H i L E V E L
T H E H A M M A H S E R I E S
A Talk Story with Coach Brad
Your Greatest Strength
I’ll start with the thing nobody warns you about. The strength that makes you great is the first thing to turn on you under pressure. The steady one grips the plan too long. The aggressive one forces what isn’t there. The gift doesn’t leave — it clenches. And the very thing you built your game on becomes the thing that costs you the moment. Everything I coach points back to one job: keep that from happening, and when it does, open the strength back up.
Accept Love
We call the whole path Accept Love. It can sound soft. It isn’t. The work comes first. So do the work. Master the skills. Make it enjoyable. Keep moving until you feel the love — and you have felt it already, anywhere you gave yourself fully to something. I think of a surfer on dawn patrol: out before light, taking the beatings, sitting through the lulls. Then one wave stands up just right, and for ten seconds there is no effort at all — just the wave and the line. That ride is the love. The cold paddle-out is what bought it.
The Work
The work is just the next right thing, over and over. A hitter goes 0 for 3 and walks up for the fourth time. He doesn’t carry the three. If his strength is focus and the focus clenches into pressing, the fourth at-bat is lost before the pitch. So he lets it go. He sees this pitch, accepts the count, finishes his swing. One at-bat. The next right thing, until it is who you are.
Breath and Focus
When it tightens, you have two tools, and they are always with you. A tennis player double-faults, then steps to the line for the next serve. One slow breath, eyes on the strings. The body settles, the noise drops, and she is back in the point. Breath and focus. That is it — simple enough to reach for when everything else is loud. Breath brings the body back. Focus brings the moment back. Together they open the grip.
One coaching point on the breath itself. Always make it part of the solution for the energy you need. The inhale brings oxygen to the frontal lobe — that is your focus and your clarity. The exhale releases the tension, especially when you tighten your core and push the air out with a hard “taaaah.” That active exhale resets the body and the mind.
I call it Battle Breath. In through the nose for four, filling the lungs and bracing the core. Hold for two. Out hard through the mouth for six, core tight, a strong “taaaah.” Two or three cycles, especially when the pressure is on. It manages energy, sharpens focus, and builds resilience in any moment. The full method is in the Battle Breath document.
Know Your Tendency
Here is the trap, said plain. Under pressure, your greatest strength is the first thing to tighten. A steady paddler in seat two feels the crew fall behind and starts forcing the rate — his control, clenched into a grip. He feels it tighten, takes one breath, finds his catch again, and the rhythm returns. He did not lose the strength. He let it open back up. Know your tendency, and you can catch it early. That one beat of awareness is the whole game.
Hunter Pflueger (above) — 2018 and 2019 World Champion — on what it takes to own a race:
"Jamie Mitchell owned the Molokai race for 10 years, from 2002 to 2011. By no means do I compare myself to Jamie Mitchell — but for me, I needed to start strong and give myself a chance to own a race. When I found myself in first place after the start, I felt inspired to produce a dominant effort. Thanks to my training, and all the opportunities I've had to learn how to settle down in situations like this, I was able to breathe, focus on holding my position, and eventually own the race."
Capacity
Capacity is how much pressure you can hold before the strength clenches. Everyone has a limit today, and the work raises it. A young player can hold one inning before his focus frays into pressing. So that is where we train. One clean inning, then two, then a full game. Go to the edge, stay a beat longer than is comfortable, then recover. The edge moves. A season later he is standing in a moment he could not have stood in before, and not flinching.
Winning Culture
You do not carry this alone. A winning culture is Accept Love with a team around you, and it is what catches a person when their strength tightens. A crew finishes a hard race out of the money. Paddling back to the beach they are still calling each other up — naming what went right, owning what went wrong, laughing before the cooler is open. That is what it looks like when people feel safe, valued, and connected. The result was a loss. The good people were not. Show up that way day after day and the wins come too — but what you really end up with is good people who happen to be good at their game.
GED
Underneath all of it is GED — Gratitude, Excitement, Devotion — the ground you stand on when the pressure comes. Devotion is the paddler in the boat at 5 a.m. in November with no race in sight, showing up before the payoff arrives. Gratitude is being glad the boat is there to climb into — awareness and acceptance, and it sits at the top. Excitement is controlled passion, the energy he aims at the catch instead of the energy that runs him. Bruce Eliashof and I built it together and tested it, Mike Field gave it its name, and over the years it went into the coaching system. Three feelings, one foundation, every morning.
The Pillars
And the Pillars are the structure that holds the whole thing up, so pressure never lets the loudest voice win. Strong leadership, so there is direction and safety. Performance coaching, so the individual keeps growing. Individual accountability, so everyone owns their part. I have seen teams with all the talent in the world come apart without these, and ordinary teams hold together because they had them. Get the three right and the structure carries the culture.
Do the Work, and the Love Comes
So that is the talk. Your greatest strength will tighten under pressure — that is not a flaw, it is the price of a gift. Know it. Breathe. Let it open back up. Structure creates freedom. Accountability builds trust. Excellence comes from aloha. Do the work — and the love comes.
Summary
In working with teams I discovered the Battle Breath — breath, pause, explode — and it changes how athletes and performers handle pressure. This simple, powerful method floods the brain with oxygen exactly when stress tries to shut down your clearest thinking. When you feel yourself slipping into reactive mode — fourth down, a crucial presentation, any high-stakes moment — the Battle Breath is your reset button, moving you from survival mode back to peak performance.
The function of Accept Love goes far deeper than positive thinking. It is the capacity to receive guidance when you are struggling, to take feedback as fuel rather than criticism, and to recognize that strength often comes through connection, not isolation. When Maxie Baughan quietly coached me at my lowest moment, he was not just teaching technique — he was showing how accepting help becomes the bridge between where you are and where you are capable of going.
That capacity is what builds momentum that sustains itself. Real momentum is not built on fleeting inspiration or perfect conditions. It is built through daily practices that become automatic under pressure, through relationships that hold you up when motivation wavers, and through the understanding that your fire does not need to be created — it needs to be tended.
Whether you are leading a team, chasing a goal, or simply refusing to let circumstances define your potential, these principles meet you exactly where you are. The fire you are looking for is not missing. It has been there all along, waiting for you to give it the right conditions to burn bright.
Your breakthrough is not about finding something new. It is about accessing what you already possess.
Brad Yates · HiLevel Hawaii
Know Yourself. · Play Your Game. · Accept Love.
Banner Photo (top) Kalani Rivero, 26, surfing Teahupo'o (Chopes). Taking on one of the heaviest, most consequence-heavy waves on the planet. Fueled by an aerated respect with the right amount of fear and aliveness.