Kara Kalin

Kara Kalin has spent over twenty years working at the intersection of trauma, resilience, and athletic performance. As a Registered Clinical Counsellor, Certified EMDR Therapist, and Mental Performance Consultant, she brings a rare combination of clinical depth and coaching experience — having served as a coach for the Canadian National Team and worked with athletes at every level of sport.She is also the founder of Shift Change, a mental health movement dedicated to transforming how individuals and organisations recover from stress and trauma, and the creator of The Power of the Drive Home — a program built on a simple but powerful insight: some of the most important coaching doesn't happen during the game. It happens in the ten minutes after it.As a mother of four and a former athlete herself, Kara understands this world from every angle. In this episode, she shares what parents can do in those critical moments after competition to support their child's mental and emotional development— and why what happens on the drive home matters more than most parents realize.Connect with KaraWebsite: karakalin.comLinkedIn: Kara KalinInstagram: @karakalin.shiftchangeYouTube: @KaraKalinSportSubscribe at hernanchousa.com 

Welcome to the 47th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.This week's word is Belonging.A talented teenager quit her club team last spring. When her mom asked why, she said: "I just never felt like I was really part of it." She didn't quit because it was too hard. She quit because she felt alone inside of it.We spend a lot of time developing athletes — speed, strength, technique. But underneath all of that is something no training plan addresses: the feeling of truly mattering, not because of your stats, but because of who you are.Belonging doesn't start in the locker room. It starts at home. A child who knows they belong unconditionally walks into every practice with a foundation they can always return to.This week, tell your child specifically why you love having them in your life. Not what they did, not how they played — who they are. Let it have nothing to do with sport.Take a breath. Reset.The child who feels like they belong somewhere never truly feels alone out there.

Stephen Bienko's story starts on the field. A three-sport high school star, he went on to play football at the Air Force Academy and compete as a decathlete at Villanova University — where he held the school record in the discus. After college, he became a New Jersey State Trooper before pivoting into entrepreneurship, building and scaling multiple businesses across franchising, marketing, and sports performance.Today, Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of The 42U — a student-athlete development and personal branding company dedicated to helping young athletes build an identity and a brand that carries them well beyond their playing days. His work bridges the worlds of sports, business, and personal development in a way that speaks directly to athletes, parents, and coaches navigating the transition from sport to life.In this episode, Stephen draws from his own journey — athlete, trooper, entrepreneur, coach — to explore what young athletes need to understand about building an identity beyond their sport, navigating the evolving landscape of NIL and college athletics, and what it takes to successfully transition from player to person.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stephenbienkoWebsite: the42u.comInstagram: @bienkostephenTwitter/X: @StephenBienkoSubscribe at hernanchousa.com

Welcome to the 46th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.This week's word is Winning.We say we don't care about it. But we do — and that's okay. Wanting to win is human. The problem isn't the desire. It's when winning becomes the only language we speak at home, and second place starts to feel like failure.Kids raised in a winning-only culture learn that love has a scoreboard. The most competitive athletes in the world aren't driven by fear of losing — they fall in love with the process so deeply that winning becomes a byproduct, not the point.After their next game, resist the urge to make it about the result. Find one moment — their effort, their resilience, a single play — and talk about that instead.Raise them to love the fight, and the scoreboard will take care of itself.Take a breath. Reset.When the drive home sounds the same whether they won or lost, you free them to compete without fear — and fearless competitors win a lot more.

Amit Chitre has spent decades working with Fortune 500 executives, young professionals, and senior leaders in television news, public relations, crisis management, and leadership training. Then, as a father sitting through countless introductory sessions at the start of youth sports seasons, he noticed something: nobody was teaching young athletes the skills that actually matter beyond the scoreboard.That observation became The Other Playbook — a practical guide that helps student-athletes at every level understand themselves as a brand, define their values, and build an identity rooted in character rather than performance alone. It's the conversation coaches and parents have been skipping, and Amit made it his mission to have it.Connect with AmitWebsite: theotherplaybook.proBook: The Other Playbook — amazon.comLinkedIn: Amit ChitreSubscribe at hernanchousa.com

Welcome to the 45th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.This week's word is Identity.Not who they are as athletes. Who they are as people.Somewhere in the intensity of youth sports, the sport stops being something they do and becomes something they are. It feels like confidence and purpose — and for a while, it is. But an identity built entirely around one thing is fragile. When the sport goes, if there's nothing else underneath, your child doesn't just lose a hobby. They lose themselves.The strongest athletes aren't the ones who are only athletes. Those other layers — the reader, the builder, the one who makes everyone laugh — don't distract from the sport. They protect the athlete inside it.This week, have one conversation with your child that has nothing to do with sport. Be genuinely curious. Let them show you who else they are.Take a breath. Reset.The sport will shape them — but make sure they know it doesn't define them.

Bill Taylor spent over 20 years as a championship-level collegiate head coach before a deeply challenging conflict in his career revealed a gap he hadn't expected: he didn't have the skills to manage it. That honest reckoning led him to pursue a Master's degree in Conflict Management — and ultimately to found Sports Conflict Lab, dedicated to bringing one of the most overlooked tools in sports to coaches, administrators, athletes, and families.His book, Managing Sports Conflict: Five Tools to Master Conflict, breaks down the value and danger of conflict in sport, its unique impact on team culture, and the practical tools anyone involved in sports can use to face conflict with confidence rather than fear or avoidance.For sports parents, this conversation hits close to home. Conflict between parents and coaches, between teammates, between parent and child after a hard game — it's everywhere in youth sports, and most of us were never taught how to handle it. Bill makes the case that well-managed conflict isn't a threat to success. It's a pathway to it.Connect with BillLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bill-taylorWebsite: sportsconflictlab.comBook: Managing Sports Conflict — available at sportsconflictlab.comInstagram: @sports_conflict_labX: @Sports_ConflictSubscribe at hernanchousa.com

Welcome to the 44th Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe.Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected.This week's word is Presence.Not just showing up. Actually being there.We confuse attendance with presence. We drive the long hours, sit through early practices, stand in the bleachers for every game — and still, our kids can feel completely alone out there. Because while our body is in the stands, our mind is somewhere else.From the field, they notice. They score, look up, and see you looking at a screen. They fall, look up, and see you mid-conversation. Presence isn't about being perfect — it's about being available. Available to catch the look they give you after a hard play. Available to witness, not to coach or film, but simply to witness.This week, at the next game, put the phone away. Not on silent — completely away. Watch them the way you watch something you never want to forget.They don't need you to be the loudest voice in the stands. They just need to look up and find you there.Take a breath. Reset.The moments your child remembers won't be their best plays — they'll be the ones where they looked up and found you.Subscribe at hernanchousa.com

Phoebe Tran is one of Vietnam's most recognised faces in education media. As Country Manager of Crimson Education Vietnam — a role she has held for over nine years — she leads a team dedicated to transforming the education landscape and creating opportunities for thousands of students and families across the country. Beyond Crimson, Phoebe is a television host, reporter, and editor at Vietnam Television, covering culture, education, and sustainability, and is best known as the host of IELTS Face-Off on VTV7. She is also the founder of The 3's, a voice services and coaching business offering narration, hosting, and public speaking solutions in English — and is fluent in four languages: English, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Mandarin. Her driving mission is simple: empower young people to use their potential fully and equalise opportunities through education. Connect with Phoebe Instagram: @tmphoebe LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mai-phuong-phoebe-tran Subscribe at hernanchousa.com

Welcome to the 43rd Monday Reset for Sports Parents — a short reflection inside The Youth Sports Parenting Tribe. Each Monday Reset brings you one word, one idea, and one mindset to help you start the week calm, clear, and connected. This week's word is Tension. Not the kind that announces itself. The kind that builds slowly. It creeps into households after a practice that landed wrong or a conversation that didn't go well. Everyone manages everyone else's mood. No one says anything. And your child carries it onto the field — in their shoulders, in that half-second of hesitation before taking a risk. The most expensive performance problem in youth sports isn't physical. It's emotional. Tension is normal — it means you both care. But left unaddressed, small misunderstandings become patterns, and patterns become walls. A simple "things have been off between us and I don't want that" is enough to crack one open. This week, ask yourself honestly: is there tension between you and your athlete right now? If there is, don't wait for the right moment. Find a quiet minute and name it. Take a breath. Reset. Show them the relationship matters far more than being right. Subscribe at hernanchousa.com