YOUNG ELITE ATHLETES
Supporting elite athletes as they balance high-level competition, academics, and personal responsibilities while managing pressure, strengthening relationships, and preparing for life beyond sport
Initiative collaborator
Generation Next Project
Change Your Course uses mental performance to help young athletes develop skills that extend beyond the golf course. Through golf-based experiences involving pressure, mistakes, uncertainty, decision-making, and adversity, participants practice confidence, visualization, resilience, breathing, and pressure management. By connecting challenges on the course with academic setbacks, relationships, and life transitions, Change Your Course helps athletes apply these tools in competition and prepare for what comes next.
Initiative collaborator
Mindflow
Building on its support for teen athletes, Mindflow provides mental health and sport psychology services to young elite athletes through a team of nearly 50 licensed psychologists, each with a background in sports. Its extensive work with universities gives the team a strong understanding of the unique pressures and needs of collegiate athletes.
Initiative collaborator
NAMI Texas
NAMI Texas supports young elite athletes through a two-part approach that addresses both athletes and their broader support systems. NAMI Connection Support Groups offer young adults ages 18 and older a free, confidential space to process performance anxiety, burnout, and mental health challenges alongside peers. NAMI Basics equips parents, coaches, and athletic staff with tools to distinguish routine sports stress from emerging mental health concerns, guide appropriate care, and foster supportive environments.
Initiative collaborator
Thinkbettergolf
Through individual and group sport psychology services, young elite athletes develop a mental skills toolbox designed to help them think, feel, and play better. Services are available virtually, in person throughout the Baltimore-Washington region, and on-site at events. Drawing on more than 15 years of research, teaching, and coaching, along with experience competing in Division I and national-level mid amateur golf, this approach supports athletes in strengthening their well-being, confidence, and performance.
Initiative collaborator
The Defensive Line
The Defensive Line supports young elite athletes by addressing the mental health challenges associated with high performance, identity, injury, transition, and the pressure to succeed. Founded by Chris and Martha Thomas alongside their son, NFL athlete Solomon Thomas, the organization combines lived experience with evidence-informed education to create authentic conversations that resonate with athletes. Through presentations, workshops, team trainings, and facilitated discussions, The Defensive Line helps athletes recognize warning signs of strength. It also equips coaches, athletic staff, parents, and administrators to foster psychologically safe environments where athletes know their value extends far beyond their performance.
Initiative collaborator
The Hidden Opponent
The Hidden Opponent (THO) develops mental health leadership among high school and collegiate student-athletes through education, advocacy, and support. Its Campus Captains program offers a nine-month experience during the academic year that combines expert-led mental health education, mentor-guided advocacy activities, and a supportive community. Participants strengthen their ability to support themselves and their peers while becoming agents of change who view seeking and offering help as acts of leadership.
Initiative collaborator
The Mulligan Foundation
The Mulligan Foundation supports young elite golfers through a structured, performance-focused program that strengthens the person behind the athlete. From the later stages of junior golf through college, participants engage in individual assessments, guided exercises, team workshops, small-group conversations, and optional one-on-one support. Programming addresses identity, confidence, pressure management, emotional regulation, leadership, relationships, and life transitions. By collaborating with coaches, athletic departments, mental health professionals, and former professional golfers, the foundation creates an environment where athletes can speak openly, access additional support when needed, navigate setbacks in healthier ways, and build an identity that remains steady through change.
Initiative collaborator
Valiant Sports Society
Valiant Sports Society supports young elite athletes ages 15-23 through educational content created for athletes and the adults who support them. Expert-led resources, athlete stories, podcast conversations, and practical tools address performance pressure, identity, recruiting, injury, social media, burnout, resilience, and transitions into and beyond high-level competition. By elevating the experiences of current and former athletes, Valiant helps young people recognize that these challenges are shared and can be discussed openly. It also helps parents adapt their role as athletes gain independence, supporting young people in pursuing excellence without losing their well-being, identity, or joy in sport.