Alec Ingold: Miami Dolphin fullback talks maximizing your mental game

Hey everyone, welcome to the 23rd episode of Baseline Intelligence, the podcast designed to make you a better tennis player and a smarter athlete. I'm your host, Jonathan Stokey. Today's guest is Alec Ingold the starting fullback for the Miami Dolphins and a mental performance coach for kids across the country. He was originally signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2019

and was their 2020 nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year, an award given that honors his commitment to philanthropy and community impact. On today's episode, we discuss why having clearly defined goals are important for growth, how to reset when facing adversity, and why elite preparation can make all the difference. So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tennis player.

all right alec welcome to the pod good to be here i'm excited to chat it up talk a little ball whatever we got going today i'm excited Many of my listeners are tennis players or tennis coaches, and so they're probably wondering why I have an NFL fullback on my team, especially one who plays for the enemy as I'm a Jet fan. And actually, now that I think of it too...

The Pagoula family. I grew up with Jesse Pagoula, who's three in the world in women's tennis. I lived with them for my senior year in high school. That's wild. That's really cool. Yeah, so small world. So basically, I mean, as long as you didn't play for the Patriots, I can root for you.

Yeah, I mean, the Dolphins, it's tough. Anything in the AFC East is tough, but we'll make it work. So we actually got in touch. You worked directly with one of my players. I spent a lot of time on court with her. And she kind of wanted to improve the mental side of her game. And she'd come at me with some things. And of course, I have some thoughts as a tennis coach, but it's definitely not my main area of expertise. So I kind of advised her, hey, you should find someone.

And she ended up saying, hey, you know, I got this guy and he's a fullback in the NFL. And I was thinking you were probably like 50 and you were retired and you kind of found a second gig to keep you going. And she's like, no, no, he plays now. And I kind of looked you up. I was like, I couldn't believe it. So can you kind of tell the listener how you got into this other aspect of your career and kind of what it is specifically?

I mean, really, it came out of my ACL injury this last year, this last season. It cut my season short, and I'm kind of sitting around thinking, what am I going to do with this extra time? And the...

But realistically, life hit me really fast. The NFL can be taking it away from you in a matter of seconds, in a matter of one play. i just wanted to have some sort of impact some sort of value to whatever this platform is currently in the nfl right and like you said before like a lot of guys will

Once they retire, they'll figure out their next thing or they'll figure out how they can possibly pass down information to the next generation. But for me, it was like, let's do it here. Let's do it now. And I was really just aware of. all these life lessons that I was going through while I was coming back and rehabbing from this injury. And it made me realize all of the lessons I've kind of learned.

throughout life right from a high school kid to going into college all this change into the nfl um i've never been the most athletic dude like that's why i play fullback i'm very much like a servant leader i'm one of the guys like a glue guy in the locker room but I've always had to maximize potential. And I feel like mentally, I've always had to be consistent and I've always had to show up. I couldn't have a bad day. As an undrafted guy, I couldn't afford to show up, make mental mistakes.

get somebody else hurt, risk somebody else's career. That was going to be me. I was going to be cut. I was going to be gone. That was my career. And being able to just kind of be aware of like what I have been through on this journey. I'm like, okay, let me.

translate that. Let me package that. Let me create some sort. Let me read some books. Let me figure out some actual texts. Let's actually research what I'm feeling, what I'm going through in the NFL so that I can translate that to other athletes that are going through mental battles, just trying to be...

the best version of themselves so you reference yourself by the way don't cut yourself short because you actually had a touchdown last week literally yeah literally last week a little quarterback sneak it was awesome

Yeah. I waited to ask you on the pod. I was like, okay, they got to have a win and he's got to score a touchdown and then he's going to say yes for sure. So it was perfect timing. But you mentioned for yourself, you've got to be consistent because you said you weren't the most athletic. What's your best advice or how do you kind of create a consistency in your practice and your level of play? What are your tips for staying consistent with your level?

I think it's really just trusting and believing in your like giving everything you have into your preparation. And that's tough. And I think. Something that I really relate to some of your players with in tennis is like I was a wrestler growing up. So that's an individual sport. And you are on an island. You're by yourself.

One thing I've learned from film study, from going through that deep end of trying to really throw yourself into preparation and really try and be the best you can possibly be, you have to be uncomfortable. And you have to go through these uncomfortable situations.

while you're practicing, while you're trying to grow, while you're trying to get better. Because being uncomfortable, it's not an option. It's inevitable. We're going to be uncomfortable in different spots. Where that happens is either...

game time when the lights are on or in a practice field or a practice court. Right. And like, I would rather have that uncomfortable feeling of like really trying to figure out what my limit is, what that edge is, where I can really start to grow while I'm practicing.

And I think that's the biggest thing about being consistent, right? It's like a phrase we have in the NFL is it's never as good as you feel and it's never as bad as you think. And being able to find that level of consistency of like, okay.

whatever issues we're going through, whatever I'm trying to grow at, whatever I'm trying to get better at today, like being intentional, being mindful, being deliberate while I'm practicing, knowing that we're just taking little baby steps and it's going to be put something together. i think that's really powerful so then you're never in your head you're never like in a huge slump because you always get another opportunity tomorrow to try and make one more baby step are there any

like a breathing technique or a thought or a mindfulness exercise. So I actually had a woman message me on Instagram and she said, oh, a couple of the ladies on our team get nervous before a match, right? And they get out there and maybe their game doesn't feel good. They're uncomfortable.

How do you find that comfort or the relaxation or that peace of mind when you get in that uncomfortable state, whether it's in practice or in a real match or a competition? I'm big with visualization. And I think visualization is like.

People think okay you kind of manifest like you want to close your eyes you want to you want to believe and see yourself succeeding and I kind of flip on its head like Things aren't going to be perfect like never expect things to go perfectly like visualize yourself bouncing back Visualize yourself going through something that okay shaking it off and we call it reset button

like find your reset button. So for me, if you ever watching football and you're watching the dolphins and you see me miss a block, I'm going to clap my hands as loud as possible. And that's my reset button. And that just gets me right back to where my feet are.

and that's that's a routine now it's like okay i'm going to clap my hands that's my reset button i'm going to breathe four seconds in hold it four seconds out that's that breathing technique just to kind of slow that heart rate down and then we're just going to go back to what's my assignment

who do i have and what's it on what's the play on and then you can execute your assignment and go back to playing the next play for your teammates right because you don't want to let one thing affect the other you don't want one point to affect the second point and the third point and so on and so forth so

that was kind of a loaded answer i think visualization is huge and like visualizing not just the good stuff but bouncing back from the bad stuff i think breathing i think four seconds is huge for me and then finding a reset button Those are three things I would kind of give somebody to try and stay consistent, stay in the moment and just never, never get too high or too low. I was trying to find the comparison. So your sport, you play 17 games a year. Hopefully you guys.

make the playoffs as long as you're not taking a spot from the jets, but that would be more than 17. It's something like, I don't know, 60 to 80 offensive snaps. You might not be on the field for every single one of them. So you spend a vast majority of your time.

preparing, practicing, watching video in very, a very low percentage of your time actually playing in the game. That would be like, I think I try to break it out. A set is about 60 to 80 points. That'd be like a tennis player playing one set of tennis. once a week for 17 weeks and then practicing. And I think they would all go insane. How do you, well, first of all, what does a week of preparation look like for you for an NFL game?

It's big time routine. Right now we're on a Tuesday. This is our off day. This is like everyone's Sunday, right? So I'm going to look ahead. We have the Bears next week. I'm going to watch some film. I'm going to watch their last four games. I'm going to go through every single play.

figure out what they're doing in different personnel groups and you kind of break it up i like building piles right like okay this is the looks we can expect this is what you can kind of get ready for and then you kind of Day by day throughout the week, you have your little packages of plays that you practice. So Wednesdays are normal down distance, first and 10. As soon as you get the ball, what are you going to do?

Thursdays, you kind of move into third down. Okay, now we have to make a first down. We have to pass it. So this is that situation that we're going to focus on all day. The next day, Friday, we're going to do red zone, trying to score touchdowns, finish into the end zone, fast Friday finish.

And then Saturday, we're walking through everything just to kind of iron out all the details. And then Sunday, it's game time. So it's very routine that way. What's the time commitment on that, you know, just on a daily basis? I mean, I'm going to wake up tomorrow at 6 a.m. and I'll be there until 6 p.m. So it's a 12 hour day. And, you know, you definitely have to be mindful all 12 hours. Like you show up, you're either.

working out, you're trying to get rehab, physical therapy, something to get your body ready. You'll go to meetings for four or five hours. You'll eat some lunch, go out on the practice field, send it for two, two and a half hours. come back in, watch practice, get ready for the next day. And by that time, you're heading home. So we definitely break it down to a science. But I do think that being able to have that.

that sort of weekly like routine and you, you know what to expect every Wednesday, you know what to expect every Thursday that allows your body to be consistent. And I think that's something we talked about earlier is like, if my preparation is consistent every single week and I have a routine that I can trust.

That eliminates so many uncontrollable variables. That eliminates so many distractions. I don't have to focus on it because it's not in my routine. And that helps me go and perform on Sunday without missing a beat. I always find it so admirable for a football player because, you know, I've kind of read that that's the type of preparation you have. And a tennis player, a lot of times will go out, they'll practice for an hour, two hours.

and that's it they're like hey i practice so then i should get better and i'm like well you you know you could video yourself which people do these days and you could go to the gym and get stronger faster you could do your visual visualization like you said So there's all these other areas. How does that preparation fuel you or maybe calm nerves? I'm sure that since you only have so many games and each play could be so important.

how does that preparation lead into you feeling confident or kind of getting rid of the nerves yeah i mean i think you definitely have to push yourself and that's something that i kind of was trying to hint on one of the first questions was like

when i'm practicing when i'm there like you said tennis players practicing for an hour two hours and then that's it like for that hour or two hours when i'm on the practice field or If you're on the practice court, like that is everything. You are where your feet are. You are so intentional about everything. Like if we're focusing on one thing to get better or two things to get better, like that's all my mind is on while I'm there. You break that threshold.

of whatever dojo you want to call it like that's that's where you're at for those two hours and i feel like being intentional and deliberate while you're practicing is so huge because if your mind's on something else or if you're worried about trying to eat right or nutrition or you're fatigued, like that all creeps into that one or two hours a day that you had to get better. Right. And like being able to really just be there and be in that moment.

Try and take everything else out of your life and just be there for focusing on one or two things, that goal for that day. That's my biggest piece of advice when you're practicing so that you have some sort of like, yes, I got better at something today. This was it. There's no gray area. It's white or black. I did it or I didn't do it. And if you didn't do it, you get the opportunity to do it tomorrow.

I just, one of my friends, we were just speaking about this time and attention. So just because you took time on something doesn't mean you were actually giving it your attention. And when you give that answer, that's what I hear is like, there are a lot of people that are at practice.

but their attention is on the calculus test they have or what they're going to do that night and then they don't really maximize their time out there is that kind of how you're seeing it yeah and i think uh that's something i learned in college like you know time or attention whatever like

When I got benched my junior year of college, that was the first time ever I had taken a step backwards, right? Like I've always been progressing, always been getting better, always been improving. All of a sudden my junior year. um you turn 21 you're in college you have all these other distractions and you get benched and like i threw everything i had into football at that point like i was skipping class i was not doing anything i was just watching film i was

Everything that you listed out, I was trying to do that just to get better at football. And it was like it was almost debilitating. It was like I was handcuffing myself to it and I wasn't getting any better. And it's like. I never took a step back and just was where I was at at that time. I didn't give my two hours of attention at practice to give it everything I had and then moved on to math.

to to wait or whatever that was there was no turning of that page so i've been on both extremes right like i've been to um seeing too much of just trying to throw all your eggs into one basket and i can tell you it does not work because there is a human component to all of this right and like being able to show up be in a good mood

be ready to attack something, be refreshed and excited to go out to practice, that's worth something too. What do you think is more important? Mentally preparing? Physically preparing? Maybe working on your skill set or is there a fourth thing that I'm not aware of? I mean, I think there's a lot of alignment, right? Like mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. I think if you're all in alignment, those four categories, I think you got a shot.

And I think that there's, I'm going to be a little bit biased with my answer. Like physically you look at me and I'm nothing like the guys I play football with, right? Like I am not 6'4", 260, 5% body fat. That's just not my DNA. So I have to compensate in other areas and that's emotionally I'm consistent. I'm trying to be the best version of myself mentally and spiritually as well. So I think it's, it's all depends on the person and.

That's something that's really cool about athletics and sports is that's a journey that you find for yourself. Like nobody can give you that answer. A coach, a parent, a teacher can't. For me, I got to be more mentally in it than maybe physically in it.

But there's obviously a threshold, right? Like I'm going to have to get my body prepared to play on a Sunday. But yeah, I think it's different for everybody. And I think that's the beauty of sports. There are certainly a lot of issues that can affect.

you know maximizing your performance and you work with you know several people and like you said they all kind of go through different things but What's maybe the most common thing that you end up touching on with all the athletes that you work with where you feel like, hey, you know what, this is an area where most people can take a pretty big step forward to improve?

Yeah, I think it's definitely goal setting, but also having that goal with some sort of perspective. And what I mean by that is like, let's put a goal out that...

For me, it was make it to the NFL or let's say if you want a more specific, reasonable goal for myself, like I want to be on a team that makes the playoffs this year. OK, so. If that's my goal, I need to clearly define that, articulate it, be able to get steps in order to reach that goal. I need some sort of daily routine so that I know that I'm getting a little bit closer to that goal time and time again.

And the biggest thing an athlete can possibly take from that's very consistent is like being able to write down a goal. And if you can't write it down, if you can't see it, if you can't visualize it every day. Your chances of actually having that happen go down a ton. Right. And being able to write down a goal, to see it, to be proud when someone asks you, like, what's your goal or what are you trying to accomplish in tennis or what are you trying to accomplish in life?

to be able to be confident and proud of your answer is huge but like when you're going in this day-to-day grind like there's going to be good days and there's going to be bad days and there's going to be average days like you can't expect this linear path of growth so on your down days when you are freaking out when you feel like everything's going to crap when you've had three bad days in a row and you just can't get out of your own head that's where you need some sort of perspective to be like

What is my routine? What am I doing today? Have I been taking steps? And like to be able to take yourself out of the situation. So the idea is when in doubt, zoom out and like take yourself out of the situation. Be able to just take. something that you're grateful for, an attitude of gratitude, find something that you need to improve on and make a little checklist. And Piper and I worked on this just a little bit ago, but it's a legacy list.

Instead of a goal sheet, instead of something to write down on a goal sheet and like what you want to accomplish, focus on how you want to accomplish it, why you want to accomplish it so that when you when you show up. people are going to feel your impact. They're going to feel who you are as a human being. They're going to feel that presence, right? Like they're going to feel your inspiration. They're going to feel your goal so that whether you achieve this goal or not.

Like I've written down, I want to be a Pro Bowl fullback multiple times and I haven't gotten there yet. But I know that the man that I become in that pursuit of that goal is so much more meaningful. And that legacy list of like. How am I going to show up as a human being? How am I going to show up as a son? How am I going to show up as a teammate? How am I going to show up as a player? Like all of those things, those X factors, so to speak, like that will.

help define your goal, help you give some perspective to that goal, to whatever you're writing down on that piece of paper so that every day you're able to make little steps forward, little 1% marginal gains where you don't get all caught up in. successes or failures. You're able to enjoy that process. You're able to enjoy the chase of that goal, knowing that you're a better person because of it.

I like what you said there a little bit about the expectation. Like, do you really think that every single day you go out there, you're taking a small step forward or a big step? And, you know, you have that one day where it's tough or maybe you're not feeling good or you just had a tough day emotionally.

And it feels like, oh, my God, well, I'll never get that goal. That's maybe difficult to attain. But that is such a normal thing. And when you're the person in it, you can't see it. But everyone else goes, hey, like, come on. Of course, you weren't going to have 365 straight beautiful days.

It's so hard when you're the person in that moment to see it like that. I saw something on the internet was like, you do have to be your own friend. Like if you see a friend or a teammate show up and they're in a bad mood, you're not going to.

You're not going to hound them and be like, oh man, why are you dogging it today? You're going to be like, are you okay? Is everything good? Do you need anything? You can do that to yourself too. You can treat yourself with that appreciation like, man, do I need something? Do I need a rest day?

Have I been grinding for a long time? Do I need a time to just like reflect? All of those things are very important as well. Last question on goals. You know, it's something we try to get all our players to. to have one what are we working towards as a coach what am i trying to help you where am i trying to help you go but i would say a vast majority of the people i work with they're almost afraid to admit it

You know, if they have something, am I good enough to get that? Or man, I don't want to say that. That seems like it's way out there. Why do you think people have that reluctance? Because it's very common with the people I work with. For me personally, I was afraid to go all in and actually try my hardest and fall short. Like I was afraid of that realization. So if someone were to, if you were to ask me, if we're working together and.

My sophomore year of college, I said I wanted to be in the NFL. I would have been hesitant. Like if you asked me that, my communication skills wouldn't have been up there. Like I wouldn't have been able to be proud about that. And honestly, it was because I'd be afraid. I'd be afraid that if I truly committed myself.

If I gave it my all, gave it my best shot, I would have fallen short. And then it's like, could my pride take that? Right. So I'm just going to keep that goal inside myself. I'm going to work hard and kind of self-sabotage here and there and really not give it my all. really not communicate to my coach so he can't really help me all the way. And then all of a sudden, you're not where you want to be at the end of it. And the biggest thing that I really had to do was...

Right underneath that goal that I wrote down, I had to write down my biggest fear, my biggest fear of not being good enough. And that came from me being adopted. That came from very deep rooted issues. Right. And like, I'm pretty open about that now because I've written it down.

because I've seen it, because I've given it a face, because I own it now. And it's so much easier to go day to day, so much easier to have huge goals, knowing that that's my fear. And if I can overcome that fear, because I see it on a piece of paper, it's all of a sudden not that scary.

And then you're able to kind of actually move forward and communicate with coaches, your entire network, your teammates, your parents, everybody. We're going to finish up with a few questions that people had on Instagram. I posted a story. They were all probably thoroughly confused why I had a picture of a fullback up there on the story. But we got a couple.

The first one is, you know, football is physical, it's emotional. You know, tennis is a one-on-one sport, but you still have those emotions running high, whether it's you and your opponent, maybe someone in the crowd clapping against you, maybe a tough line call.

What's your best advice for maintaining your focus when your emotions start to kind of run hot? Ooh. So I would go back to like being a wrestler a little bit and like having a reset button and being able to understand that those emotions aren't going to help you.

the attaching your emotions to a situation isn't going to help you so trying to eliminate as much emotion as possible while you're in it is huge right like when the stakes are highest when There's a fan clapping, whatever that situation is, whatever that circumstance is. Yeah, I always try and find my reset button, whether it's a clap of the hands, whether it's whatever it is. So I'm just where my feet are.

I'm focused on what I need to do. And that brings me right back into that routine of those three things. What's my assignment? Where am I heading? What's it on? And like for tennis, you have all of these times where whether it's.

bouncing a ball a certain amount of times, right? Before you're about to serve, whether it's taking a breath as soon as you need to, whether it's twirling your racket, you're like hopping back and forth, whatever gets you into a rhythm, whatever gets you back to where your feet are. and not focused on external circumstances, try and find that reset button for you. That does wonders for just being able to take every single point for what it is and not let anything else really distract you.

I'm definitely on the emotionless side of the spectrum, but I laugh in tennis because sometimes a player will say, well, that person screamed, come on, when I missed a shot. and it really made and i'm like really that got you mad like the fact that they or the parent clapped or or whatever it may be and i'm kind of like hey man if you just kind of like bear down here and just play

It really doesn't matter. And when you're not in the match and you say it, like I'll say that to kids in practice and they laugh because I'm like, wow, that parent clapped at you and that got you going. And I'm sure in the NFL.

people are saying things and you know yeah exactly and it's like you know you know why they're doing it and if you can just stay focused you're like it's almost like this superpower like hey you can't touch my feelings you you can't strike a nerve with me like i'm above whatever you're trying to do and it's such a powerful feeling when you get there but almost i feel like they're the puppet puppeteer and you're the little puppet if they're doing things and making your emotions go a certain way

Yeah. And I mean, if you're having fun at the end of the day and you turn it into a game, if you turn it into a challenge, like whatever that is for you, I feel like that's something you can talk with your coach through because it's like. Man, when guys are talking trash to me, I have the biggest smile on my face because I know that I'm in their head. I know I'm doing something right. If you're trying to throw a punch after a whistle, if you're trying to talk trash like...

I'm doing something right and you're a little nervous. So I'm going to smile and I'm going to go back to the huddle and be like, I got this guy, right? Like that's the game within the game. And I feel like that's something that we're all trying to master every single day.

Hopefully I'm not going to expose myself here. I do watch a lot of football, but you know, one thing that happens in tennis is a player will find a tactic. Let's say they serve wide and hits the open court and it's working beautifully. And then they just stop using it.

I'm, my mindset is you run a tactic until someone stops it. And then you have a counter for that. And then maybe you go back and forth and you're playing the chess match. Does that happen in football? Like sometimes I'll see a team doing something well.

And then as an amateur fan, I'm like, hey, can we go back to doing what we did in the first quarter that was working? Does that does that end up happening with you guys as well? Yeah, I think it all depends on the play caller. And in tennis, you are the play caller, right? Like you have that control.

I know something that I love is being able to marry techniques. And once again, wrestling being that one-on-one, when I was able to call the shots, when I was the man in the arena, right? Like if I had something that was working for me, I would go to that all the time, just like you're saying.

But I always had something like you said, a counter, like I'm always being able to chain things together. So if something is looking exactly the same and it's working, I'm going to have a similar play that's going to kind of exploit it. whatever that you have to counter, and that's the chess match that we get into.

In football games, it happens all the time. Runs look exactly like passes. Passes look exactly like runs. We're going to throw all of our big bodies out there, and you're going to think it's a run, and then really it's a pass. Yeah, if you've got something that you love and you stick with it and that's your gun, great, shoot it. But having a changeup that looks exactly like your fastball, that's always going to help. Last question. Like I said, this one is from me.

um my friends will laugh but i had a friend he was a baseball analyst so he's just a numbers guy he had never played baseball and he came to one of my college tennis matches when i was coaching at duke

And he was watching the match. And I had my player hitting these slice forehands because his forehand wasn't great. And I thought it worked well against the other guy. And after the match, he goes, you know, what were you thinking? I told him the plan. And he said, yeah, but your guy just kept missing. Like, don't you have to make the ball?

Isn't that part of the game? And I was like, well, yeah, but it's a little more complicated than that. And he kind of goes, well, is it? Because your guy just missed every shot and he lost. And so we started talking about it. And I was like, well, what if every sport you had a common sense coach?

So I'm asking for myself for the Dolphins. So I'm on the sideline and I'm sitting there and I'm going, hey, it's kind of been like six plays. You think we should get Tyreek the ball? You know, and like, I don't know any plays. I don't know.

anything i'm just like hey i'm just a fan and like hey he's a good player maybe maybe he should touch it the same way that he was looking at me he knew nothing about tennis but at the end i kind of felt like he was right tell me that's on the common sense coach position So there's multiple common sense coaches on our coaching staff. And you call them analysts, right? You can call them whatever you want to call it. Special teams coaches are huge on the sideline.

when I tore my ACL, I was up in the coach's box. So there's like eight guys up there. They all have, they see everything. They can see what the defenses are. They can see everything from the bird's eye view. Right. So being able to radio down and talk to a coach and be like, hey when Tyreek's in they're double covering like this or when I was with the Raiders it was like you know Derek Carr is under center this is what they're doing late.

And that's something that a coach can see from a skybox. That's just general point of view. They have all the sheets that they can print out on run and pass tendencies, right? Should you go for it on fourth and two when you're backed up on your own 35-yard line or not? They have a book for that. There's a whole coaching staff basically of common sense to be able to help.

be a sounding board for the people that are in the heat of battle so that you're able to kind of make adjustments on the fly. It's a whole orchestration, that's for sure. That's the hard part for tennis is, you know,

I'm sure a play caller can be staring at a sheet and get lost in the weeds. And then, but when you're a tennis player and you're the only person out there and you're caught up in the emotion or what just happened and people on the outside could simply go, Hey man, you just got to put some balls in play or.

Why don't you hit to their backhand? Like, it looks a lot weaker, but you're so in this small detail and getting lost in yourself, you can't see the big picture. So are you telling me, just to recap, are you telling me there's not a space on the Dolphins staff for someone like me who's never played football? who can't just sit there and go. Listen, I think I might have to talk to some coaches up there and see if we can get you in there.

We'll get you a little financial or something. There you go. Running up the chain. I'm a common sense guy. So there might be a spot for me. And before you go, I want to touch the Ingold Family Foundation. Can you just kind of let us know what that is and kind of where people can find that?

Yeah, so alecandgold.com should be pretty easy to remember, but it's a foundation that my family and I started just to help support kids in foster care adoption that are kind of going through it, right? So we're able to... teach them financial literacy, all these mindset things we're talking about athletics, be able to help pay for some of the athletic expenses there are for kids that just want to get out and play.

And that's really what our foundation is all about, supporting, bringing awareness to kids in foster care. If you're interested in adopting, teens are huge now. So, no, I think it's something that really brings purpose and meaning to everything that we're doing on this platform. Yeah, alecandgold.com. You can see everything. If you want to get into mindset coaching, all that's there, speaking, and that foundation there, too, to check that out. So it's a one-stop shop for sure.

That's awesome. I'll put a link in the show notes and I'll definitely go check that out. But look, thanks for coming on. I know football season is super busy and this is your off day and you spent time with us and we know how valuable everyone's time is. So thank you so much for being on.

no thanks for having me i really i really appreciate it all right i want to thank alec for coming on today i think it's really cool that he spends his free time helping others maximize their talents and perform at their highest level all while being fully committed to being an elite NFL player on a competitive NFL team. The two things I really took from him were being intentional and where your feet are when you're at practice. I see way too many players out there hitting mindless shots.

and then wondering why they haven't improved three months later. I also love the idea of the reset button when you make a mistake or things aren't going well. Try to find an intentional action that works for you as a reset and try it next time you face some adversity on the court.

I want to thank you all for listening. I know there are a lot of podcasts out there and I'm grateful you chose to join me today. I'm motivated to evolve and improve, so please subscribe if you enjoyed the episode and leave a comment or review so we keep getting better every week.

For more, check out my Instagram at Stokey Tennis for clips from these podcasts, as well as general drills and tips to help your tennis game. Thanks for listening. I hope you just improved at tennis without even hitting a ball.