“Get Comfortable With Being a Champion!”
May 06, 2024🎙️ Growing up Val Whiting wanted to be a doctor and a hair dresser! She would go to Stanford to pursue a pre-med degree. However, she decided to play professional basketball instead.
🎙️ Val attended an all girls Catholic high school in Delaware. She would lead the team to 4 State Championships!!!
🎙️ Val was 6 foot in 7th grade. She tried out for cheerleading in hopes to stop getting bullied. Even though she didn’t make the cheerleading squad her math teacher recommended that she try out for basketball.
🎙️ Val’s Dad was the visionary and instrumental in helping her to develop as an athlete. Her Dad saw the greatness that was inside of her. It was a basketball camp that would help Val to go from dreading getting up practicing with her Dad to enjoying the game.
🎙️ Once Val started playing AAU basketball is when she really started to get the exposure to colleges from all over the country. She would narrow her college decision down to three teams: The University of Iowa, Stanford and Virginia. She would be sold on Stanford based off of the campus, pre med program and she was fascinated with the thought of going to school in California.
🎙️ At Stanford, Val would make 3 Final Four appearances and go on to win 2 National Championships!!! Since one of those championships was her freshman year she just thought that going to the Final Four and winning a championship was “normal”.
🎙️ When you get comfortable with being a champion everything changes. Your outlook, how you eat, practice, prepare and play games… it all changes.
🎙️ Definitely tune in as Val recaps Stanford’s comeback against the University of Tennessee down 13 with less than 2 minutes to go. Continue to bet on yourself even when others give up on you.
🎙️ Currently, Coach Val trains athletes on the importance of mindset understanding how their mental game is affecting them. Self awareness is a very critical aspect to obtaining this knowledge. We talk to ourselves as our worst enemy instead of our best friend.
🎙️ Here are Coach Val’s tips on dealing with pressure:
- Play Carefree
- Don’t Be Attached to the Outcome
- Stay in the Moment
- Have Sports Amnesia
- Trust Your Skills
- Trust the Work That You’ve Done
- Control Your Attitude and Your Effort
🎙️ Double click into Coach Val’s theory on how Dawn Staley has been able to dominate the game as a Coach. Coaching when done correctly is not a 4 year relationship. Coach Dawn Staley’s players will likely call her Coach for the rest of their lives.
🎙️ When Coach Val graduated from college there was no professional league for women in the United States. She would go to Italy, Israel, Brazil and back to the States for the ABL. Coach Val would then get drafted to the WNBA in 1999.
🎙️ Go read Romans 8:28 and meditate on how this verse has applied to your life. Look at how God has opened and closed doors for you but things have turned out for your good!
🎙️ Links Mentioned:
@iam.coachval
