From The Court to Sand: James Shaw's Volleyball Journey

Pro Beach Volleyball Player, James Shaw joins host Craig Domann on this week's episode of Pro Mindset® Podcast.James shares his journey from traditional sports to beach volleyball, the challenges of competing in extreme conditions, and the mental toughness required to succeed at the highest level. James discusses his training regimen, the importance of mental preparation, and how he builds a Performance BubbleTM to focus on the moment rather than external pressures. He also reflects on the impact of comparisons in sports and shares a proud moment from his career.

Episode Takeaways:

● Building a Performance BubbleTM helps focus our strengths.
● Comparisons can negatively impact performance.
● Accepting defeat can help drive you to perform better.

James shares his experiences in competitive volleyball, focusing on the mental challenges and strategies that come into play during high-pressure situations. He discusses a pivotal match where he and his partner overcame a tough start to find success, emphasizing the importance of mindset shifts, mental resets, and the need to compete at every level of training. James reflects on past disappointments and how they shaped his approach to competition, highlighting the psychological aspects of sports and the significance of teamwork and resilience.

Follow James:

Instagram: @jameswshaw
X: @BigShaw1

#JamesShaw #ProMindset #Podcast #Mindset #BeachVolleyball #MentalToughness #Training #PerformanceBubble #SportsPsychology #Competition #AthleteMindset #VolleyballChallenges #SportsAchievements #Volleyball #Competition #MentalResilience #Training #Performance #Teamwork #OvercomingAdversity #AthleteMindset

Transcript

Pro Mindset (00:01)
Hey, welcome everybody to Pro Mindset podcast. This is your host, Craig Domann. I've got a special guest today. I have James Shaw. James is a beach volleyball guy. He's six foot eight. He can jump up and almost touch 12 feet on the backboard, which is the top of a backboard. He's been on the U S national team. He's played in about five European countries and different leagues. He's a national champion runner up at Stanford university.

Welcome to Pro Mindset today.

James (00:32)
Thanks, Craig. Great to be here. Yeah, excited.

Pro Mindset (00:35)
Hope I didn't screw up that intro.

James (00:37)
No, no, no the intro is great and I'm glad I clarified in our in our lead up About the about the runner-up. Yeah, I don't want to claim anything that we didn't get

Pro Mindset (00:39)
I hope I did you justice in that.

Yeah, so here, James.

James is married to a professional beach volleyball woman, Molly, who we're gonna have on the show down the road. And what we wanna start out with, James, is this.

You, your father is a Hall of Fame type coach at Stanford. You grew up with, with volleyball in your blood. You're six foot eight. How did you, you, did you know you were always playing volleyball or did you consider basketball or any other sports?

James (01:13)
Yeah, I did not know. My sister kind of got me into it when she hit high school and she hit sort of the club, you youth, youth volleyball scene. And she sort of sparked my interest there. But I really, I thought I was going to be either a baseball, basketball kind of guy and played both going into high school and thought those were my two strongest sports. And, and then I got into, got into playing volleyball and,

realized I had sort of the natural, the natural stuff that it, that it took and, soft, soft hands, big hands, like setters, you know, setters and, and, like big time blockers. They, you know, that's a big, big thing that can help. And I had really good touch on the ball because I'd always just been kind of playing around in the halls at my dad's dad's practices every day for, for 15 years. And, yeah, so it happened sort of,

sort of naturally and once I started getting more interest and saw more success in the sport, just slowly started working my way over and basketball and baseball kind of just took to the side for me.

Pro Mindset (02:17)
Okay, what is it like playing beach volleyball at the highest level when it's, you know, 105 degrees, it's hot and you got sand everywhere. I mean, that's one of the things that when I go to the beach and we play sand volleyball, you're diving, I don't dive anymore. But it's like, you're just like a ball of sand, a ball of sweat.

James (02:26)
Hehe.

Pro Mindset (02:42)
How is that different from playing indoor?

James (02:44)
It's so different. the, it's, it was one of the big, one of the bigger thoughts in my mind, honestly, the first time I ever started training full time on the, on the, on the beach was like, gosh, how am going to deal with the elements as, as easily as it seems like most of the pros do. And it's, I mean, it's literally just exposure therapy. think the more you

The more you're in the sand rolling around, getting sweaty and dealing with the a hundred degrees and dealing with the sun and dealing with being sticky from sunscreens and sweaty and, exhausted. It's, it becomes a, just a normal thing. You know, it's just the thing you deal with. And I would say like a month in or so I just got to the point where I was there. There were a few, a few days of training where I just kind of like was just covered in sand. And at one point.

I just kind of like looked at myself and like felt the sand, felt the sweat, felt the hot sun. And I was just like, all right, I'm in it. You know, it was almost like this moment of, of like, okay, this is, this is my sport now. And I'm, and I'm, I guess, I guess that means I'm, I'm, I'm a beach guy now, but I can, I can deal with all the elements finally.

Pro Mindset (03:53)
But one of the things that's interesting is that you almost need to have like a child's like mentality to play beach volleyball. Because you just don't care. It just doesn't matter. It's just part of it. And you have a lot more control over your environment when you're playing indoor.

James (04:10)
Yeah. And honestly, that's, that's a good thought. And I think the other interesting point to it too, is like, that's, that is sort of the, I think the initial way that you sort of approach going out into the, into the sand and like, and when it's cold in the morning or when it's hot in the, in the afternoon and you're starting practice, that's the initial feeling. It's like, I just got to be out here trying to, trying to play in the sandbox and then deeper into the practice.

deeper into a tournament day, deeper into a tournament weekend, it becomes really like an endurance sport. was talking about this with my family a couple of days ago, just in sort of relation to this long stretch of tournaments that I just had, but at that point, it really becomes a marathon, an endurance thing, and you are dealing with the elements in a different way, and you're having to overcome, I think, a lot mentally in that.

in that way and you have to realize, you have to remind yourself that everybody you're competing against is also dealing with the same stuff. You know, it's, it's, it is a level playing field, even though it feels like, God, it feels so hard on me. It's a big weight on my shoulders. If you can kind of release that, you know, and, and train your mind to snap back into, this is a level playing field. Everybody's feeling the same, same way I'm feeling.

you get back to the point of just, all right, now it's just competing. We're all on the level playing field. Let's just focus again on the task, you know.

Pro Mindset (05:32)
So you mentioned before we started that you and your wife went on a multi-continent tour the last month competing in tournaments. What is the biggest challenge? Is it the food? Is it the time change? it conserving your energy? Is it tapping into your motivation? What's the toughest mental challenge?

James (05:39)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Gosh, I think every tournament's different. I know it's sort of like an easy answer, but every tournament's different. They're like for the first one, for example, it was, it was the time change because you're not on the right time zone. for the most part, that's going to be the case, you know, especially coming from America, there's not a whole lot of tournaments, especially international tournaments that are in America. And so we got to go fly to, in this case, it was Brazil and then Southeast Asia for the next three. so those are.

you know, at least five hours away for Brazil and then, and then eight to 10 hours away for, for Southeast Asia. So that's a big thing. but once you get adjusted, you just feel normal. And so if it's a second tournament in a row, you don't feel time change really at all. Cause you're adjusted by them. in Southeast Asia, not yet.

Pro Mindset (06:39)
So do you play first?

Not yet. So being six foot

eight, how do you fit in the seats?

James (06:47)
You don't, you just, you hope that there's a wind or not a window, an open seat next to you and then try and try and get an aisle, you know, stretch your legs out every now and then. Yeah. There's a lot of, hoping that you fall asleep for a good amount of the time. And then you, you, you know, you don't have to think about being so squeezed while you're falling asleep or while you're asleep. and then there's a lot of just getting up and stretching and.

Pro Mindset (06:56)
Yeah.

James (07:12)
and moving around and doing laps around the the aisles. Like that's a that's a normal thing. But yeah, that's that's just one of the many things you got to kind of deal with as a as a pro athlete, especially on the beach tour. It's like it's a it's a worldwide thing. So yeah.

Pro Mindset (07:27)
Okay, so as a beach volleyball player, not a lot of people probably realize what kind of training you have to go through to be at your best. A lot of people know like for football you want to be strong and fast. For basketball you want to get in the gym and shoot 500 shots every day during the summer, during the off season. What does the training look like for a beach volleyball person?

James (07:49)
It kind of incorporates it all, honestly. I think, and there's different ways that, that, different, different federations, different countries do it. And in America, it, it really depends on your coaching and depends on the person probably, but, you know, in Brazil, it's like very rep based. There's not a whole lot of strategy going on or talking about tactical stuff. It's all about.

skill development, just taking those 500 shots a day, know, that kind of feeling. teams and players will practice for four hours, five hours a day in different spurts. The American sort of way has been to mix it all together. And in a lot of ways, that's what I've done is sort of take some things from here and there and different coaches that I've trained with and different teams that I've trained with. You know, training five days a week.

possibly six, looks different obviously for a tournament week, but definitely training after that every day, maybe every other day if you're in season. The rest of the day is just recovering and doing a lot of different modalities, maybe watching film with your coaches, watching film with your teammates.

And then travel is obviously again, a big part of it too. So like that's, that's part of the training is, is trying to figure out, you know, what does this week look like as a pair as opposed to this week, because it's, it really depends on, on how the, how the week is. And there really isn't an off season that much. I know I, told you before we got on that there's like, you know, three or four weeks here where I haven't had an off season finally, but that's pretty rare. There's, there's still tournaments going on right now.

There will be again in in mid February. So there's really not much of an offseason So yeah, it's it depends on the year to I mean it depends on your priorities as a player I think if you're a domestically inclined player and you don't really care about making the Olympics There's a lot of people in America that are just doing that It you know, it fluctuates that way too so there's a lot of different very variety and variability and I think That's one of the really cool things about this sport is there's so much

So much variety, yeah.

Pro Mindset (09:47)
Let's jump into the headspace of a volleyball player. know, there's, there's game or match defining moments in every sport. You know, basketball might be a free throw at end of the game. the clock's not moving and there's hardly any time on the clock. And if you make it, you win, you miss it, you lose. And football, they have the two minute offense trying to get it into the end zone. In volleyball, seems that it's like, you know, it's match point. What is different and how do you train?

James (09:51)
Yeah.

Pro Mindset (10:17)
those big moments so that you can be in the flow be in the zone be relaxed be confident believe in yourself No, trust your skills in your training. What how do you how do you do that? Or do you just black out and not think about it?

James (10:28)
I, this is actually a really poignant question too, that for myself and my partner currently, cause we've been, it's, it's been a big like sticking point as, as far as how do we do it? the best answer that I could give you is it, takes a lot of just experience in those moments over and over and over again. And I mean, it kind of brings to mind like the, the Kobe, the Kobe and MJ mentality of like, have to just

take those big shots in those big moments. You know, have to go for it on match point. have to, you have to believe that you're going to hit the shot that you need to hit or side out when you need to side out in volleyball parlance to, to get better at that skill, you know, to, to, be able to feel that confidence a year down the line, five years down the line that you're going to be able to, you know, perform in that moment.

I don't personally, think there's a lot of different ways people think about it and different opinions people have, but I think personally, there's not really a way you can replicate it in practice, you know, in a training setting. You can put some pressure on things here or there and make it more difficult for yourself as a team or for your opponent in training. But I think, yeah, it's all about like...

This year has been a lot about that for me is being in those moments, dealing with that pressure, knowing that this is match point, it could be the end of the tournament, it could be the end of the season. And I just have to go through it and put myself on the line. And if it doesn't happen, okay, but I showed the effort and I put myself there, you know, and down the line, I know that I'll eventually be performing in those situations.

and it won't even be a thought.

Pro Mindset (12:09)
Well, one of the things that I do with my athletes is I teach them and coach them on two things. One is their identity so that they feel comfortable in that big moment. Let's say it's a it's a match point to win the tournament and the difference between winning and not is usually a lot. The first place paycheck is always a lot more than the second and you want to win it.

James (12:31)
Hmm.

Pro Mindset (12:34)
You automatically, because you start thinking about the outcomes, the expectations, the results of the match, the money, the media, the opportunity, you naturally put more pressure on yourself. So I teach people how to divorce themselves of all the consequences of the big moment.

Instead, let's just focus on the play, let's just focus on the moment, not the things that are to happen from that moment. And the way that I do that is I help them build a performance bubble. I teach them how to build a performance bubble where everything that you can control that's positive, that's for you, that serves your best interests gets to come in. And everything that is not for you doesn't get to come in. So what happened the last time you played this team?

Last time you played in this tournament, last time you were in this situation and you weren't successful, that doesn't get to come in. But the last time you were successful in this moment, you get to bring that in. And so in a way, what you end up doing is you create this mental safe, safe space in your mind where fears and doubts and past disappointments and past failures and all that stuff is not going to come in.

James (13:51)
Yeah.

Pro Mindset (13:52)
And

the only thing that gets to come in is belief in who you are as a man, confidence in your skills, which manifests peace and it manifests belief in the moment. And then you bring in the fact that you visualized that before you got there. You know, on the airplane ride, on the bus ride over to the shuttle ride over to the tournament.

That morning the night before the week before you visualize this moment multiple times as you being a star in that moment So your brain thinks you've already done it So when you're in moment, you're not uncomfortable because you've already been there even though you have it and Then because we're human And we have this internal coach Or critic. I call it a pocket voice. It's gonna say James You know or somebody in the crowd says something

James (14:24)
Yeah.

Pro Mindset (14:43)
Or your wife says something or your teammate says something. Your coach says something. It triggers you. And it reminds you of what your dad used to tell you when you were in high school or in college. They used to piss you off. Those type of things. And it's like you have to be able to regulate in the real time when something comes in that doesn't serve you to get it out. So you have an escape hatch to get it out. And so it's been incredibly effective for guys, for athletes.

James (14:46)
Yep.

Pro Mindset (15:12)
because then you're not just going with the flow and hoping everything works out.

You take a lot of the uncontrollables and you make them controllable. Go ahead and give me some feedback.

James (15:18)
Yeah, that's

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that idea. think there are so many opportunities where being able to recreate that feeling of peace or that feeling of confidence or whatever adjective you want to use for that sort of feeling is so vital to

success in a moment. There's so many situations and I can, I mean, gosh, I can think of a hundred plus in just these last three weeks that I was competing where it really started to become.

mind over matter and it was necessary for me to be able to pull out a match. That's beach volleyball to a T. It really isn't as much as it looks like this big, know, physical, exciting, know, mano a mano, like who's stronger sport in a lot of ways. It is one of the most mentally and psychologically demanding sports I think I've ever.

played or been around. And I think anybody who plays it would also agree. It's so much about what's between the ears and that's like 95 % of what separates people in the sport. And I've really noticed that the need for this, for exactly what you're talking about, being able to go there when you...

the opportunity is there for you to be fixating on something else or to be lost in a distraction is, it is just so important. And yeah, like one example for me to sort of try and get myself, it's kind of like tangent to that idea, but similar to it, in order to visualize and get myself into that peaceful space, I will listen to

music from, what basically what the Stanford band has recreated. Cause these, these songs that the Stanford band has played, they played for 20 plus 30 years at the school, which I grew up there. was, I I went to sporting events at Stanford all the time. It's in my DNA. And especially while I was there too, there were, there were so many matches where I would hear the band. I'd walk out on the court.

you know, be hearing, you know, certain songs and it would just click me into place of like, this is, this is my place of peace, you know? And so I'll listen to some of that, some of that music before every match I play. And it gets me into that place of peace. A lot of people like to like pump themselves up and, listen to like really high energy, you know, stuff that gets them fired up. But for me, I need to like calm myself back into that place of peace. So that's a perfect example of, think, you know, that, that feeling of.

going into a match, being able to visualize yourself in a place where you're able to compete at a really measured high level, not too high, not too low. And it's been really effective so far, yeah.

Pro Mindset (18:17)
Well, one of the things that you're doing is you're tapping in to a memory bank that gave you joy and confidence and familiarity. So when you go back to listening to the songs by the Stanford band, you're taking your mind to a happy place, to a confident place, right? And it's like, it's familiar and it's like you could be in Brazil or wherever you may be and you feel like you're at home.

James (18:19)
Ahem.

Yeah. Yeah.

Pro Mindset (18:44)
Right? Well, one of the things that I see with athletes is like in track and different sports, they use resistance parachutes to, you know, train your speed and then they take the parachute off and then you run without the parachute and theoretically you should run faster. You need to do the same thing with your mind. So one of the things that you should do is, you know, almost visualize a big moment.

Go ahead and feel all the pressure Your your partner's mad at you your coach is yelling at you the other teams being pricks You know that the the officials not giving you the calls the the the audience is cheering for the other team and it's like You don't you're hungry or you got some something that's bugging you Go ahead and feel it all And then let it go Because it's it's not as bad as you think it's gonna be

And so one of the things I help my guys do is make sure you show up at the competition traveling without bringing that mental parachute with you.

Because what happens is, we talked about this real briefly before we started, in those big matches, in those match points, that's when you short serve. That's when you hit it in the net. You're not as relaxed. You're not as confident. Or you just like you feel like in the middle of the serve, you feel like it's going to be short. So you just whack it and you hit it long.

James (19:58)
Mm. Mm. Yep.

Pro Mindset (20:13)
And was like a knee-jerk reaction. It's like, where'd that come from? And it was just in nanosecond because you didn't want to hit it in the net. And so the bottom line is the mind is what's controlling your body, not your body controlling your mind. So if you can control your mind, your body can do what it can do, what you've trained it to do.

James (20:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's all too true in so many situations. Yeah, that I can, that I can take out and, and, it reminds me of a, of a practice that actually I've done just kind of off the court too. It's called, called, fear setting. don't know if you know Tim Ferriss, but he's a, he's, he's got a well-known podcast and he's, he's a, he's an author. And one of the things that he does to deal with situations that

might be anxiety inducing or cause a lot of stress for somebody is to just get to writing down or visualizing in whatever case you may be. All the negative things that could be happening, all the pressures, all the bad stuff. And then when you get to that moment or when you get to actually dealing with the problem, yeah, it's way, way easier. There's less resistance. That is a big...

That's a big part of how I deal with, I think, big problems in my life too.

Pro Mindset (21:27)
Well, I think one of the things like being married to a professional volleyball player, there's the inevitable comparison that goes on from time to time. And if you don't compare, she doesn't compare, some friend does. One of your friends says, hey man, you got to keep up with the Mrs. You know, and it's like, or your dad says something or a cousin. And so I think one of the key things is,

Being in the moment and not allowing thoughts about those types of things come into your performance. Be a part of your play. I've seen this where the athlete that can totally be immersed in the moment, you're serving, you're setting, you're spiking, you're blocked, whatever you're doing, you're just doing it.

And you're not thinking, you're not trying to please somebody. You're not trying to get approval from somebody. You're not even trying to prove anybody wrong. You're not even, you're not trying to get money. Because when you add those attachments, you've just loaded up your parachute to hold you down.

James (22:20)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, that's the end. That's a topic we'll probably get into a lot, you know, later on with Paulie and I both, but

Yeah, it is a sport ripe with those things that you could add to the parachute for sure. And I've seen that take down a lot of people mid-tournament and also mid high level career. And I mean, it goes for every sport. Yeah, that's spot on.

Pro Mindset (22:57)
Okay, let's go to one positive and one negative. What is the biggest accomplishment that you're proud of in volleyball? And I'm talking about a moment. I'm not talking about a season. Talking about a moment where you made it happen. Maybe against all odds, maybe in a big moment, maybe for a meaningful win, maybe for a lot of money. What was that moment for you?

James (23:20)
Gosh, there's many.

But of recent memory, actually, the second to last match I played, this was in the Philippines. were just got back from the Philippines. My partner and I, we were down coming into the match. We were not physically there. We both felt really exhausted, both dealing with GI issues and that's the thing in Asia. And the team we were going up against, we knew they were a really good team.

a team that's pretty much our level, but they hadn't played in three tournaments before us. So we knew they were coming in fresh and ready to go. And they were. First set, we lost. got just, they wiped the core with us. It was bad. It was like 21-11, I think the first set was. And we kind of looked at each other during the timeout and we were like, hey, all we can do right now is just...

like keep fighting and something's going to break, know, something's going to change. and if it doesn't then okay. But, but we both kind of had this feeling that things were going to change. And it was probably like the worst set that we'd played together just because we were so physically just exhausted. and nothing was really breaking our way that that set either. But as soon as we walked back on the court, something felt different, something changed.

And we just...

found a way in that second set, we found a way to win. And we got them kind of on the defensive, on the tired side of things. We wore one of their players down, the blocker who was running up to the net every other point they served. He had to contend with a lot of energy issues then.

And so we were, we were like, okay, we can, we can do this. And we found a way to win the third set too. And it was like the most blissful seventh place match we'd ever played in our lives. know, like we, neither of us set out in that tournament to win, to win a match, you know, three matches before even the metal rounds. But

It felt like our gold medal match in a lot of ways. You know, we had to, we had to dig, I think deeper and, and personally, I don't think I've ever had to dig any deeper than, than in that match in my life. physically, mentally, everything, it was the end of the trip. It was the end of the season. Could have just kind of rolled down and said, okay, this is, this is it. It's over, you know, season over, but we found a way to win that. it was, it ended up being a really big deal, to, get.

get into the next round instead of bow out in that round. that's a positive for sure. And then negative, right?

Pro Mindset (25:58)
Let's

talk about your I want it before you go negative. Let's stick on the positive Your headspace in between the first mat the first set in the second set You had no pressure going into the second set None you had nothing to lose. They were already wiping you So what happened was you let go of everything that was holding you down

James (26:10)
Right.

Pro Mindset (26:21)
You you almost and that's that's a great place to be it's almost like you accepted defeat

In the sense of we're just gonna go see what we can do It ain't good enough. It's not good enough And then you're able to play better. You'll be able to play more freely You're more connected to your partner. There's better instincts. There's better teamwork

James (26:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Pro Mindset (26:41)
So what happened is, my question to you is, what was your mindset before the first set compared to your mindset going into the second set? Because we just went through the second set. What was it the first set? What were your expectations? Were you like making excuses in your head about, we're tired, they're fresh, but we're going to, you know, hopefully we can win? I mean, I don't know. What was your thoughts?

James (27:03)
Yeah, I think that's pretty spot on, I think.

think we were a little heavy, you know, we were, we were thinking, I can definitely speak for myself at least in saying like, I, I didn't expect to win by any means. thought one, I was thinking about how long and arduous the day ahead of us would be because if we had won that match, we'd have to play three hours later in the next match against a better team. And then if we won that match, we'd have to play another three hours later against an even better team.

just to make it to the middle rounds. And to that point, we'd already played two exhausting matches and we were already down and it was, we were, could see the light at the end of the tunnel was there for, for the, for the off season. And we had, you know, full month in our, in our rear view of, of really tough grueling travel and training and playing and, and in a lot of hot weather. And so I was just all of that stuff.

was on my head, on my mind, I was like, you know, there's no way we're going to pull this off. And sure enough, they kicked our butts and I was like, okay, well.

Yeah, you're right. Pressure's off. And then, yeah, the switch was made.

Pro Mindset (28:13)
Okay, so one of the things that you guys did unintentionally before the first set was you had all those future things on your mind. Instead of just playing, you know, one point at a time, you were you're planning out the offseason. You were thinking about the travel home. You were thinking about you're exhausted. You're dealing with physical ailments and whatnot. If so, here's the question I got for you.

How can you on purpose intentionally lock in? What is it like? Can you take a breath? I mean, I coach people on this stuff and it's like everybody's got different things they prefer to do, but it's like, can you take a breath and breathe in the oxygen of belief and breathe out the dioxide of doubt? And one or two or three deep breaths changes the whole body chemistry that you got and it's going to change your mojo.

Can you do that between every point or do you already do something like that?

James (29:16)
Yeah.

First thing I would say is it's definitely easier said than done. know there are tons of ways that different players do things that sort of reset them and different partnerships do a lot of things to reset. know, one way that's like the pretty clear and quick and easy one for beach volleyball players is to get one time out of set. Basically, that's usually the reset.

You know, like if you're, if you have lost four straight points, you're going to call timeout, you know, if you've got one left. another one that a lot of players will use is like, go clean the glasses. You know, if you're, if you have even just a speck of water under your glasses, go clean the glasses. and reps have gotten pretty good at making sure you're actually cleaning something off of your glasses. Cause if you're not, they'll say, Hey, go back there. We're to give you a yellow card.

And that'll happen quite a bit too, actually, more and more every year. There are little ways like that that players do that. I think for my partner, Cain, and me personally and as a team, we...

In a lot of ways, we will basically just tell each other, it's gonna break, it's gonna happen, things are gonna change, like keep at it, keep working.

It doesn't always work. It doesn't always mean that the flip, the switch is flipped and it doesn't mean we win the match oftentimes. I wouldn't say often, sometimes, but more than, more than not, actually, it at least gives us that.

that switch in mentality of it's, it is more under our control than we think. I think a lot of teams, when they get down, and this is probably what separates the great from the good or the average, is they will just say, to hell with it. Like, we don't need to, we don't need to keep fighting. It's over. Let's stop playing. You know, let's mail it in.

It is time for a new season or time for the off season or whatever. And I think our sort of mentality as a team and my mentality has always been this way is I will feel so much better at the end of this. If I've at least given myself that.

that idea of I need to be okay with how I played and how I comported myself, how I responded to the other team just playing their tails off and kicking our butt. Because sometimes that's going to happen. That's going to happen with every great team.

it, that at least that can be controlled. And if you can control that, you've already controlled a lot more than what some, some other teams might do. And the, and for all I know, the team that's kicking our butt right now is hoping to God that we will fold so that they can stop working so hard. And when we didn't in the second set in the third set, they, quickly realized that and the

tables were turned and they, it was their decision now whether or not they were going to fold and they ended up folding. And that's what I mean too about, it's crazy because that's what I mean too about how, how the sport is, is it's so psychologically, it's a, it's a chess game. a, it's a psychological war between two sets of two guys or two girls and whoever is able to turn the tables in their favor and

Pro Mindset (32:20)
Isn't that crazy?

James (32:41)
and have the upper mentality, the upper hand mentality for longer is the one that usually wins if it's an evenly matched physically team.

Pro Mindset (32:49)
Well, I'm going to get to your worst situation here in a second, but before we do that, I want to mention that one of the things that I see with sports and competition is that people don't like to compete. People either don't want to be way ahead, get on a run, or they're way behind and they just let it go and we'll go to the next set. Very few people want to compete their ass off for every single point. And allow the possibility

that you could be down five and still come back. Because you're competing every single one and because you're competing and athletes are competitors but they don't like to compete. They want to compete for a minute but they don't want to compete for the whole match. It's too hard. Mentally draining, taxing, all those things. And so if you can train yourself to compete for every point,

and your partner's doing the same thing. You will kill the will of your opponent many times because they won't want to compete.

James (33:48)
You

Pro Mindset (33:51)
Thoughts on that?

James (33:51)
Yeah, that's,

that brings me to the idea. And you said it training. It's, it's all about your training and it's all about how you compete with the day. you competing, competing at a high level in your daily life? Are you competing when you're, when you're recovering? Are you, are you competing when you're warming up for practice and when you're, when you have a practice where nobody's really watching.

The stakes aren't really that high. not really, you know, you might just be out there getting reps with your partner.

If, and I, there are a lot of cases in this sport where people are not competing every day.

because it is such a free for all. There's so many people that don't have guidance or haven't played at a high level or seen the highest level and what it takes to stay at the high level.

that don't really compete on a daily basis. They just go out and kind of go through the motions and think, all right, well, I'll kind of stick with it for another year because this is, know, I'm good enough at it. But it is all about, in my mind, and I think yours as well, it's all about competing with every action you take in a day. And as soon as you let off the gas and you decide,

because there are tons of little decisions throughout the day where you either decide to compete and to be okay or comfortable with the uncomfortable.

you know, and if you are

If you're in those moments and you can take that on, I think it does get easier and you do start to have a more of an affinity for competing when it actually is a big, you know, lights are on situation. And I think I've done a really good job of that throughout my career of always being engaged when the lights are not on. So that at the highest levels, I can know that at least I'm ready to perform.

you know, at least to my standards, if not surprise myself a little bit in those places.

Pro Mindset (35:46)
Okay, let's jump into what's like one of the either most embarrassing, most disappointing moments you've had on a volleyball court where when you look back now, you go, holy smokes, I can't believe that wasn't me. I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what I was doing where you just had a total brain fart, but it was in a big moment and you maybe even felt the pressure.

James (35:54)
Yeah.

Pro Mindset (36:12)
Maybe you were even a little bit paralyzed mentally. Maybe you were a little strained physically. I mean, when you tighten up, you talked about earlier, you want to have soft hands and volleyball. Well, you got like brick hands when you are tense, right? And so, and your hands are a reflection of your mind.

If your mind is tense, your hands are going to be tense. So share what happened and what was your mindset in that moment.

James (36:43)
I'll go back to a moment also this year. This was my first tournament with my new partner came who he kind of picked me up in the middle of season. I had had another partner early on in the year and we were doing pretty well and the pressure was not on. Nobody really knew us or respected us necessarily on the beach. And so we were able to surprise a lot of teams and halfway through the year we were sort of like the up and coming team in a lot of ways.

And soon as I switched to playing with Cain, felt a little bit more of that pressures on kind of thing. You know, I got to, I'm at the higher level now. Like he's, he's a, he's a, he's an Olympian. he's been around the block. He's, he has won the Hermosa open. He's won a bunch of other events. He's been in the, on Sundays every, every year. And.

I, once I stepped up to that level, I was like, okay, now I, now pressure's on. And our first tournament ended up being together, ended up being the Manhattan beach open first big tournament. So that's, that's as big as it gets in America. They call it the granddaddy of them all for a reason, because it's, it's huge. It's, it's the Mecca, you know, for beach volleyball and

Another piece of the pressure on my mind was this, the ADP had introduced a league now, you know, has, has gone through the first first year of it already, but,

If you didn't do well in this tournament and the one to follow with your partner, you basically were not going to be part of the league. And so you needed to hit a certain mark in that tournament and the next tournament to qualify for the league. And so that was a part of the pressure too. And from the first match of that tournament, which we won, it was closer than we thought it should have been.

I was feeling tense. was feeling jittery. was, I was feeling all the nerves. And once we hit some real adversity after we lost our second match, our third match was basically win or go home. Playing against the team that I think we both knew we were better than and, but they were sort of yelling and upstarts and, and feeling hot, you know, they're, they were feeling good that day too. And.

came down to the last few points at the end and I was getting served. That's sort of like the, I'm trying to think of a good metaphor. Say it again. Yeah, they're thinking on you. Exactly.

Pro Mindset (39:01)
Click them on the view.

They're picking on you. It's like a quarterback. Quarterbacks

on the rookie corner.

James (39:10)
Yeah, you're the corner that's just gotten subbed in for the guy that got hurt and everybody knows it's going your way.

So there's that like good five point span there where they were just going after me. It was, we were on the bad side, which means the wind is blowing at our backs, which is killing the jump serve. You know, it can either kill the jump serve and it'll land five feet in front of you, which is hard to do if there's no wind, but tons of wind that day, or they can hit it into the wind high and it'll hit you in the chest or it'll land on the back line, you know? So it's really hard to condone.

content with those conditions if you're, if you're on the bad side. And so we happened to be in that, in that spot too. And they just went after me and I, I got aced a couple of times. We had been up, I think a couple of points towards the end of that set. I got aced and sort of rather than like taking those moments to sort of look at each other and calm ourselves down. I don't think we had necessarily developed those, those habits yet as a team.

And I really hadn't as a player and the next few points were decent serves, but I passed them, you know, okay, somehow and. Flood the couple balls out of bounds, hit one, hit one into the tape and sort of rolled it out of the net for match point. And after those few points, I just remember looking into the sand, you know, knowing the tournament was over. Probably our domestic season was in the toilet for the most part. We had one more chance in Chicago later, but we didn't.

didn't do that well, aside from the point, you know, I felt that pressure. A lot of eyes there, a lot of people watching the new team, you know, the new guy who's gotten picked up by the older player who's, you know, hoping they can spark something in their careers together. yeah, just didn't go well. That's as well as I could put it.

Pro Mindset (41:01)
Okay, so looking back.

Okay, so let's pretend that you're in that same tournament with your new partner and the first match is in an hour from now. What approach would you what would you do differently? I mean, you've got the wisdom now. And you got the hindsight of 2020 vision. What would you do?

James (41:21)
I mean, I think a big part of it for me going into that tournament was tuning out lot of distractions. think I got a little bit swept up in all that talk of what this tournament means and what it could do or what it could kill.

Yeah, an hour before, if I could even stretch that back even a little further, I would just try and start to get myself in a place of, of less distraction and get into my own head a little bit more.

you know, visualize maybe get to that point where I could visualize a match not going well like it did and, and feel how it feels to, to have all those weights and all that pressure. That I think would, would have, would have helped me a lot. I think.

In a lot of ways though, everybody on the beach kind of has to go through this, you know? And everybody in a pro sport has to go through that moment where you're like...

back is against the wall and it seems like everything's going against you.

Yeah, honestly, to put myself there an hour before that first match, would probably try and visualize that.

like visualize and put myself in that situation where, okay, it is, it is true that everybody has to go through it. so, why not take that pressure off? Yeah. Yeah.

Pro Mindset (42:41)
Let me me jump in there for a second. OK.

So I'm your coach, all right, and I'm going to share with you before the first match that you belong. I'm going to ask if you belong, but you got to believe you belong. And the whole narrative around the new partnership and the savvy old man, you know, old guy with the young, you know, up and coming guy. I'm going to embrace it and I'm going to I'm going to know.

that they're going to attack me. Why wouldn't they? mean, what sheep does the wolf chase? The one with the dippy leg? You know, they don't go to the front of the pack. They get the straggler at the end. Right? I mean, it's just common sense. If you want to have dinner, that's the guy you go after. So these guys, I'm inviting it. I'm ready for it. And then when it's coming, I'm like, bring it on. Bring it on.

James (43:25)
Reddit.

Pro Mindset (43:38)
I'm ready. I'm not going to be perfect, but I'm ready. And I'm going to have, I'm going to, I'm going to look to my partner and go, I'm good, man. I'm good. We know that we both knew this was going to happen.

James (43:40)
Yeah.

Pro Mindset (43:50)
And I'm not going to eliminate all attachments to outcomes. I got I'm going to get a big old scissors and cut that cord man between all potential outcomes. I'm just going to play the match. So here's the here's the thing I have to ask. How many different venues have you played in? And I'm just ballpark 50, 100 for beach volleyball.

James (44:16)
Well, for beach volleyball, probably around 50 at this point. Yeah, maybe less. Maybe even less.

Pro Mindset (44:20)
Okay, so

let's say it's 40. Manhattan Beach, the setup different than everywhere else? Or is it still, is the net the same height? Is the distances of the courts the same? The dimensions of the court the same?

James (44:38)
The court is

pretty much the same. I mean, it definitely on the beach, this is where it gets tricky. Like the sand's not the same. The sand is different everywhere. the two courts, this is just kind of getting in the weeds, but like two courts north of the stadium court next to the pier, there's a little bit of like a downhill. So one side of the court is a little bit higher than the other side. And you've got fans up above on the pier lining the pier.

watching down, and the wind is coming at a different angle from off the shore than some of the courts that are more sheltered by stadium court. So there is a little bit of a difference.

Pro Mindset (45:14)
Okay? Did you know all that in advance? You knew all that in advance?

James (45:18)
not to the degree that my partner and my coaches did, but had a general idea of that,

Pro Mindset (45:26)
Okay, do they

use the same size ball and everything that they always do?

James (45:29)
Yes, yeah, on the domestic tour, yeah.

Pro Mindset (45:31)
Okay, so my point

is really simple it's the same thing It's the same thing the only difference is what you make in your mind So what I would do is Utilize the wisdom of your partner since he's played in more matches and he's had more success. He's older his pick his brain So hey, man, can I get permission to pick your brain for five? Yeah, go ahead man What what do you got and then like hey what what ask whatever questions you want to ask to get it out?

So you can be on the same level with him on situational awareness. But it's like, I'm inviting people to come attack me. I want that. Because I want it. You know what? That's how you get better. And that's how you show your partner you belong.

Right? So this is what I had. I had an athlete happen to be a cornerback. And I watched him melt have a meltdown on national TV and a game many, many moons ago. He came. He was that injured guy that came in and the quarterback of the opposing team threw it to his guy like five passes in a row. You never see that in football, not five in a row. And they marched like 75 yards down the field.

James (46:15)
Yeah, totally.

Pro Mindset (46:42)
and the kid never played another game after that. He lost the confidence of his coaches. He lost the confidence of his teammates. And it's like, that's what...