In this episode, we cover:
(0:00) Cat’s background as a former college volleyball player and current AU coach
(0:39) High school pressure, family circumstances, and the mental toll of chasing a scholarship
(1:54) College setback: breaking her spine and being forced to step away from volleyball
(3:36) Mental health in sports and helping athletes move on after mistakes
(5:46) What parents ask for most and how Cat lesson plans skill development
(7:11) Breaking skills down to fundamentals and adjusting when athletes get frustrated
(8:18) Traits college coaches look for: work ethic, leadership, and communication
(10:03) What Cat would change as a young athlete and lessons she now teaches her players
(12:01) Coaching story: helping a young athlete grow into a confident leader
(16:26) Training between lessons, accountability, and at-home development
In this conversation with Athletes Untapped, Elizabeth Kuhn, also known as Coach Cat, takes us through being a former standout college player turned Athlete’s Untapped Volleyball coach from Texas. She joins us to discuss how she helps athletes enhance their skills, confidence, mental toughness, and leadership. If you’ve ever watched a young volleyball player spiral after missing their serve, you know the game isn’t just technical; it’s mental. Coach Cat approaches these improvements by first building the athlete, then building the volleyball player.
Coach Cat’s Volleyball Journey: From Player Pressure to Purposeful Coaching
Coach Cat, out of College Station, TX, shared that her connection to volleyball goes way back, having her hand on a volleyball before she could probably speak. She describes her love for the thrill of the game, more specifically, the teamwork aspect. Although as she moved to high school, volleyball became more than a sport. She describes high school volleyball as feeling like she was put into survival mode. For many athletes, earning scholarships from colleges feels like the only path forward, making every mistake feel personal. This pressure brought widely recognized mental struggles for her, with this pressure often translating to perfectionism. She would get upset with herself when she messed up because she wanted to be the best. Now, as a coach, she feels her personal experiences help her empathize with athletes who feel like they have the whole world on their shoulders. She emphasizes that “I understand” isn’t always enough, and she can genuinely understand how to help athletes work through the pressure.
How Injuries Shaped Coach Cat’s Perspective as an Athlete and Coach
College was a major turning point in Coach Cat’s athletic career. Her plan for school was to play back row as a freshman player, but she ended up breaking her spine, halting her volleyball play completely. Even though she couldn’t play in the way she planned, she stayed connected to athletics by joining cheerleading. She connects her experience back to coaching; overcoming setbacks and adapting has helped her develop more patience and understanding for young athletes. She discusses how being aware that athletes all come from different environments and may have a lot going on beyond volleyball. To Coach Cat, this matters to coach the whole person, not just the player.
Volleyball and Mental Health: Coach Cat on Helping Athletes Recover After Mistakes
A major theme in the episode with Coach Cat is her ideas on how coaches can better support struggling athletes. Simple mistakes or performance not matching personal standards can take a toll on mental health, and protecting the emotional side of the sport matters. She explains that if she has to do developmental training in her professional life, she should also do it with athletes. For many kids, sports can feel like their entire world; sometimes their way out or their calm place. Her approach involves creating rapport and trust with athletes so they feel safe. The role of a coach is more than instruction; you can be a coach, mentor, and friend, and she believes you should be all three.
How Volleyball Lesson Plans Support Skill Development
When asked what parents want most from their coaches, Coach Cat says parents are most interested in skill building. Though she is also sure to build in reflective and mental components into every session. One of her key methods is a one-minute wall sit at the end of every lesson, where she asks her players what they learned or what they got the most out of. She finds that this routine is useful as a debrief, both for the athlete to reflect and for the parents to see that development isn’t solely technical. Her technical philosophy is consistent: breaking skills down to the bare bones. She starts with shuffling and footwork before moving into bigger skills. She finds that, even in advanced athletes, fundamentals are important because fixing small issues prevents frustration and injuries.
What College Coaches Look For: Work Ethic and Leadership
Cat’s advice for athletes who want to stand out amongst college coaches is centered around their work ethic and leadership. Her playbook is to show up early, warmed up and ready, staying late, communicating with your coach about weaknesses, being the loudest person on the court, helping teammates up, and leading with compassion. She describes mental toughness as a skill built every day: learning to let things go and keeping life outside of the court, off the court.
From Pressure to Leadership: A Real Athlete’s Story
Cat shares a story from her first full season coaching a winter league for boys, where one athlete reminded her of her younger self. He was highly talented, especially as a server, but extremely hard on himself and overly obsessed with winning. She worked with him on his leadership skills: keeping teammates focused, speaking up, and channeling intensity productively. Over the season, this athlete became the one calling teammates in, the loudest on the court, and a strong leader overall. This specific team entered a tournament ranked last, but ended up winning because they believed in themselves and supported each other. After the final win, the athlete fell to his knees crying; an emotional moment that reflected how powerful coaches can be and the importance of confidence and belief.
Why Training Before Lessons Builds Accountability and Better Habits
Cat emphasizes the importance of progress happening between sessions, not only during the lesson. She builds in: consistent communication and check-ins, accountability tools, a simple post-lesson plan, and a personal log to track their completion and improvement. Her reminder is blunt: if you cheat the work, you’re cheating nobody but you. Her coaching style works for youth volleyball players for many reasons. It’s most effective when coaching blends fundamentals and mechanics, confidence building, emotional awareness, leadership development, and accountability between sessions. Her story is an inspiring one, from pressure as a young athlete, major injuries, and coaching with patience, which directly shapes how she trains her athletes today: with high standards, but real, strong support.
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