The Connecticut Sun are not only sitting atop the WNBA standings, but the team is offering an opportunity to take part in a groundbreaking 52-week program. The Connecticut Sun Mindset Lab, launched with the AI-powered mindset company Dailyhuman, has invited 5,000 athletes to take part in the program designed to enhance their personal and athletic growth. Participants have weekly interactive sessions in which they’ll gain information from Sun players Moriah Jefferson, Rachel Bonham and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, as well as assistant coaches Abi Olajuwon and Briann January.
“It’s been a really cool way to connect and get involved with our team,” said Morgan Tuck-Sawi, a former pro player and now assistant general manager and director of franchise development for the Sun.
The Mindset Lab sessions provide tailored coaching to help the young athletes develop skills they need in sport and in life. Through pre-recorded messages, the players share experience, provide insights and offer affirmations that will help the athletes build a sports mindset. Participants can access this from a home computer or cellphone.
“Moriah, Rachel and Olivia have been built into a Mindset Lab, which is a way to work on elevating how we think and feel about ourselves and what we’ve experienced in life,” said Kim Bach, co-founder and chief people officer at Dailyhuman. “Every single interaction with the lab is around a prompt or a question to reflect on. Each of those questions has been answered by one or more of our players. So, when a fan or a young athlete answers their own reflection, what comes back is the answer from a player. We’re teaching mindset through modeling and reflection.”
“My favorite part is the accessibility of it,” said Tuck-Sawi. “Our players had to take a little bit more time to be able to answer some of the questions. It allows the user on the other end to get a deeper insight. … With the technology, it can be more specific to the user.”
Users receive weekly prompts that are the same prompts that the players and coaches were given. “It’s a cool way that people can reflect for themselves and think about these prompts and affirmations as well as hearing how the players and coaches respond,” said Tuck-Sawi. “This is a way that people get a little bit more of a personal insight into our players, how their minds work and how they process things.”