Why Mental Reps Separate Average Athletes from Real Performers: The Hidden Advantage in the Back of the Line | FIT
Every young athlete thinks the front of the line is where the magic happens. It looks glamorous. It feels like status. And it feeds the ego just enough to make a kid believe that “going first” is the same thing as getting better. As a parent, I’m sure you take pride in your kid being in the front of the line.
But anyone who understands long-term athletic development — and I mean truly understands it at a systems level, not the surface-level Instagram-trainer version — knows a brutal truth:
The back of the line is where athletes grow the fastest.
Not because they move, but because they watch — if they have the maturity to do so.
And if that sounds too Zen, stick with me. Mental repetition is a legitimate training modality, backed by the same sports psychology principles that drive film study, visualization, and skill acquisition. It’s not fluff, it’s not motivational-poster nonsense. It’s performance science. And here’s the kicker, I’d bet you do it without even realizing what it is.
Mental Reps: The Repetition You Don’t See on the Stat Sheet
In motor learning, observation is a form of simulation.
When an athlete watches someone else perform a skill, the mirror neuron system in the brain fires the same neural pathways that would activate if they were performing the movement themselves. It’s not black magic — just basic neuroscience.
This means a 12-year-old standing in the back of the line watching a 17-year-old sprint, cut, or jump is literally rehearsing the movement internally — if they have the maturity to do so. They’re refining coordination patterns, predicting timing, storing information, and pre-loading solutions — if they have the maturity to do so.
That’s a competitive advantage most young athletes never cash in on because they’re too busy fidgeting, chatting, or checking the clock like they’ve got somewhere else — I call it kicking chickens or going on side quests. Why?! Because as a kid I liked playing Zelda and thought it’s a funny analogy. Either way “side quests” are a lack of maturity — which is why I’ll keep pushing that button.
Why Observational Learning Works So Well for Young Athletes
Younger athletes rarely have the reps, the context, or the movement vocabulary to understand their mistakes mid-set. But watching older athletes — especially skilled ones — provides three benefits:
1. They see the correct strategy before executing.
Not the highly edited highlight-reel version on IG/TikTok. Real bodies moving in real space, with real imperfections and real solutions.
2. They learn what not to do.
A flawed rep is a gift.
It teaches pattern recognition.
It lets a young athlete mentally tag an error before they ever make it — if they have the eyes and ears to see and hear it.
3. It speeds up the feedback loop.
Coaches provide external cues.
But mental reps allow athletes to create internal cues: timing, rhythm, sequencing.
Skill acquisition is faster when both are working.
If you as an athlete — in the back of the line — takes your first “rep” when it’s your turn, you’re already behind.
The TikTok Parallel: Learning by Watching Isn’t New
Every kid today watches TikToks and YouTube tutorials to learn something. Trick shots. Basketball moves. Dance choreographies. How to ollie a skateboard. How to hit a curveball. Whatever.
They’ll spend an hour replaying a video to sharpen a detail.
But watching the older athletes in front of you in a drill line?
Suddenly that’s “boring.”
This is the great contradiction of Gen Z athletes:
They believe in learning by watching… until they’re asked to apply it in the weight room/field or court.
What they don’t realize is that the two are identical neurologically:
TikTok = mental reps
YouTube = mental reps
Watching the 17-year-old execute a shuffle-cut-sprint = mental reps
Watching the mistakes of the kid in front of them = mental reps
The platform doesn’t matter.
The brain doesn’t care whether the stimulus comes from an iPhone or the athlete in front of them. What matters is whether the athlete is paying attention.
The Back of the Line Is a Classroom
In the FIT system, everything is multi-planar, intentional, and progression-based. Drills are built on principles of motor learning, rhythm, elasticity, and deceleration mechanics.
That means every rep you see teaches you something:
Where the hips should be on a cut
The angle of the shin
The timing of the plant
The relationship between torso posture and center of mass
How stiffness and relaxation alternate
How the ground reaction forces flow through the system
But only if you’re watching.
A young athlete stepping into a drill cold — without observing — is basically taking an exam without ever seeing the study guide. Sure, they might get a few answers right, but the mistakes will pile up. And the motor learning process, instead of being smooth and layered, becomes choppy and inefficient.
Mistakes Decrease When Mental Reps Increase
One of the biggest separators between athletes who progress quickly and athletes who stumble for months is this:
Athletes who watch learn twice — once visually and once physically.
Athletes who don’t watch learn once — and usually slowly.
Younger athletes don’t always realize this, but their errors often come from mis-sequencing, not lack of effort. Their brain simply didn’t have the blueprint yet. Observational learning supplies that blueprint before their feet ever hit the ground.
It’s the difference between rehearsed execution and blind guessing.
Older Athletes Become “Living YouTube Tutorials”
Every high-level athlete I’ve coached has something in common: they studied other players relentlessly.
College players don’t stand in line checking their shoelaces.
Pros don’t stand around daydreaming.
They study the rep happening in front of them.
They anticipate.
They pull details from movement like a musician listening for rhythm.
Young athletes need that same mindset.
If you want to move like the older athlete, jump like them, accelerate like them, or cut like them, the best starting point is painfully simple:
Watch them.
Every rep.
Every mistake.
Every correction.
They’re your YouTube channel right there in front of you.
Mental Reps Are Part of FIT-LTAD
In the FIT-LTAD model, we teach young athletes that athletic development is not just physical reps. It’s:
Motor pattern recognition
Neuromuscular sequencing
Anticipatory control
Understanding timing
Becoming fluent in movement
Mental reps sharpen all of these without any wear-and-tear on the joints. It’s free performance enhancement.
And for young athletes, especially ages 9–14, the neural plasticity window is massive. Their brains absorb movement patterns faster than any other time in their life.
Why waste that by staring at the floor?
If you’re ready to stop staring at the floor and get in the game — click the link here to get started!