AKA
Awareness.
Knowledge.
Apply.
We help you become the kind of coach who brings out the best in others by helping you understand your strengths so you can easily identify and develop them in your players. Together, we shape your coaching philosophy into practical, repeatable systems that fit your style and your roster.
How does mental strength coach develop work?
We help you build a values-driven culture with clear expecations and behaviors so players take owenership of their growth. By organizing principles, values, and standards into a coherent framework your player's can monitor their behaviors and keep focus towards your team's purpose.
We help you organize your season so you can lead meetings that secure alignment on: goals, plans, instruction, feedback, mistake recovery, and self-talk. You lead your players and organization with a system that drives clarity, consistency, and toward your team's purpose.
We help you add mental strength routines so athletes use thier strengths to grow competencies and confidence. When you echo a player's motivations to them they focus on decision-making and skill development. "A learning environment where mistakes are seen as the feedback needed to grown is conductive to success." Coach K.
Research consistently shows that alturistic teams - where athletes feel supported and know exactly what success looks like - outperform teams with more talent but less clarity and connection. Everyone reports to the purpose, team created it, so team owns it.
Joy is not the bonus from sports, it is the fuel. Positive emotions fuel ability to anything.
Coaching & Practice
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Practice planning
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Guided discovery (instruction)
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Constructive feedback (resilience)
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Collaborative goal setting
Environment & Awareness
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Working with parents
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Abuse prevention awareness
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Mental stress awareness
Core Coaching Focus Areas
How It Works
Assessment
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Your skills, behaviors, and leadership style are surfaced with our proprietary assessment so together we can create a skill development plan tailored to your specific needs and strengths.
Learn at Your Pace
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Executive summary
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Video concept clips
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Full written description
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Applied worksheets
We know your time is limitted, learn at your pace from weekend crash course to full analytical review.
Apply with Support
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Concepts introduced online
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PDF worksheet allow trial and adjustment
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Recieve 1 to 1 feedback
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Attend applied workshops in-person and online.
Included—no extra cost.
What Makes AKA Coach Different
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There are plenty of sources for more Xs and Os. We get under the hood.
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You start improving immediately because your free assessment increases your self-awareness. You decide where and how you want to improve. We are here to support your unique developmen journey, not impose a system.
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We are different because our work is grounded in neurologic research and psychological theory (see about, TOLE).
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Leadership theories are incorperated so you growing as a coach and leader.
We believe everything you need as a coach is already inside you.
Our role is to help you gain awareness of your strengths and weaknesses, build knowledge that resonates with you and your players, and apply skills that create lasting change.
We believe happy players perform better. Our work is grounded in self-determination theory—developing relatedness, competency, and autonomy.
Many coaches coach the way they were coached and repeat the sins of the past. Once I learned a better way, my relationship with myself and the student-athletes I serve were forever changed. We are honored to serve you on your AKA Coach journey.
About Matthew J. McCarthy, MS
Matt is a sports coach, official, and masters athlete with a growth mindset who earned a master's degree in sport & performance psychology to help coaches and student-athletes build mental strength systems that elevate performance both for a season and over a lifetime.
Guided by the strength of individualization, Matt recognizes every athlete's journey is unique and requires a tailored approach. Oriented as a Servent Leader, he measures his own success in the development of others.
Anxiety, negative self-talk, confidence, dealing with pressure, resilience, and more are natural reactions and dramatically improved with strategies and routines that provide clarity and control.
