Host Todd Arkell sits down with a 30th-round MLB pick with a $2,000 signing bonus, a 5'9", 155-pound infielder who spent his early years just trying not to get exposed. Jeff Frye went on to play parts of eight big league seasons with the Rangers, Red Sox, Rockies, and Blue Jays, finishing with a .290 career average over 666 games. Today he’s one of baseball’s most outspoken voices, the leader of “She Gone Nation,” and he’s heading back to the dugout as a coach this summer. In this episode, Jeff

This is the first in the series profiling some of the top Travel Baseball programs in North America. In this episode of The Mental Approach, host Todd Arkell sits down with Tyler Hollick, former JUCO standout, MLB draft pick, and current President of Baseball Operations for the Okotoks Dawgs. Tyler shares his baseball journey from starting his collegiate career 0-for-38 to becoming the Junior College National Player of the Year. He dives deep into the mental performance, culture, and high-level

Youth sports has become a nearly $40 billion industry in North America, bigger than the NFL. Private equity is buying up leagues, tournaments, and rankings while five-year-olds get "scouted." In this episode, host Todd Arkell sits down with Victor Bergonzoli, who spent a decade building elite performance-tracking tech at Dartfish (used by Olympic broadcasters and athletes like Novak Djokovic) before pivoting to lead Sports Ed TV, a platform that gives away high-level coaching content for free.

In this episode of The Mental Approach, host Todd Arkell sits down with Jeff Kyrzakos, freshly named the 26th Head Coach of the Kitchener Rangers following their dual championship run to capture both the OHL Championship and the Memorial Cup. Drawing on over a decade of coaching experience and his own journey as a player through the OHL, NCAA, and professional ranks, Kyrzakos shares valuable insights into the evolving landscape of junior hockey. He breaks down how coaches can cultivate resilien

Jake Valentine is the assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator for University of Michigan Baseball, and we unpack the mental side of college recruiting. We talk about why every recruiting journey is unique, the four core principles Jake believes should guide school selection (academics, people, opportunity, and finances), and how social media, recruitment services, and showcases really factor into a player’s future. Jake shares what coaches quietly notice about athletes and parents—on vis

Val Whiting is one of the most decorated college basketball players of her generation — two national championships at Stanford, Pac-10 Player of the Year twice, a pro career that took her from Italy and Brazil to the ABL and the WNBA. But behind the highlights was a player who was silently drowning, with no tools to combat performance anxiety, no one to talk to, and a coach who called her unmotivated. It took two hospitalizations, a pandemic, and a TikTok video for Val to turn her pain into purp