Emily Cole Of The Player’s Plate On How Athletes Optimize Their Mind & Body For Peak Performance

An Interview With Maria Angelova

If you never choose that big goal, it can’t happen. Having that big picture vision will guide all your actions throughout every hour of every day. You’d be surprised by how incredibly these tiny actions add up over time.

Asa part of our series about “How Athletes Optimize Their Mind & Body For Peak Performance”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily Cole.

Emily Cole, author of The Players Plate, All-American track athlete, social media creator, and health advocate whose passion for sports nutrition began after a near-fatal brush with hyponatremia at age 17. This condition, where one becomes dangerously low in sodium due to overhydration, caused her to understand that fueling for athletic performance is much more intricate than many people realize. Connect with her on Instagram.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is a great honor. Our readers would love to learn more about your personal background. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Looking back, I know that everything I’ve been able to do is because of the support my family gives me. My two older sisters and I are similar, but unique in our own ways. As a young girl, it was like I got to see two different versions of myself go out into the world, and then pick and choose what I wanted to do. One of my sisters is now a country music artist in Nashville, and the other works in finance and has lived in both New York and London. Obviously with me focusing on running and nutrition, all of our paths are divergent, but what’s cool is how we all started our lives largely centered around athletics.

I think because my dad didn’t get a boy, he encouraged us to play sports even more. My sisters are older; by eight and nine years, so growing up it was like having two extra parents. Now though, they’re my best friends. Having them to look up to always set the standard high for anything I took part in. We grew up in a suburb of Houston Texas, and went to a large 6a Texas high school. There, I played volleyball, basketball, cross country and track. I was really proud of that because there are so many incredible athletes there and it’s really hard to make those varsity squads.

I never felt any pressure from my parents regarding what sports they wanted me to play or grades they needed me to get, and this really allowed me to feel like everything I was chasing after was fully of my own accord. I’m infinitely grateful for the support and love I get from my family — we are such a tight unit and

What or who inspired you to pursue your career as a high level professional athlete? We’d love to hear the story.

I would definitely say both of my sisters. As I mentioned before, they are always striving for excellence in the avenues that they undertake. My whole life, I’ve essentially just been trying to keep up with them, and I love it. It’s never felt competitive in an unhealthy way. We all know we are a part of each others success and love to celebrate eachother. I know that running 60 miles a week and racing the steeplechase would be considered crazy to most people, but so would the hours and dedication that both of my sisters put into their craft. They’re incredible role models for me that just happen to double as my best friends.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

My sister, Julia, who is a musician, has helped me a lot with social media. She’s taught me a lot about creating content, and what to do when it isn’t engaging new followers. Being a social media influencer isn’t why she went into music, but it’s become essential for artists. When it came to me promoting my Name, Image and Likenesss (NIL), I really looked to her for guidance. It’s been a lot of fun creating videos and sharing my passion for sports nutrition with my followers, but she’s helped me to always make sure I keep my identity and self worth separate from how my pages are doing. The media world can be very dangerous for mental health, and I’m grateful I’ve been lucky to have such a positive experience with it.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your sports career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?

It’s definitely not funny, but I actually wrote my introduction in my new book about a big mistake I made that I see a lot of other young athletes making. Many people think that eating super healthy food is how they are going to achieve their goals as an athlete. But what society tells us is “healthy” doesn’t come even close to fitting the needs of a high level athlete. I made that mistake by drinking too much water and not eating enough sodium — and it was extremely dangerous. I went into a coma for two days, and almost lost my life due to this condition called hyponatremia. My passion for writing the players plate definitely came from learning that lesson. Having survived, I’m actually grateful i had that experience — so i can use my position to help other athletes have to endure going through it themselves.

What advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your career?

Surround yourself with people that are driven in the same ways as you. For me, that’s my family. When the people around you have passion and love for the work they are doing, it keeps you motivated to continue pursuing your own passions as well. If you want to be a great athlete, surrounding yourself with other athletes, especially within your sport, can help you all accomplish those goals together. Everything is easier with a team.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

Well my book, The Player’s Plate, releases in October and I’m very excited to share it with the world. Additionally though, I’m super excited that I’ve started a podcast called The Player’s Platform, with Kristi Dosh. She’s an incredible woman who has worked with ESPN and writes for Forbes, and is basically the queen of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). She has great connections within the whole world of NIL and helps students understand the new laws that allow them to profit off of their NIL.

Kristi has been an incredible role model for me and doing the podcast together is so cool. She has the professional experience and I have the personal experience from eing a student athlete having taken advantage of the NIL opportunities myself. We’ll be interviewing all the top athletes that are making a brand and a name for themselves during this era of the new NIL laws. We’ll cover their stories and their lives, but also their brands and how they are ulitizing NIL. Mainly, we will be giving these players a platform to speak about a cause they are passionate about, or something they want to bring more attention to.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. As an athlete, you often face high stakes situations that involve a lot of pressure. Most of us tend to wither in the face of such pressure and stress. Can you share with our readers 3 or 4 strategies that you use to optimize your mind for peak performance before high pressure, high stress situations?

This is a great question and finding ways to deal with pressure is something that I have really had to embrace and work through. I had figured it out by the end of high school, and then had to refigure it out once I got to Duke. For me, it’s all about finding calm in the face of pressure. And it can be really hard with a sport like track, because you have such an incredibly small window of time to prove the months and years of hard work that you’ve put into it. And so many variables can come into play in that small moment. This can be really anxiety inducing and nerve racking, especially for younger athletes.

Here are 4 strategies I use to find calm:

1. Just breathe.

This past track season when I was able to do really well, something that I really embraced was to find calm. I actually ordered these little temporary tattoos that I would put on my wrist to remind myself to be grounded in the moment. One of them said, “Just breathe. ” It reminded me to take deep breaths, whether that’s in the form of meditation or just consciously taking deep belly breaths for a couple of minutes.

2. Listen to music.

If I do listen to music with my races, I’ll listen to really chill soft or slow music. I know this is atypical, but it really helps calm me down.

3. Journal.

Before a race, I will journal about all the training that I’ve done up until that point, and manifest feelings of confidence. I’ll write down like phrases over and over again, focusing on what I believe in like, “I am strong, I am capable, I will be an All-American” I’ll write these things even if I don’t fully believe it because the more you focus on those thoughts, the more they’ll become reality.

4. Visualize success.

I read a book called ten minute toughness this year that was fantastic for helping athletes find the right mindset. It really helped me understand that visualizing my success was key to accomplishing my dreams. Jason selk shared a lot of different practices and techniques that I could go through to help me figure out how to step on the line calm and confident and give my best performance.

Do you use any special or particular breathing techniques to help optimize yourself?

I love to consciously breathe through my nose as much as possible. Even when working out, if you’re able to do this, it is greatly beneficial for your performance and recovery.

Do you have a special technique to develop a strong focus, and clear away distractions?

I’m super passionate about sleep techniques. I first got inspired after watching a TED talk on sleep. The talk shared how significant the difference is even just from six to eight hours. When you go down to six hours of sleep from 8 even for just one night, your immunity is decreased by 50%. Not only that, but the quality of your sleep is affected as well.

For me, avoiding distractions and stepping on that line calm and confident is so dependent on sleep. Sleep is akin to the most powerful, legal, performance enhancing drug you can use. It’s essential athletes get on a consisten routine.I have a chapter in my book about how to optimize your nutrition for sleep too.

How about your body? Can you share a few strategies that you use to optimize your body for peak performance?

I’m really intentional about muscle recovery. I visit my trainers a lot to work on this. Cupping can be painful, but it really works. I also use recovery leg sleeves everyday and those make a huge difference. Overall, though, the biggest pillars for me to achieve peak performance have been sleep and nutrition.

These ideas are excellent, but for most of us in order for them to become integrated into our lives and really put them to use, we have to turn them into habits and make them become ‘second nature’. Has this been true in your life? How have habits played a role in your success?

Habits have played a huge role in my success. There’s a professional athlete named Colleen Quigley, who also ran steeplechase. She is very big on social media, and she has posted a lot about using a habit tracker. Essentially, she created a grid where she lists out all optimal things you can do in a day. Then there is a row for each day, where you check off the boxes for each habit column you did that day. It’s a really great way to see your progress. Maybe there is one thing on your list that you’ve only checked off once in two weeks. Seeing that can help you change your behavior.