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- 💭 FCL Weekly Thought: 04/04/25
💭 FCL Weekly Thought: 04/04/25
Process over everything. The best feeder in D1. Recruiting. Mental game hacks 🧘🥍
Matt Dunn & Deemer Class
April 04, 2025
Happy Friday, and welcome to all new subscribers! If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe here to get stay in the loop.
Today’s email is one we try to embody on a daily basis — focus on the process. It’s a simple idea, yet challenging. We teach it to the players we coach, and we’re still learning it ourselves: fall in love with the process, over and over again.
Before we go any further today, can you please do us a quick favor and click on the answer below that best describes you? We want to better understand our audience so we can be sure to deliver the most appropriate content to you on these emails.
Thanks for being here—enjoy your Friday. ☕️
Matt & Deemer
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This Week at a Glance:
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WEEKLY THOUGHT
💭 Outcomes vs Process
Outcomes are byproducts of process.
Making a team, earning playing time, and getting recruited are a byproduct of being a great player. Being a great player is a byproduct of training and development.
Players control their training and development. We don’t control making a team, playing time, or getting recruited.
So we have two choices: focus on what we can control… or get distracted by what we can’t.
The more we obsess over outcomes, the more anxious we get.
You want to win the championship. Get recruited. Start every game. But the truth is: the harder you grip the outcome, the more it slips away.
Why? Because outcomes are lagging indicators. They’re affected by coaches, teammates, refs, weather, timing, luck. There are too many variables. Too many moving pieces.
No matter how badly you want it — you cannot control the result. But you can influence it.
And the best way to influence it… is to stop staring at it.
Pour your energy into the controllables.
Shift your energy to the inputs: Your reps, your habits, your effort, your mindset. That’s the leverage point. That’s where growth lives.
You can’t control if a coach plays you.
You can control how you show up to practice.
You can’t control what a ranking site says about you.
You can control how often you're getting reps outside of practice.
You can’t control who emails you back.
You can control how well you prepare before your next opportunity.
You can’t control if you win a game or not.
You can control the way you play that game to give your team the best chance to win.
When you focus on the uncontrollables, you play tight. You play scared.
When you focus on the controllables, you play free. You play present.
Much our anxieties and doubts come from putting too much pressure on ourselves to control things that we cannot.
Reframe your perspective to something more actionable — the process.
Be cautious of the validation trap.
Most players chase validation. The best players chase improvement.
They show up early. They stay late. They keep working — even when it’s boring, even when no one’s watching.
If you want to feel confident on game day… stack enough days where you did the work.
The process doesn’t guarantee the outcome, but it gives you the best shot. And it gives you peace of mind — because you know you’ve done your part.
Own your work. Let go of the rest. That’s where the freedom is.
This is a practice.
This isn’t easy. It’s a mindset — and like anything else, it takes practice.
Some days you’ll get caught chasing outcomes. That’s normal. The key is to catch yourself and come back to the process. Again and again.
The more you train your focus, the more freedom you’ll feel. And over time, the results tend to take care of themselves.
Best
– Coach Class and Coach Dunn
🚨 Bonus Video: Lebron James speaks with Steve Nash about appreciating the process (7:25 mark).
IN THE COMMUNITY
🆕 Webinar for Parents
We hosted performance coach, Ken Zeigler, last week on how parents can better help their kids navigate their athletic experience. This webinar comes with a PDF guide on “15 questions every parent faces”. It is available to all members of our community.
New webinar with Ken Zeigler includes PDF: “15 Questions every parent faces"
🔥 Recruiting Course
In addition to our coaches communities, we are making a big push in content for players & parents including our recruiting resources space in Circle. If you are looking for guidance in the recruiting process, check out our community.
Check out our new course on recruiting. Enjoy this free teaser on “Tips for Sending Emails” from the course!
🤝 High Schools on Our Circle Community
We are pumped to welcome Calvert Hall, the staff of the new men’s #1 high school team, on our Circle community!
Coaches, we still have all the great content for you as well with over 100 drills from top college coaches, full webinar recordings, a film breakdown library and more.
NEW MERCH DROP 🔥
UPCOMING EVENTS
Take a look at some of our events below.
BIC D3 SHOWCASE
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SOCIAL & CONTENT
Our free content on social media is core to who we are as a business. We love sharing content that you love seeing. Check out our latest podcast with FCL Athlete & Boston College attacker Mckenna Davis as well as fellow FCL Athlete & Clemson midfielder Natalie Shurtleff’s Shooting Workout + advice!