Four in ten U.S. high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and two in ten seriously considered attempting suicide.
CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2013–2023 ↗
Start a Conversation ATHLETE WELL-BEING & PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT
Pressure is inevitable.
Train it.
We help athletes and their environments handle pressure in ways that strengthen performance and protect well-being.
BUILT FORATHLETESCOACHESPARENTSPROGRAMS
WHAT WE DO
We intentionally train the mental game—and strengthen the environment around the athlete.
Athletes are trained physically, technically, and tactically. Yet too often, their mental game is simply expected from them instead of being intentionally trained.
We believe you are not developing the whole athlete—or their full capacity—if this piece of the performance puzzle is missing. We intentionally train the mental game, then consult with and align the performance environment so it reinforces what is being trained.
In one sentence:
Athletes Built for Pressure develops the athlete and equips the environment so performance becomes more stable, repeatable, and sustainable while protecting well-being.
WHY THIS WORK IS NEEDED
The need is clear at every level of sport.
Athlete well-being is not separate from performance—and supporting athletes requires adults and systems that are prepared and supported, too.
of coaches in the U.S. National Coach Survey—conducted primarily with high school coaches—were interested in additional mental-health training.
2022 U.S. National Coach Survey ↗of women and men, respectively, who were considering transferring said mental health was part of their decision.
NCAA Well-Being Study ↗Forty percent of head coaches reported feeling mentally exhausted constantly or most every day. More than 80% of coaches were spending more time discussing mental health with athletes than before the pandemic.
NCAA Coach Well-Being Study ↗“Mental toughness” is demanded more often than it is clearly defined or intentionally trained.
The term has several vague definitions, so athletes may be held to a standard they cannot clearly name or practice. We make it actionable by training regulation, recovery, adaptability, response to correction, and re-engagement.
The athlete is not the only variable. The environment performs, too.
Coaching language, role clarity, parent reactions, trust, and leadership systems can stabilize performance—or make pressure harder to manage.
High performance and well-being are treated like competing priorities.
They are not. Athletes can be challenged, corrected, held accountable, and pushed toward excellence without making their worth or safety dependent on results.
Advocacy in athletics should not require choosing a side.
Supporting and advocating for athletes does not mean opposing coaches. Supporting coaches does not mean overlooking the needs of athletes, parents, or programs. We believe athletes, coaches, parents, and leadership can all be supported—and that stronger alignment among all four creates healthier, higher-performing environments.
THE OUTCOME
Not less pressure.
More capacity.
Our goal is not to make competition easier. It is to build athletes and environments that can stay connected to the task when competition gets hard. We believe programs can demand high standards and protect athlete well-being at the same time. BUILT athletes and programs develop the capacity to pursue excellence without sacrificing the person behind the performance.
- Faster recovery after mistakes
- More stable confidence and decision-making
- Better access to coaching under stress
- Clearer roles, communication, and expectations
- High standards without unnecessary destabilization
- Athletes who leave stronger, healthier, and still loving the game
HOW WE HELP
We do more than teach athletes a few mental skills.
BUILT combines discovery, training, consultation, and measurement. The work is tailored to the athlete, team, school, or organization rather than delivered as a generic motivational program.
Discover & Map
We identify where pressure lives through assessments, interviews, observation, athlete voice, and culture discovery.
CSI ASSESSMENTS · PRESSURE PROFILES · CULTURE MAPPINGTrain Athletes
We teach regulation, mistake recovery, confidence stability, attention control, role readiness, and pressure-informed performance skills.
TEAM SESSIONS · PRACTICAL TOOLS · SHARED LANGUAGEEquip Coaches
We support—not undermine—coaches with language, structure, and strategies that preserve accountability while improving athlete access and response.
COACH CONSULTATION · SIDELINE LANGUAGE · ALIGNMENTEngage Parents
We help parents understand pressure, confidence, post-game communication, and how to support performance without carrying the scoreboard home.
PARENT EDUCATION · WORKSHOPS · RESOURCESSupport Individuals
Focused sessions help athletes stabilize confidence, address past athletic experiences still affecting performance, and build a usable reset.
BUILT PERFORMANCE RESET™ · ATHLETE CONSULTATIONMeasure Change
We track the patterns that matter: recovery time, access to skill, athlete experience, communication, confidence stability, and culture alignment.
FOLLOW-UP DATA · LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS · RECOMMENDATIONSTHE BUILT PROCESS
A system—not a speech.
01DiscoverListen before prescribing
→02MapFind the pressure patterns
→03TrainBuild repeatable skills
→04AlignEquip the environment
→05MeasureTrack what changes
WHO WE WORK WITH
One mission.
Multiple entry points.
We can begin with one athlete, one team, one workshop, or an athletic department. The scope changes; the standard does not.
Schools & Athletic Departments
Performance and culture infrastructure that connects athlete development, coach support, parent education, and leadership insight.
Discuss a partnershipHigh School & Collegiate Teams
Season-aligned training for pressure, mistakes, confidence, communication, roles, trust, and high-stakes competition.
Build a team programIndividual Athletes
Personalized support for athletes whose preparation is not consistently translating into performance—or who want to train pressure before it becomes a problem.
Ask about athlete supportCoaches, Parents & Leaders
Workshops and consultation that turn good intentions into repeatable communication, support, accountability, and culture practices.
Request a workshopWHY BUILT IS DIFFERENT
Performance does not happen in isolation.
It is shaped by the athlete, the pressure, coaching, relationships, expectations, and the systems around them. That is why we develop the athlete while also strengthening the environment in which they perform.
LMHC-led and developmentally informed
Our background brings depth in adolescent development, nervous-system regulation, confidence, identity, families, and systems—translated into practical, non-clinical performance work.
Athlete development and environment alignment
We train athletes while also equipping coaches, parents, and leadership with a shared performance language.
Performance-forward and coach-supportive
We believe in high standards, clear accountability, demanding preparation, and the central role of the coach. Support is not softness.
Practical systems—not motivational fluff
We leave people with repeatable processes, tools, language, data, and next steps they can use in real athletic moments.
WHAT THIS IS—AND IS NOT
This is performance infrastructure.
Team-based education, training, consultation, and systems work designed to improve access, recovery, communication, and culture under pressure.
It is not:
- Therapy delivered to an entire team
- A replacement for coaching
- A program that lowers standards
- A one-time motivational speech
- A message that athletes or coaches are weak
THE BUILT STANDARD
“High expectations and high support are not competing ideas.”— ATHLETES BUILT FOR PRESSURE™
OUR CORE BELIEF
Protecting athlete well-being and pursuing high performance are not competing priorities.ATHLETE · COACH · PARENT · PROGRAM
WHO WE ARE
Built from clinical depth. Designed for athletic reality.
Athletes Built for Pressure was founded by licensed mental-health professionals who saw the same gap repeatedly: athletes were being asked to manage extraordinary pressure without enough training, while coaches and parents were expected to support them without a shared framework.
Our school, team, and performance work is practical and non-clinical. When clinical care is needed, we understand that boundary and the importance of an appropriate referral pathway.
Jaaron Pettit, LMHC
CO-FOUNDER · ATHLETE & PROGRAM STRATEGYJaaron brings nearly 20 years of experience as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with children, adolescents, athletes, and families. Her work has given her a deep understanding of confidence, identity, performance pressure, recovery, and the systems surrounding young people. She leads curriculum, athlete and team programming, assessment strategy, and school partnerships.
Kari Russo, LMHC, LMFT
CO-FOUNDER · CLINICAL & TRAINING STRATEGYKari brings more than 25 years of clinical leadership, advanced training in regulation and trauma-informed approaches, and extensive experience training clinicians. She guides the depth, integrity, and clinical guardrails behind the BUILT framework.
START THE CONVERSATION
Ready to train the missing piece of performance?
Tell us whether you are looking for support for an athlete, team, school, college program, coaching staff, parent community, or athletic department. We will help you identify the right place to begin.
Contact Athletes Built for Pressure