About Mentally Strong

We began this work back in 2022 in response to the mental health crisis we saw in our youth and in sport. We knew there had to be a better way to support youth athletes and coaches, and we were excited to try to teach youth skills to manage stress using an approach we named “Mentally Strong.” Performing at a high level athletically is about more than just physical, technical and tactical skills---it’s about training your mental game. Led by Sara Chrisman MD MPH and funded by the Prentice family, the Garvey Foundation and internal funds at the Sports Institute at UW Medicine, we set out to develop a coach education platform that could support coaches in teaching coping skills to youth athletes. Our first step was to interview high school athletes and coaches across a variety of schools and sports, trying to describe the emotional struggles they faced in sport. We then enlisted the support of Kevin Alschuler PhD to partner with Dr. Chrisman in developing the content for the Mentally Strong program, going through multiple iterations and approaches. Dr. Alschuler is a sports psychologist who has worked with a variety of local sports teams to help them excel and Dr. Chrisman is an Adolescent Medicine physician who has a particular interest in resilience-based approaches to helping youth flourish. Together they distilled down their guidance into a comprehensive program for coaches that focuses on mental skills with a goal of enhancing performance on and off the field. The Mentally Strong program draws from evidence-based approaches to resilience using a biopsychosocial model, and it is specifically tailored to an athletic context.