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Forged Youth | Legacy Within
Forged Youth: Legacy Within
What if the conversations you needed most as a teen athlete were finally being had, openly, honestly, and with purpose?
Forged Youth: Legacy Within is the podcast that equips youth athletes (ages 12–24), their parents, and coaches with the mental tools, emotional resilience, and life insight to rise above the noise and grow into strong, intentional human beings.
Each episode features real, raw conversations with professional athletes, CEOs, and cultural leaders sharing what they wish they knew when they were younger. We unpack topics like mental grit, overcoming adversity, identity beyond sport, and building a life of purpose, even when things fall apart.
Hosted by former elite athlete and mental health advocate Mariel Nichole Anderson, this podcast is your companion through the messy middle of chasing big dreams, and becoming someone even bigger in the process.
Because you weren’t born to just survive sport. You were made to be forged by it.
Forged Youth | Legacy Within
Ep. 26 - From Survival Mode to Freedom: Why So Many High Performers Never Feel at Ease with Adrien Plavsic
From the outside, Adrien Plavsic had everything young athletes dream of: a long NHL career, Olympic success, and years competing at the highest levels of professional hockey. But internally, his experience was very different. In this episode, Adrien opens up about what it was really like to live in constant survival mode while performing at an elite level.
He shares how fear quietly drove his training, games, and even recovery, keeping his nervous system stuck on high alert. Despite appearing confident and composed, Adrien describes feeling trapped in his own head, disconnected from the moments he had worked his entire life to reach. Sleepless nights, racing thoughts, and an inability to truly relax turned the dream into something that felt more like a nightmare.
Together, this conversation explores the difference between performing from fear versus performing from presence, why so many driven athletes miss their peak experiences, and how over-control can actually block learning, growth, and freedom. Adrien reflects on his journey of rewiring his mind and nervous system, redefining his relationship with pressure, mistakes, self-awareness and why learning how to be, not just do, is essential for sustainable excellence.
This episode is a powerful listen for athletes, parents, and coaches who want more than just results who want performance that feels grounded, free, and fully alive.
Adrien Plavsic is a former NHL player who spent eight seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks. A second-round draft pick in 1988, he won an Olympic silver medal with Team Canada in 1992 and later played many years in Switzerland’s top professional league. Today, he works as a Certified Mental Performance Coach, helping athletes regulate their nervous systems, reconnect with presence, and build lives rooted in freedom, excellence, and meaning.
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