Meet Petra Richard of Petra Performance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Petra Richard

Hi Petra, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I remember in elementary school, as the girls would be huddled together during recess talking about fashion, hairstyles and gossip, I remember a boy came up to me and said, “do you want to race around the whole entire school?”. In full excitement, I said “lets do it”. I’d like to think and say I won the race, but I think we were thinking too much about how we wanted to puke after sprinting our hearts out.

This began my track and field journey. I was an athlete in High School and then got recruited by a coach to be on a track club team as a sprinter after graduating.

I then got into an accredited university in Canada for Kinesiology during that time was on multiple different club teams, with multiple coaches and began the student athlete journey. Being a student athlete was challenging, without support from parents I took on 2-3 jobs, volunteering with over 20 sport organizations to build up my coaching expertise in Canada and the United States.

I realized the journey to achieve a coaching career is not sustainable however it takes perseverance, tenaciousness, resilience and patience. There are not multiple opportunities out there for an athletics coach to survive, so I had to be creative, wise and patient in how I wanted to build my career. I worked multiple jobs and gained extra coaching experience even after graduation without being paid, and at times I even questioned this career as a female coach especially in a male dominated world. Why is my passion not sustainable and I am faced with setbacks? Then all I knew was that I wanted to support student athlete’s and educate them through their challenges similarly to what I went through as a student athlete. I had to reevaluate my coaching philosophy, my morals, priorities, values and innovation as a female coach. I had to surround myself with those who are like-minded and who support my endeavors. Since coaching is continuous, ever-changing and ever-learning, I had to overcome the fear of my dreams in what I wanted to accomplish and came to terms that the bigger you dream the larger the setbacks are to overcome.

In 2020, I noticed a huge demand for athletes to train during the pandemic, and I took the leap of faith and created my own business called Petra Performance. When taking this leap, did I know how to run a business? Absolutely not. All I knew was that I had the knowledge, expertise and 12 years of coaching experience. Since working under multiple sport organizations, I noticed athletes were either dropping out, injured, facing mental health issues or having negative experiences with their coaches. I even faced challenges exposing these issues and consequently was either let go of the job or faced backlash for standing up for athletes.

I wanted to change that.

I re-designed my business model to reflect the holistic athlete that includes their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. With the use of kinesiology research and sports education, I believe this is possible to support athletes not just on the track for improve performances but for life.
In the coaching world, I took me 10 years to build a foundational coaching experience unpaid or underpaid before bigger opportunities came (which is normal for most coaches). The biggest advice I could give is network with everyone in the sports industry of diverse positions and diverse sports. It all comes down to getting your foot in the door, who you know and building relationships. In Los Angeles, I emailed 30 coaches to network and received 1 response and that 1 response gave me an opportunity.

Since moving to the United States and gaining a Masters in Sport Psychology and Coaching student athlete development I have grown as an educator but also as a coach. In my recently first ever paid coaching job I was hired as an assistant track coach. Then during that season, I was promoted to become Head Coach for the next season at a private school while in the pursuit of growing my business.

When being in the pursuit of a career, take the leap of faith and don’t give up. Work hard for your passions, network and find those who support you through the challenges, then opportunities will come.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The most amount of challenges were beginning coaching when I was 17 years old and being the only female coach for years. Having challenges as a student athlete where I wanted to coach and give back to teach how to overcome the obstacles I went through when I did not have someone to educate me or guide me.

When I questioned coaching, I even questioned my business and if I wanted to coach anymore. I completely burnt out during the pandemic of being an athlete and coaching. In fact, I did not want anything to do with track and field. During my healing process, I then re introduced the sport in a positive light rather than the misconceptions that sport often puts on us.

I had to set my values straight in seeing sport differently, as enjoyable and not “burdensome”.

My business has had rollercoasters because of my health, and psychological distresses from burning out. I stopped training athletes for 1-2 years but recently reintroduced into growing my business.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Delivering sport psychology and speed development for track and field athletes including all sport athletes. What sets me apart from others is often coaches “dont have time” to take care of the athletes but my business makes sure athletes are supported as much as possible. I am most proud that I even started this business and took a leap of faith.

These are the values and what I am offering.

Logo Mission Statement:
There is freedom for athletes who run with wings in feeling mentally, physically and spiritually free. The 5 strands represent 5 pillars of resilience, perseverance, humility, belief, and purpose.

Coaching Philosophy: Making sure athletes have a holistic capacity to perform with the motivation, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to engage in sport. Athletes having a positive experience with sport throughout their life.
• Coaches remain respectful, ethical, & carry moral standards.
• Sportsmanship – Positive Leadership, CAT
• Athlete-center approach to coaching & Athlete-centered Model

Demonstrating a positive Coach to Athlete Relationship
 Trust
 Respect
 Belief
 Support
 Cooperation
 Communication
 Understanding
 Build Trust – build integrity through relationships while reconnecting positive experiences
 Unlock Potential – Seek gifts, talents, insights, challenge paradigms
 Gain education/knowledge – Growing in what you know, with new information you learn
 Positive Reinforcements – reassuring one’s behavior to feel confident and to grow
 Consistent Commitment – remaining committed to intrinsically grow to the “WHY” & “HOW”
 Execute Goals – Implement new knowledge, & actively work towards goals whether short term or long term

The Benefits of a strong coaching relationship
 Performance Enhancement – More responsive to instruction
 Psychological Well-being – Feelings of motivation and confidence
 Positive Experience with Sport – Inclusivity, belonging
 Athletic Excellence for the athlete and the coach – meeting the athletes and coaches needs

Exemplifying Positive Leadership:
 Facilitating – Fostering an inclusive, healthy environment
 Influence – Influencing positive behaviors
 Modeling – Modeling unique & proper instructions
 Purposeful – Positive Intentions, direction, goals

Benefits of Speed Development in ALL sports: Speed sessions
• Motor Learning Skills, – balance, coordination & Rhythmic skills
• Injury Prevention – location of center of mass, muscular symmetry
• Proper technique – improves bodily structure and posture
• Speed Reaction – hand eye coordination, spatial awareness, fast-twitch muscles
• Long term prevention of illnesses – arthritis, obesity, heart disease
Speed and Power development is in all sports.
Sprint Training has been one of the most underrated training programs for sports until recently coaches have been realizing power, speed and explosiveness is not only needed but required for high performance athletes.

Sports Consulting, Student-Athlete Mentorship Programs/Sessions
We provide mentorship programs to High School Student Athletes & Varsity Student Athletes.
• Stress-management skills – meditation practices, mindsets, vision boards
• Positive thinking/reinforcements – motivation, confidence building etc.
• Guidance in sport vs academics – scheduling, training etc.
• Developing opportunities – networks, resume, interns etc.
• Mental -Injury Recovery – Burnout, physical injuries, concussions etc.
• Spiritual Guidance – Purpose, meaning, vision, direction, value

Services:

Sport Psychology Sessions
Student Athlete Mentorship program
Speed and development program for private and team sessions.

What’s next?
I am looking forward to growing my business even more and applying my education and learning. My goal is to see if all these years, I can coach an athlete to the Olympics.

Pricing:

• Sport Psychology Session -$125
• Speed and Development – Session $150
• Student Athlete Mentorship Program per semester – $1425

Contact Info:

• Website: https://petraperformance6.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petraperformance_/