Key Behaviors of Successful Athletes (with Brijesh Patel)

In this episode, Brijesh Patel discusses the critical role that leadership, character, and daily habits play in athlete development and long-term success, including:

• What coaches are really evaluating during recruiting and playing time decisions
• Common behavioral red flags that predict performance and developmental issues
• How to develop athletes who can handle adversity and lead themselves and others
• Practical strategies for improving mindset, communication, and resilience
• What athletes wish they had done differently earlier in their careers
• The habits and tools that help players thrive at the professional level

Evolve with Brijesh:

Instagram: @bpatel515
Website: CoachBPatel.com

Supporting High Performance
Metabolic Elite's entire line is designed to specifically support the health, performance, and recovery of high performers. Each product is formulated using research-supported ingredients and dosages using the highest quality ingredients, so you can be confident that every product you take will deliver the maximal benefit and effect.

Check out why Metabolic Elite's Liposomal Tablet delivery system is a game-changer: LPT White Paper

Save 15% using the code 'neeld15' at checkout here: Metabolic Elite

My personal go-to's:

• To improve focus, decision making, and coordination: Synapsin
• To improve inflammation and recovery: Tetra Cur
• To support the immune system and weight management: Viraxall
• To improve digestive health: Max 12 Probiotic

Contact Kevin:

Follow me and suggest future guests, topics and questions: @KevinNeeld
Watch the videos: @NeeldPerformance
Get access to my FREE newsletter: KevinNeeld.com
Email me: KN@KevinNeeld.com

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Kevin Neeld (00:01.745)
B thanks for being here. I'm pumped to have you on. You know, I think one of the things I'm excited to talk to you about is really just what separates athletes that have successful careers from the ones that struggle to progress. So appreciate you being

Brijesh Patel (00:15.896)
Thanks, Kev. I always love talking to you, so let's have some fun today.

Kevin Neeld (00:20.177)
Cool. you know, just to kick things off, wanted to start by talking about what players can do to make themselves stand out, to be more appealing to coaches or better candidates to make a team. So, you know, I think there's a handful of athletes in every group that there's a pretty significant talent or skill gap between them and the rest of the group. And, you know, I think the, there's a handful of those cases in every organization, but the overwhelming majority are kind of in this gray area

you know, a coach has to make a judgment call on whether they want to offer them a scholarship or a commitment to a school and, give them an opportunity to make a team. know, I think a lot of athletes are hyper aware of how they're playing may be perceived, but, maybe less aware and neglect other areas that make them more or less appealing addition to a program. So, you know, with you having spent around two decades in division one settings, can you talk

what questions coaches are asking about athletes during the recruiting process. And then even once they're in the organization, you know, they still have to make decisions about playing time and what conversations you've had with coaches that may influence some of those decisions.

Brijesh Patel (01:30.252)
Yeah, the biggest things that I've kind of realized through and when you said two decades, I almost like couldn't believe it for a second, but it's seen a lot and have experienced a lot of tech to lots of different coaches. And one of the things that always kind of fall back upon is the most important things that, you know, that we really value are the intangibles of players. Like there's obviously you need to be, you need to

athletic and you need to have a high skill high skill set but the things that often separate people from each other are the intangibles like their work ethic their body language they look you in the eyes they shake your hand do they say hello do they say goodbye you know how do they treat other people how do they treat other people within the building whether in the facility how they treat their coaches how do they treat their teammates because those are the types of things like those values

And those things that they do on a regular basis are part of their character. You know, and the character often shines through in the most difficult of situations, right? So you may be the best player on your junior team or whatever youth organization that you're in, but every time you take a step up, you're going to be surrounded by other talented players. And so the things that often separate you from each other, if your talent is almost going be in the same level,

It's those intangibles in the value of your character to be able to handle adverse situations when you don't play, when you have an injury, when you receive feedback, your coachability, and the things that are often going to separate you from other people. And a lot of coaches start to notice those types of things. Like I know in discussion with our coaches, some of the questions that they'll ask youth coaches and they'll ask me is like, you know, would you think of them when you spoke to them? And then when I speak to them, like my room has nothing to with playing time at

And that's what it's part of the thing that I like about what I do is like, I don't control where you stand on the depth chart. Like that's all going to be based on, you know, your ability to work and improve and, and show up on a regular basis, but, how they handle their adversity, how they handle when their name's scratched, like how do they handle, being called out by a teammate? Like, how do they handle being sore, being fatigued, being tired during an off season? Like, how do they show up on a regular basis? Those are the things that, you know, I can deliver a coach and say,

Brijesh Patel (03:48.536)
You know, they're tired today and they really showed it. You know, they're tired today and they let their feelings, they let how they feel affect their actions. And those are types of things I can show in a season. And those are the types of things that we value, that we want to have high character people around our program. And it doesn't matter the sport. And those are the ones that we want around because they know when tough times come, they're going to be able to have the skill

and the character be able to handle those difficult situations. So obviously, number one, you got to be talented, right? So you've to be able to work on your skillset. But then the second thing is your values and the morals and the character of the individual that the recruiting has. And some kids can kind of fudge their way through the recruiting process and they can lie their way through it. But if you talk to enough coaches and you talk to their parents and you talk to teachers and talk to people around them, you can try to peel back on those layers and you're really going to try to find out how good that kid is. So I think...

to answer the question is the kids got to value the things that maybe don't show up when you play. They're going to value all the things that happen outside of there too, because that's going to reveal their discipline and their habits.

Kevin Neeld (04:59.793)
You know, I related to that. I'm curious if there are any commonalities in the traits that you notice that are more likely to lead to an athlete not succeeding. So in other words, you know, an athlete, you talk to an athlete or, know, maybe there's a new freshman class or transfers that are coming in and, know, your, your early read on, some of the, character traits and the value systems that you just alluded

Are there any commonalities in things that are missing in an athlete's behavior and attitude that are red flags for you where you think, you know, I really need to work with this athlete to improve these areas or I don't think that they're going to be successful

Brijesh Patel (05:41.472)
Yeah, sometimes it's lot of it. It's their own built in level of self awareness. Like how aware are they of their body language, of the words that they use? I think those are probably the biggest ones, right? And so body language and the words they use. So I'm really big in coaching the words and vocabulary that somebody decides to use. And so when an athlete says like, oh this is hard.

or this, like, I'm not going to be able to do it. Like those things in my mind, like red flags are typically, you know, words that somebody like with a fixed mindset might start to have. And what we want to do is try to get them to be aware. Like those are the words that they, if those are the words that they use on a regular basis, or when they're not able to do something, if they get, if they get annoyed, if they complain about something, like those are the things that are going to happen every time they start to meet a challenge or an obstacle.

And they've got to be able to almost trick themselves into thinking a different way, but also learn how to think a different way so that they can overcome that challenge or that obstacle so they can actually improve. And so trying to get them to understand how to shift their perspectives and shift their level of awareness to be able to try to understand that I can improve and I can get better no matter how difficult something is or how difficult something that a coach is going to ask me to do or a teammate wants me to do.

Those types of things that we recognize right away is that typically be red flags is like how do they talk to themselves? How do they talk to each other? Are their shoulders down? What's their body language like when they when they get called out or they get called upon or they get they've been given feedback They're typically the ones that that we kind of notice right away and then we're gonna take note of just a little bit more

We've just seen it time and time and time again is that the ones who typically choose negative words Regularly within their vocabulary are the ones that often have a really difficult time of being coachable and I and that your coach ability is going to be the biggest thing for your level of improvement or You know if you desire to move up and down to move up a depth chart is your ability will be willing to receive criticism and feedback so that you can actually

Brijesh Patel (07:58.894)
apply it to modify your performance to actually improve.

Kevin Neeld (08:04.657)
So there's, you know, I think in trying to bring as many people that share those value systems into an organization, there's, there's an element of that that relies on the player selection process. And then there's an element that relies on the player development process. Cause you know, at the end of the day, people are going to be brought in for different reasons. And, you know, some people may really excel in certain areas, but you know, may struggle with some of the,

characteristics that you just described. So, you know, I'm curious when somebody comes in, maybe you identify that somebody is showing some of those red flag behaviors and characteristics. What are some strategies that, that you or, know, the coaching staff, how do you guys work to help the players, not just have more awareness of, what they're bringing to the table, but then also try to help them, you know, transition into

to the value system, the self -awareness that's going to be more productive for the team, obviously, but then for them as they progress through their careers.

Brijesh Patel (09:07.374)
A lot of it, Kev, is just having conversations and communicating with them on a regular basis and trying to get them to be aware of the words that they're using and just talk to them on a regular basis. There's a distinct conversation that comes out. We had a kid in a big game turn the puck over in a tough situation that led to a goal. And you could tell right from that mistake, his performance torpedoed down like it was

and then he made another mistake and it just kind of spiraled into

Brijesh Patel (09:47.01)
this performance in the state of his game where it just went downhill quickly because of one little mistake and he had an inability to let it go. And he just started talking to himself in a negative way. He started gripping the stick just a little bit tighter. Like you've seen, I'm sure you've seen it too, like the levels of athletes you've been able to work with too. But anyway, you know, we had a conversation the next day and because one of the coaches like, Hey, you got to talk to him because he's not gonna listen to me. So we had a conversation and just try to

the individuals talk and try to get them to be aware of like, what do think you were thinking at the time? And obviously he said it was like, I was frustrated. I felt bad because I let the team down. And, you know, he started going downhill with some things and I'm like, well, what was your reset? And he's like, what, what do you mean? I'm like, well, what was your reset to try to bring you back into the present moment? Because after you've made the mistake, you can't keep living in the past. You got to be able to learn from that moment in time and try to adjust your performance or adjust your, you're going to do.

So you don't make the same mistake again, but if you're living in the past, you're never going to be able to play in the present. And if you want to think about your next shift, then you're just worried about the future. Like the only aspect of time that you can ever control is the present moment. So it's almost like trying to get them to understand what's your strategy to try to reset yourself to the present moment. And so a lot of that's just communication and try to get the individual to say like, Hey, what do you think is going to work for you and try to help them through those environments?

not an environment to try to help them through those situations to try to help them develop the tools where they can cope with their performance, either positively or negatively, to try to impact it in a better way. So that's usually the most impactful way is trying to honestly just have a communication and have a talk with the individual and get them to understand that they're ultimately in charge of their performance. And, you know, we're just guides along their journey to try to help them reach

their peak performance or try to help them become the best version of themselves. But so much of it just is just communication and just get them to understand, to be aware. Like one of the things that I'll often say in some of these talks is if somebody's really negative with themselves for a long time and talks to themself in a bad way, I'll often say, how's that working out for you? And oftentimes they'll say, it's not working out for me. Like it's not helping me. So then I'll say, if it's not helping

Brijesh Patel (12:11.02)
then why don't you decide to try to change? And oftentimes they're like, well, I don't know how to change. And so I'm like, all right, let's talk about like different things that you can do. And a lot of it is often just awareness of like, be aware of the words that you use, be aware of the things that you're thinking and ask yourself, am I helping myself? Am I hurting myself right now? Or am I helping my team? Am I hurting my team right now? And if I'm hurting my team, then you've got to be able to say, you've got to change something. And this comes from Charles Duhigg

And James Clear, like, you know, the habit, right? If you've got a certain stimulus that sets you off, you've got to be able to change the response that you have if you want to create a different kind of habit. Because that's all to ultimately at the end of the day, we're doing with coaching and feedback is you're trying to help the athlete develop higher performing habits so they can get to where they want to get to and achieve whatever is that they want to achieve. Does that make

Kevin Neeld (13:05.893)
Yeah, a hundred percent. I, you know, I think kind of related to having those conversations and developing the character of all the players on the roster. I, know, your, your program is really known for having a, a culture that supports high performance and that supports each other where, everybody's kind of pulling in the same direction. And, know, we've been fortunate to have a couple alumni of your program.

Brijesh Patel (13:33.026)
Yeah.

Kevin Neeld (13:33.381)
come through art building, either, you know, obviously playing on the team or at development camps. And one thing that stood out across the board is that they, they all seem to have a confidence in who they are and what they can bring to the table that, I certainly don't see in, in all the players, but that's been pretty consistent with your group. So, you know, I, I've always really believed that everybody on a team is a leader in some form. Some people are vocal leaders, some people are energy leaders.

But, know, the way I think about leadership is that you're doing something that is going to change the behavior of somebody else. And with that, you can also lead in a negative direction, meaning, you know, you can be in the back of the line, rolling your eyes at stuff, not paying attention, distracting other people, and you're still leading. You're just leading in a way that's going to detract from your performance, your teammates' performance, and ultimately the team opposed to leading in a more positive direction.

Brijesh Patel (14:14.808)
Mm -hmm.

Kevin Neeld (14:32.177)
You know, I think the players that we've been exposed to that have come out of your program seem to exhibit a lot of the positive leadership characteristics that, know, really just, I think, improve the mood in the room. You know, they're good teammates, good guys, they're vocal, they're talkative. but then, you know, they also have a work ethic. They also have an understanding of kind of the blue collar nature of, certainly what our organization takes a lot of pride in. And seems like that's common with you guys as well. So.

Brijesh Patel (14:57.046)
Yeah.

Kevin Neeld (15:01.371)
You know, I'm curious, you know, along the same lines of what we were just talking about, how do you go about cultivating leadership qualities within the athletes that you

Brijesh Patel (15:10.434)
Yeah, that's a, I don't know if there's a secret sauce to that that I can eloquently describe, but I can try to give as best as I can because every situation is a little bit different. you every athlete's a little bit different when the state that they come in. But we try to tell them that we expect them to become leaders in their own selves, in their own rights. And one thing that

that we say consistently is you have to be able to lead yourself before you can effectively lead others. And so when we talk about that, like how do you show up? Like what's your energy like? What's your body language like? What's your habits like? Like, you know, I walked into the room today and, you know, some guys are eating before, you know, we did recovery session today and just having a bagel with cream cheese. I'm like, where's your protein? And like, you know, it's, you've got to be able to understand like why you need protein first and foremost. If you don't, you've got to be have, have this

the willingness to ask those questions so you can effectively lead yourself. And, you know, after a recovery session today, said, Hey, listen, like, you know, this is what we did today, and I'm not going to hold you by the hand. am simply going to teach you different tools and different things that you can do to be able to take care of yourselves. But at end of the day, you've got to be able to figure out what you like to do that helps you feel the best you can perform the best.

lot of what we do with truly is, trying to create autonomy and independence within the team setting. And so a lot of that comes down to, like I said before, like getting them to understand how to lead themselves. So how do you lead yourself? You know, we talked about some ways that like, how do you walk in the gym? What's your energy when you walk into the gym? Do you make eye contact? Do you shake people's hands? Are you excited to be in the gym? Are you excited to train? are you excited to get better? Cause ultimately that's what

we call our company motto, that's what our motto is, is like you've got an opportunity to get better and you have to be responsible for the energy that you kind of bring into the space. So you got to be able to lead yourself before you can effectively lead others. And so we make that clear to every single individual and single person that you have to be able to take care of yourself first and foremost. You've got to be able to do the things that we expect you to do. And the things that we expect them are number one, to be accountable. Number two, to show respect and discipline. And number three, to work

Brijesh Patel (17:26.508)
Like those are daily non -negotiables. So if you can do those three things really well, then I can help you become a better athlete and I can help you along the way to try to become a better person. But those are the three things. If you struggle with your accountability, you struggle with your respect and you struggle with your work ethic, and we have to spend more time coaching that, then it's not going to be good. And so we've got to be able to get through their heads first and foremost. Those are the things that you need to work on. And we can do those and I can help you become a better athlete. We can get you stronger. We can get you faster. We can get you in better shape.

And ultimately what we're trying to do is get them prepared for when they practice so they can practice together. So, I don't know if this is making any kind of coherent sense, but a lot of it comes down to getting them to understand that they are in control of their own journey. They're in control of their career. They're in control of their season. And ultimately, when you break it down into the micro level, they're in control of their training session. They're in control of their practice. Obviously a coach is going to dictate what they're going to do on a certain day.

where I'm going to dictate what they're going to do within a gym, within gym session. But they have to be able to show up with those non -negotiables to maximize the effectiveness of that session. But if they spend energy on like bitching, complaining, like eye rolling, like you just said, like they're not going to get what they want to get out of it. So they're, they're not leading themselves first and foremost. And then we'll often say, as they get older throughout their careers, like if they do things the right way they show up on a regular basis with the right habits, like now you have to let other people know. Now you have to let the freshmen

Now you have to let a transfer know because they might not know. So, and I'm not going to play with them and our coaches aren't going to play with them. You have to help guide them along that process. So you learn how to communicate and teach the culture and teach the ways that somebody else taught you. And then it kind of gets passed down year after year after year, but that's the, and I think those are the ways that we effectively cultivate leadership in.

You know, we'll often say like, hey, you're going to run the warmup. You're going to run this, you're going to run this. So you have to explain it to every single person. You have to lead them through, you know, a breath cycle through our core exercises. You're going to teach them how to run this. so we teach autonomy and, and a lot of what we do from a training standpoint too. So I think all those ways, all those opportunities where they have to speak in front of their peers, help improve their public speaking skills and ultimately help improve their ability to communicate effectively, which

Brijesh Patel (19:45.91)
is a large part of leadership too. It's not only just the actions, but it's ability to communicate effectively too. So I think all those types of things that we do help build confidence, but I think it ultimately starts with getting them to understand that they're in full control of their body, their mind, and their spirit. And if they can effectively control those things, and it's hard to do, then they can try to help other people deal with their body, mind, and

Kevin Neeld (20:14.727)
You know, you've, you've mentioned a couple of times the importance of communication and, know, I think one of the themes that I'm pulling away from some of the ideas that you've shared already, it's just this idea of setting standards, communicating standards, and then holding the athletes accountable. And, you know, I think over the last 10 to 20 years, there's, you know, there's been this

topic of discussion on, you know, the everybody gets a trophy idea. And then, you know, it seems like more recently, you know, the helicopter parents that, you know, are so scared of their kids getting hurt or, know, I think really there's kind of a trend to insulate athletes from failure. And, you know, I, I know on a personal note that if I've had any success at all in my career, it's because I learned very early on that I was not good enough to survive on talent alone.

that I would have no shot if I did not do my best to outwork everybody else that was competing for the same thing that I was. And that was exposed to me through repetitive failure of not making teams, of not getting good enough grades if I didn't put the effort in, in the classroom setting. So I'm curious, what's your take on that balance of exposing athletes to failure,

Brijesh Patel (21:22.647)
Mm -hmm.

Kevin Neeld (21:36.549)
you know, then also using those as teachable moments to help them understand what they need to do to improve moving

Brijesh Patel (21:44.01)
I think failure is a necessity. It's a necessary part of life. think if you desire to achieve anything that means something to you, you have to be willing to fail. And you've got to be willing to put yourself all in to whatever it is that you decide to do and be willing to fail. Because when you fail is when you actually learn. You learn, you can modify.

You can absorb any kind of information or feedback that you're getting from a coach or from a teammate. And then you can try to learn to apply it. And if you fail again, then you can tinker with something again. life isn't all roses. I was talking to some of the teams today. I don't know if you listened to Joe Rogan at all, I heard on Joe Rogan in Dr. Phil podcast. They were talking about trigger warnings and how often a lot of kids

you know, when there's a trigger warning, they've learned to almost shelter them and move them away from whatever triggers their anxiety or triggers their feelings of uncomfortability. And research has shown that that doesn't, that the, this theory or this thought of avoidance doesn't help prepare anybody to be able to handle, handle any level of adversity within the future. It just increases their level of anxiety even further. So you've got to be able to meet.

failure or something that you're afraid of or something that's uncomfortable head on. And when you do that regularly and frequently enough, that perception of threat almost starts to decrease a little bit more where you're more willing to try things outside of your comfort zone. your trigger warnings start to decrease a little bit more because you start to realize it's not as the perception of that threat isn't as high as you thought it might

Right. But this is this principle or the thought process that helicopters have of like, try to avoid uncomfortability at any cost. You're not really setting your kid up for any kind of success down the road. Like you got to let your kid. Like lose. And I think that's one thing too, is we talked about, you got to learn how to lose before you can ever learn how to win. And I think you see it every level of sport is when teams learn to lose it, losing socks, right? Nobody likes to lose, but when you lose.

Brijesh Patel (24:05.932)
you'll actually learn how to win a little bit more effectively. You can learn how to adapt and change. Sometimes you learn like you might need to change your roster. You may not be able to win with certain players because they're just, not gonna adapt and they're not gonna buy in. But this concept of failure, it's necessary if you actually want to achieve at a high level.

You said it classically, like when there's a competition for a certain spot, you may not be the best, but you got to be willing to fail and put yourself out there and learn how to improve. Maybe your skating needs to get better. Maybe your skill set needs to get better. Maybe I need to get stronger. Maybe I need to think a little bit differently. Maybe I need to watch more skills. Maybe I need my hockey sense needs to improve a little bit more. But if you're the best at every single level, at some point you will

And how you deal with that failure is ultimately going to, is ultimately, ultimately going to determine how you can improve for the next step in your journey. And the journey never ends. It's, you know, it's, you may not be an athlete anymore, but you're going to advance somewhere in your life, hopefully. And you've got to understand you'd be willing to accept failure in some sense. And that's the only way you're really going to learn. So, you know, if you can accept

and can understand that life will be hard and things will be difficult and there will be challenges. Ultimately, it's going to come down to how do I meet those challenges? Like, what's my mindset? What's my approach on how to handle difficult situations?

Kevin Neeld (25:34.401)
I, one of the things that comes to mind as you're talking about that is even on more of a single event level where you know, a player may attempt something on the ice or whatever their sport is and you know, it not go well. Maybe they create a turnover or, know, they try something that's a little bit outside of their typical scope. And, you know, when it works, it's like, brilliant play when it doesn't. It's like, what were they thinking? You know, they should have never tried it, but you know,

I'm curious, you know, we, talk about failure as an opportunity for learning. think the knee jerk reaction from coaches is when there is a event like that, that takes place during a game that does not go well. The knee jerk reaction is to just lean into the kid and say, never do that again. But, you know, I've, I've certainly seen it in sports where, know, there's players that are out

playing not to make mistakes, which is a little bit of a slippery slope from a mentality standpoint too. It's almost, you know, the difference between playing the win versus playing not to lose. know, I, any, any feedback or advice for coaches that, you know, maybe you're standing on the sidelines or behind the bench that, you know, in that moment, I see it from that perspective too. It's hard to allow players to make mistakes when it impacts the whole team.

But, you know, kind of tying it back to that's a learning opportunity for them and, you know, for the rest of the group, potentially.

Brijesh Patel (27:08.43)
You know what, if you think about it from this standpoint, and I think this was, uh, comes from Mike Babcock and I don't you've ever heard this too, but after games, especially like bad games or bad performances, he wouldn't rip them right afterwards in the locker room. He'd wait like five to 10 minutes. And that those five to 10 minutes allowed him to calm down just a little bit and then start to look at the entire picture and the entire.

game a little bit more effectively so then he could deliver the message, his post game message that he wanted to deliver. Because oftentimes you just get pissed about the last thing that just happened. When in reality, you could have done a lot of good things and just made one mistake. Yeah, the one mistake might have cost you, but try to take the good with the bad too. Because oftentimes the player hears the last thing you said. Right? And so if the last thing you said was a negative

Depends on how the players are going to take it to write that like that's another part of the equation too. But from a coaches standpoint is try to take a deep breath like that. You see something that happens that really piss you off that you know that could have cost the team. Take a deep breath. Try to put yourself in the players perspectives because you oftentimes the players not gonna be like, let me see like how bad of a mistake I can make right now to see how much of it you know our team can lose by or.

I mean, the team isn't doing the person isn't doing it intentionally. Hopefully not. But so oftentimes the coach should try to put yourself in their shoes and try to understand what they were doing from their perspective. And if you can try to do that, then you can try to connect with the player on the individual because the players are going to feel bad, right? They're already going to feel a certain way. So what good is it going to make them feel if you try to put them, you know, put them down even further? You've to be able to try to put yourself in their shoes and understand like,

What were you trying to do in that play? You know, and I'm sure they had some sort of thought process. Hopefully they had some sort of thought process of what they were going to trying to do. And it didn't work out the way it was intended. And I think you'll go further with that player if you can try to connect and relate with them a little bit more. And you said it before in the conversation too is a lot of things that we're kind of discussing comes down to communication.

Brijesh Patel (29:25.812)
and your ability to effectively communicate with somebody else is going to be really based on the relationship that you have with somebody else too. That goes from a coach to a player as well as a player to a coach. And that could be a sport coach, it could be a strength coach, it could be a teacher, a professor, whatever it is. Like those relationships are extremely important to be able to cultivate so you can develop trust, right? And when you develop trust, you understand that a coach has your best interest when they speak to you and they try to teach you and coach

they're going to be more willing to listen to what they have to say. But if it's a transactional relationship and you don't have trust in the person that's delivering feedback, sometimes the feedback they could be giving you, even though can be well intended or it could be good, may be met with resistance because there's no mutual trust there too. So I think that's the biggest thing is from a coach's side too is try

get the understanding and get the perspective of the player too, so you can try to help effectively, know, guide them through that process of failure to ultimately success.

Kevin Neeld (30:31.345)
No, think that that's a great point. You know, I think one of the, one of the best questions a coach can ask a player is what did you see there? Because when you're standing on the bench or, know, when you're watching from the stands, you have a, a broader picture of where all the pieces are on the field or on the court, on the ice. And you can see where everybody is and the way everybody's moving and the sight lines and the vantage point are very different when you're actually playing the sport.

Brijesh Patel (30:40.802)
Hmm.

Kevin Neeld (30:59.387)
You know, we joke all the time when we're watching games that, you know, it's an easy game from here. You know, once you're on the ice and it's moving faster and people are trying to, you what, was the phrase that I heard a few years ago, willfully, or re to, to decrease your motivation to participate in the game, I think was one way contact was described,

Brijesh Patel (31:08.503)
Kill you.

Kevin Neeld (31:22.847)
you know, it's a much different vantage point when you're actually playing the sport. I think, you know, asking a player what they saw and, kind of what led to them making a certain decision can go a long way in both both sides, kind of understanding the perspective of the other one. And, know, maybe there's some things that a coach saw from the bench or the sideline that can help cue the player on how to make a better decision the next time. But it starts with, to me of really understanding.

what that player saw so that the coach knows what triggered them to make that choice.

Brijesh Patel (31:50.852)
Absolutely.

Brijesh Patel (31:55.053)
Absolutely.

Kevin Neeld (31:56.971)
you know, there's, I think there's some wisdom that, comes from experience and, know, obviously the landscape of college sports is changing quickly with the transfer portal and, and I L deals and all of that. But, you know, you've been a part of, academic institution that has traditionally had athletes for four years or, you know, certainly three or four. you know, what are some of the things that the athletes say is upperclassmen that they wish they had taken more seriously when they first got to Quinnipiac

You know, even prior when they were younger.

Brijesh Patel (32:28.076)
Yeah. I think the biggest things are valuing their recovery, valuing their recovery, valuing their, and we talk about recovery, like, you know, that's soft tissue work, sleep schedule, sleep hygiene, nutrition, hydration. Those are the biggest things I think that upperclassmen try to impress upon the underclassmen that and the details.

Like in some movies talk about details like details of, you know, if we, if we do a split squad, if we do a squad, if we do some sort of lower body movement, upper body, whatever it is, like the details of feeling my foot in the ground, where's my foot pressure, like the details of every single movement so they can maximize the effectiveness of the exercise. because typically when kids come in, they're often the best players in whatever team they are, they're on. they've been able to have some level of success.

by just doing things the way they normally do it. And then when we get them here, we try to get them to understand that, you know, the details are what really matters, that we're going to think big, but we have to be able to focus small. And we've got to be able to focus on our daily habits and how we do things and the purpose and the intention behind every single movement that we do. And not only just movement, but every action that we do. And when we can do those on a regular basis,

We can start to change patterns. We can create new patterns, you create more effectiveness. We can become a better athlete. We can learn a level of awareness, but also getting to understand the things outside of the gym in the arena probably are more impactful to what they actually do when they're in the gym in the arena. So you get them to understand how to become a 24 hour athlete and get them to understand that, you know, going to bed at one o 'clock is probably not going to

really good or beneficial for the performance if they have to train at 8 a .m. or 7 a .m. whatever it is going to be. So we try to get them to understand, you can push your sleep back and develop a schedule for yourself, it's going to maximize your ability to feel a little bit better. It's one of those qualitative things and not necessarily quantitative things and get an understanding that if you can do these things on a regular basis, the quality of how you feel is going to be that much better. And the quality of how you feel is going to directly

Brijesh Patel (34:47.914)
improve the quantitative things that you can do on a regular basis. So a lot of those types of things, you know, they don't get into their, become an upperclassman and we see it across the board too. We see it when we have grad transfers or older kids who transfer in from other schools too. And they'll say, Hey, I wish I'd taken this more seriously too. So it's not only just kids and you know, athletes have been through our own program, but even people that have been in other programs. And when they get here and they start to realize that the little things ultimately matter.

and they help a ton.

Kevin Neeld (35:22.373)
Yeah. You know, maybe on a related note, you know, you've now had several players that have transitioned out of your program that are playing professional sports. you know, I'm curious when they, know, when they come back to visit you or you catch up with them, what are some of the things that they come back and say has really helped them as far as their experience working with you and, know, the, the, experience of playing for Quinnipiac with the coaching staff and everything else.

What has really helped them transition effectively from college to professional sports?

Brijesh Patel (35:55.052)
I think the feedback that we often get, it's the mindset that we try to teach them, the attitudes that we try to teach them. But what that ultimately comes down to is we try to tell them and teach them that you have to learn how to become a pro before you turn pro. And so getting them to understand like their habits, their mindset, their attitude, the non -negotiables that we kind of talked about before, their ability to be accountable, respect, their work ethic, the things that they do away from the gym and the rink matter just as

I'm getting to understand how to warm up, how to cool down properly, how to take care of themselves. And that success doesn't happen in a vacuum, right? It's just not, it's not isolated an event that just happens by itself. It's usually a product of the things that you do on a regular basis to allow you to perform at your best. And then try to get an understand of the things that they're doing on a regular basis. And how does it, how does it make them feel? How does it impact their performance so that they can get a better handle?

and understanding of the steps that it takes to perform at a high level on regular basis. Because when you play pro, you know you're in it. It's a business, right? It's very, so it's oftentimes transactional. And if you're not getting the job done, then you're going to go down the depth chart, or they're going to get sent down a level, or you're going to get traded, you're going to get caught, you're not going to get re -signed. So a lot of it

independent in nature. Like you have to be able to have the tools, the discipline, the mindset and the attitude to handle adversity, to handle failure, to handle disappointment, to understand how to take care of yourself physically, mentally, spiritually, to be able to overcome all the difficult things are going to be presented at you because, you know, I'll say it, you don't we don't get, you know, all stars, right? We don't get people that are going to be in the

5 % of the league necessarily. Like the players that we develop and that we get are going to be those ones that are going to be maybe bottom six forwards or, you um, a last pair of defensemen. it's, they've got to work and they've got to grind on a regular basis to be able to try to put themselves in the best position to not only earn a first contract, but earn a third or fourth where you can actually make some good money playing, playing professional sport. And so I think the things

Brijesh Patel (38:18.366)
our athletes often come back to us is, and we see it when they, when guys go to Dev Camp, like they go to Dev Camps and their invites, they're not draft picks, they're invites. They'll say, you know, like one of them actually just said to me today is like, you know, we met with the team's sports psychologist and everything that the sports psychologist was saying, I've heard at Quinnipiac, like I heard at school. Whereas feedback from other players is like, I never knew that. I never heard that before. And so a lot of things that we say on a regular basis and how we do things.

is trying to get them to understand how to become a pro in the full sense of the term, not just from a skillset standpoint, but from a preparation standpoint, from a nutritional standpoint, from a spiritual standpoint, like meditation, mind control, handling adversity, all those types of things are the things that think our athletes fall back upon and help their preparation because they see it at the next level too, some people just are not as prepared.

because they haven't been taught those types of things. And I'm sure you've seen that too. So I appreciate the feedback that at least the athletes that you've seen that come through our program are well equipped and well prepared to play and help your organization.

Kevin Neeld (39:30.331)
No, I think the, you know, one of the things that we talk about with our prospects at development camp too, is just this idea. know, you often hear, players say like, I'll do whatever it takes to make the team or make the next level. And to me, it's important to really shine a light on what that means, because even if you practice as hard as you possibly can, and you work as hard as you possibly can in a game, if that's all you're doing, it's not good

Certainly not at our level and you know, I suspect not at your level and you know that can trickle down even into the, know, when players are entering high school and it's starting to become a little more competitive that, you know, the, the, the idea of the 24 hour athlete and you know, are you as diligent and, uh, purposeful with your sleep schedule as you are with your practice habits, with your nutrition, with your hydration, with

recovery strategies, some of the things you mentioned before with your pre -practice preparation, you know, in a presentation to our prospects, I just really quickly highlighted, like when you go through an effective warmup, here are the eight things that happen that are all immediately going to improve your performance in the short term. And it's easy. All you have to do is warm up. You know, it's, that's a free performance boost

Brijesh Patel (40:49.198)
Yeah.

Kevin Neeld (40:52.411)
You know, when you look at it more from a longer term development standpoint, if you're practicing at a higher level, every single time you practice, you're going to improve more and you're more likely to perform at a high level in the more stressful situations. And, you know, I've obviously I've seen the opposite too. And, you know, I always just fall back to the idea that inconsistent habits lead to inconsistent performance. So, you know, when players are like, I don't know, you know, I need a bounce or, you know, things just aren't going my way. It's like,

Brijesh Patel (41:01.56)
Mm -hmm.

Brijesh Patel (41:14.638)
Mm -hmm.

Kevin Neeld (41:20.667)
you know, look backwards, not just the night before or the two or three nights before, but you know, what did your last week, two weeks, two months look like? What was your preparation in the off season heading into this season? Can you really reflect back and honestly say I've done everything in my power across every aspect of my life to put myself in a position to be successful in this moment. And if the answer is no, well, then you have some work to do, you know, but you, it's not

Performance is going to naturally ebb and flow throughout the year anyway, but there are a list of things, a lot of which you did a great job highlighting over the last 40 minutes here that, are completely within the athletes control. And if you're not exhausting the opportunities to improve those, then you know, you're really missing, I think an opportunity to minimize the number of times that you're, going through these droughts and these, you know, these valleys and performance.

Brijesh Patel (42:17.856)
That's exactly it. It is. It all comes down to habits, right? It is. It's, you know, you rise and fall to the level of your preparation and everything that you do and everything that you, the way you think, like your actions, your habits, ultimately, you know, you're, you're, you're forming habits and they could be positive habits or they could be negative habits. And then, you know, in the most adverse and crucial situations, hopefully you've done enough work individually and collectively as a group that you're going to be able to shine in

those challenging situations, whether it be, you you're down two or three, nothing after the first period, like how do you bounce back? You know what mean? If you were inconsistent in your preparation, we see this all the time in college hockey, like we play Friday, Saturday. Our performance on Friday, Saturday is directly correlated to how we practice throughout the week. If we're inconsistent, we don't battle, we don't skate hard in practice, guess where it starts to get manifested? Friday night when the puck drops, you know? And

That's one things that's easy for us because I think that's the difference between pro and college. We have opportunities to practice and really improve. And where there's video too, There's video, there's feedback. You can show them on practice performance and you can stat it. And our coaches do a great job of that. can stat it and you can show like, know, there's so many times you turn the puck over on this drill. There's so many times you turn the puck over. Like this is why you're not going to play. These are things that you're doing well.

And it helps prepare their and build their confidence to be able to make those plays on a Friday or Saturday

Kevin Neeld (43:52.007)
That's awesome. B, this has been really great. appreciate the time as always. Where can people connect with you and learn more about what you have going

Brijesh Patel (44:01.134)
Probably via my website. Times are busy, but I try to update it as I can. But coachbpatel .com, tons of information on there from articles they've written in the past, blog posts, podcasts that I've done. Every single thing is there. Some courses, video courses, different products and things are there. And then that has all links to different socials on there, whether it be on Instagram or on X2.

Kevin Neeld (44:26.823)
Cool. Well, we'll be sure to link to that in the show notes as well. thanks again. It's great having you

Brijesh Patel (44:32.536)
Thanks, Kev, I appreciate the time.