us skills we will use for the rest of our lives. I’m constantly mentioning Collen Hacker when I talk about leadership, team chemistry, and culture-building.
She made us pay attention to the small things. She used to say, “You know that book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff? That’s not true.
“SWEAT THE SMALL THINGS. THE SMALL THINGS ARE WHAT MAKE YOU GREAT.”
She always talked about the 2-3% edge and the difference it makes. No matter what the other team is working on – the physical, the technical, and the tactical – when your mental game is strong, it can be the difference.
It was the difference in that we lost in 1995 and then won against Norway when we played them again in the next year’s Olympic semi-finals.
Colleen stayed with us for a decade. She taught me so much about how to handle the moments that all athletes have—anxiety, butterflies, times when we lack confidence, and when we’re not feeling up to the task.
Bryan Price: How did you overcome those times when you were nervous?
Julie Foudy: I remember going into Colleen once and saying, “Hey, I have these butterflies and I hate them. I’ll do anything to get rid of them.” And Colleen said, “No, no, no. Don’t wish the butterflies away because the butterflies mean it matters. You care. It means that what you’re doing is important. Now, you have to teach those butterflies to fly in formation. ”
To get my butterflies to fly in formation, Colleen taught me I could control them with my brain. She said, “Our brains can only handle one thought at a time, so you want to replace that negative thought with a positive one.”
So, to prevent those butterflies and negative thoughts from leading me into a downward spiral, she taught me to do a physical reminder and snap out of it in that moment. I used to wear a hairband on my wrist, so when I had those butterflies or negative thoughts, I physically snapped my hairband on my wrist, and it was a mental reminder to ‘snap out of it’ and play.
I teach kids and coaches this strategy all the time. If it’s not a hairband, maybe it’s pulling up your socks, fixing your sleeves, adjusting your ponytail, or whatever your physical reminder is. But the important thing is that you control that narrative in your brain, so make sure you’re positively planting it.
AND IT WORKS. I STILL USE IT ALL THE TIME.
Bryan Price: What other advice would you give to athletes who still get nervous?
Julie Foudy: What I’ve realized is that everyone gets that way.
INSTEAD OF THINKING, “AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO FEELS LIKE THIS,” REALIZE THAT EVERYBODY FEELS LIKE THAT.
Mind you, I went through years of this. And I still get butterflies today. But now I’ve flipped my thinking. I no longer think they’re a terrible thing. I still get them today, but I look forward to getting them. I don’t get them doing the dishes; there’s a reason for that – I don’t get excited about them!
When I get the butterflies, I get excited because I know that I can treat them like opportunities instead of pressure situations, and when you reframe them like that, they become something you look forward to.
BECAUSE EVEN IF YOU DO FAIL, WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? I GET ANOTHER CHANCE AT IT. I’M GOING TO BE OK.
Bryan Price: How do you keep the proper mindset in soccer when faced with adversity, such as coming off the bench?
Julie Foudy: It’s interesting because when I look at the four national teams that won the two FIFA World Cups and two Olympic gold medals, the common denominators are that we got players 18, 19, and 20 right.
THOSE ARE THE LAST 3 PLAYERS ON THE TEAM ROSTER. THE LAST 3 PLAYERS THAT A COACH WOULD PICK.
So Carla Overbeck [fellow team captain] and I would go into the coach’s office and say we want to pick 18, 19, and 20. Because we felt that if we got those right, we’re winning.
It was a fact that those players would be so invested in the team’s success that it created an energy, a culture, and a buy-in that helped us win.
Abby Wambach talks about the 2015 World Cup when she was told she had to lead from the bench in her famous Wolfpack Barnard Commencement speech – class of 2018.
“HERE I AM, THE WORLD’S GREATEST GOAL SCORER AND YOU WANT ME TO PLAY ON THE BENCH?”
Abby Wambach – Rule No. 2: Lead from the bench
But she accepted it. Not only did she accept it, she started being the biggest cheerleader from the bench.
To take it one step further, I would argue that they wouldn’t have won that World Cup if Abby hadn’t accepted that role the way she did.
And as she put it in her speech, “Unless you’re leading from everywhere, meaning the bench or the field, you’re leading from nowhere.“
Look, I’ve been on the bench and I know that being on the bench isn’t easy. It’s hard. It is frustrating. You’re angry and you may think you should be in. But the best leaders, in my opinion, are the ones who lead when things are hard and not going well.
Are you strong enough to say, “OK, I may disagree with you, but I get it, and I’m going to be here for the team.” That’s not easy, but boy what a difference it can make for a team.
We also used to play a game in films called “Who Started This.”
INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON THE PLAYER WHO JUST SCORED THE GOAL, WE LOOKED FOR WHO STARTED IT
Looking back to when the action, the sequence started… 10 passed back when we won the tackle in the defensive third, which allowed us to counter and then score the goal. This way, the players who weren’t always in the headlines or getting all the minutes understood their value to the team.
Or it was as simple as walking over to one of the reserves after a hard practice and saying, “Thanks for making me better today. You busted it, and I needed that. Because you worked so hard, you made me better today.
Bryan Price: What was the most challenging point in your career and how did you overcome your greatest adversity?
Julie Foudy: It is called Imposter Syndrome, and many women suffer from it today.
MY GREATEST ADVERSITY WAS JUST QUESTIONING I WAS GOOD ENOUGH.
But it was a good 10 years into my national team career, out of 18, that I finally felt like, ok, maybe I shouldn’t worry about getting called up.
While some of that is ‘good’ motivation, a lot is unnecessary fear and anxiety. So much of my getting through that adversity coincided with Colleen joining the team and learning strategies of “yes, you do belong, you’ve put in the work, and you have that confidence.”
She helped me to get my butterflies flying in formation. We worked on things like ‘controlling the controllables‘ and removing anxiety about things outside of our control.
So the hardest thing for me was being secure with myself and how I played. And that goes for everything in life. You start to feel like I’m finally being the person I was meant to be.
And I think Colleen – and the mental side – helped me get there. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to get there alone.
Bryan Price: How do you deal with mistakes? I’ve heard you tell the infamous “Park It” story before. Would you mind retelling it for our Soccer Today readers?
Julie Foudy: Of course! So there we were in the Gold Medal match of the 1996 Olympics and Colleen was on our sidelines as an assistant coach.
For the entire preseason, Colleen had drilled into us, if something bad happens, just think about what you do when you go shopping.
You drive there. You park your car, get out, and do your thing. You don’t park your car, get out, walk a few steps, and then obsess over where you parked the car. No, you just park your car, go shop, and you come back to that parked car later.
During warm-ups, a player [Colleen has never divulged who] sprints to her on a bee-line. And as Colleen tells it, when a player comes sprinting over to the mental skills coach on a bee-line before a big competition, with angst on their face, that’s never a good thing.
So the player starts rambling to Collen about all these things – this and that and this, and she’s super animated, with veins popping out, and Colleen quietly lets her finish. To diffuse the situation, Colleen laughs a bit, and then says, “You know what I’m going to say now.”
And the player says, “Yeah, you’re going to tell me to PARK IT! You’re going to say, ‘PARK IT’ … and I will tell YOU the parking lot is FULL!”
So what did Colleen say to the player? After a long pause, Colleen says, “Well…you’re gonna have to build another deck.”
What a perfect thing to say! So the player turned and jogged off, and we went out and won the gold medal.
Bryan Price: These are unprecedented times for athletes and coaches. What advice would you give them for navigating this pandemic period?
Julie Foudy: I think it’s important to realize that what we’re going through is hard, and it’s ok to feel crappy and to label it as such. And it’s normal to feel like you’re not getting enough in.
BUT DON’T BEAT YOURSELVES UP.
We need to change our paradigm about our expectations and not be consumed by the idea that we need to train at the same level. When we can’t reach those levels, that increases our anxiety.
I suggest a healthy reframe. Even though we’re not getting that time with our teams on the pitch, I think getting together online can be fun, too.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, FIND WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW THAT YOU’RE GRATEFUL FOR.
Gratitude is good for your mind and your health. For example, I have a yard, two healthy kids, and a husband who likes to cook for me. We have sunshine today.
As Colleen always says, I like to find the silver lining, hunt joy, and share that with others because things could be so much worse.
I think about all those people on the front lines, working in hospitals daily, and even your grocery store clerks. Let’s be grateful for them and kind to others.
And realize that what you’re doing right now is fine. And you don’t have to do the same amount when you had your team and a whole field to play on.
WE’RE GOING TO GET THROUGH THIS.
