Training the Mind, Building Leaders: Tomorrow’s Leaders Spring Workshop Recap

Sunday, March 29, Beat the Streets LA kicked off our spring workshops for the 2025–2026 Tomorrow’s Leaders cohort. With our first clinic back following the CIF Championships, we focused on building a strong competitive mindset.

This session featured special guests from Intrinsic First, a training program centered on mindset and performance, led by CEO Jimmy Karam, Academic Program Director of Sport Psychology at National University. The clinic focused on helping athletes improve how they think and respond in competition and train their mindset with the same intention as their physical skills.

Karam was joined by an experienced team, including Dr. Sharon Zhao, Tabetha Johnson, Tyree Harris, and Casey Alcaraz. Dr. Zhao, who teaches at La Sierra University, brings over 11 years of experience in psychology and has spent the past two years specializing in sport psychology.

The clinic began with an icebreaker activity, allowing athletes to introduce themselves and build connections, while also giving the clinicians an opportunity to get to know the group. From there, Karam guided athletes through a breathing exercise to help them focus and become present for the workshop.

Throughout the session, athletes worked on owning what’s in their control and being precise in how they perform. They worked through scenario-based exercises to identify what was within their control and what was not in each situation. This transitioned into a deeper discussion about mindset in competition, where Karam reinforced that preparation, effort, and response are always within their control.

Athletes then practiced breathing and visualization techniques before writing detailed scripts outlining how they would execute specific techniques step by step. They brought these scripts to the mat, where coaches and clinicians evaluated their execution and provided feedback. This process encouraged athletes to learn from one another, recognize missing elements, and refine both their technique and thought process.

The clinic concluded with a group reflection, where athletes shared what they learned and how they plan to apply these tools moving forward. A key takeaway was the importance of scripting the mind and training thoughts with the same level of detail and repetition used to develop physical skills.

To close out the day, athletes transitioned into the second half of the workshop and trained on the mat with Beat the Streets LA Director of Development Carl Fronhofer, who also coaches our Oxnard program. Fronhofer brings over 30 years of wrestling experience as both an athlete and coach. Throughout his coaching career, he has helped develop seven Division I All-Americans, one National Champion, and multiple NCAA qualifiers and conference champions.

He was joined on the mat by Beat the Streets LA Executive Director and Downtown Academy coach Yero Washington, a 2x All-American, USA National Team member and former collegiate coach at the University of Northern Iowa and Columbia University.

Together, they focused on leg laces, gut wrenches, tilts, and maintaining strong positioning on the mat, emphasizing how to stay flat and make it difficult for opponents to create scoring opportunities.

We are incredibly grateful to our guest speakers and coaches for sharing their time and expertise. Thank you as well to our student-athletes and parents—your continued support helps us provide opportunities that prepare our students to become strong, confident leaders of tomorrow.