Written in Partnership with Victoria Kennedy
MSM Performance Academy, founded by Lucas Zeiler, and led by Co-CEO Kal Maadi, is excited to announce a new non-profit initiative, The MSM Foundation. Through the initiative’s new signature program, The Jordan Year Challenge, they hope to create a mass movement that will impact millions of lives for the better.
The goal of MSM Performance Academy is to offer mental and physical performance training and empower youth athletes, student-athletes, and professional athletes to become leaders. Leaders of themselves, their families, their team, and their community. MSM helps families guide their children to reach college and professional levels in the best way possible, teaching them the fundamentals to maintain sound minds and bodies while performing optimally, both physically and mentally.
With the initiative and program, MSM plans to expand its reach to help athletes, whether youth, collegiate, or professional, develop the physical and psychological traits of world-class athletes. The program is for elite players from all backgrounds who may feel as though they are not performing at their full potential and have aspirations of playing professionally and for national teams.
The ultimate goal of the challenge is to help athletes along five specific stages of development: Mental Frameworks, Habits and Routines, Preparatory and Response Strategies, Leadership, and “Flow State.” These are all tools and strategies that can be applied to both the player’s personal and in-game lives, as well as help guide their parents and families.
Impactful Guest Speakers
MSM will be bringing in leading experts and featured speakers, including world-class professional athletes and coaches sharing their stories of overcoming mental health battles to get to where they are now, as well as parents and friends of athletes that lost the mental health battle, advocating for awareness.
Participants can expect to hear impactful testimony and advice from the following speakers at the challenge:
- Charles Olivera, a professional UFC Fighter who was diagnosed with bone rheumatism and abnormal murmurs as a child. He went from being told he would be wheelchair-bound his whole life to being the UFC lightweight champion.
- Jill Ellis, two-time World Cup champion as head coach of the US Women’s National Soccer Team USWNT and current President of the San Diego Wave FC.
- Steve and Gina Meyer, the parents of Katie Meyer, a former Stanford goalie who committed suicide last year.
- Naomi Girma and Sierra Enge, Katie Meyer’s best friends whoare both currently playing professionally with San Diego Wave F.C.
- Brian Farber, a professional soccer player currently playing as a midfielder for the San Diego Sockers.
- Sean Totsch, a professional soccer player currently playing for Louisville City.
…. And more!
What to Expect from the Challenge
The MSM Foundation is passionate about helping families who want to help their child reach their college and professional-level dreams in the best possible way. They help both players and families who are ready for impactful change in their lives, and the curriculum for the seven-day challenge was designed to meet these specific goals.
The first day is for The Vision—what a vision is and why it’s important. Participants will get information and examples from professional athletes as well as an explanation of the challenge and how to craft their vision. This is the most exciting part of the challenge, as it gets players thinking about what they want to accomplish. They get permission to be ambitious and reach beyond their horizons.
The second day is about Self-Belief—understanding the nature of self-belief, where it comes from, and how we end up with a limited belief in ourselves. This day’s curriculum will include examples of professional athletes who used this method to overcome their challenges, as well as an explanation of the I Believe statement and how they can complete it. Believing in yourself is one of the most vital things to MSM, and day two will be all about encouraging this in the players.
The third day is about Self Awareness—understanding what self-awareness is, why it’s needed, and why they should become friends with their flaws. Players will get an explanation of how the conditional lessons work and get introduced to the “tough stuff” that they need to work on.
The fourth day is about Habits and Routines—understanding why habits and routines are essential, what a lifestyle is, and how to build one. Day four is about taking action and players will be introduced to a simple morning routine.
Day five is about Optimization, Essentialism, New Character, and Alter Ego—understanding how to optimize and accelerate everything, how to remove friction in their lives and become essential, and how it’s never too late to adopt new characteristics.
The sixth day is all about Leadership—understanding the stages of leadership and getting an introduction to the stages of leadership. This day will give players a sense of thinking beyond themselves, which gives them a sense of meaning and responsibility to themselves and their community.
The seventh and final day is about Goal Setting and Recapping the Challenge—understanding how to set measurable goals and how they now have a clear roadmap to success in the year to come. Having a specific action plan gives players the confidence to move forward on their own.
The Jordan Year Challenge includes a personalized course, interactive tools and strategies, direct access to coaching calls, and more. Athletes and their parents will be able to partake in The Jordan Year Challenge for just $23.
About MSM Academy
MSM Performance Academy, founded by Lucas Zeiler, and led by CEO Kal Maadi helps families guide their children to reach College and Professional levels in the best way possible; teaching them the fundamentals to maintain sound minds and bodies, while performing optimally, both physically and mentally. The goal for MSM is to offer mental and physical performance training and empower youth sports athletes, student-athletes, and professional athletes to become leaders of themselves. Through The MSM Foundation, the academy teaches players how to reach optimal levels of mental and physical performance. For more information, please visit
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