After Retiring From Professional Basketball, Kayla Mobley Writes Children’s Book to Teach Young Athletes the Mental Side of Sports
#NOLAZINE - For former professional basketball player Kayla Mobley, the game has always been about more than scoring points, making plays, and winning games. Now retired from professional basketball, Mobley is using her experience to help the next generation understand one of the most important parts of athletics: the mental game.
After stepping away from professional basketball and starting a girls travel basketball program, Mobley has expanded her impact with the release of her children’s book, “The Mind Game: Mya’s Quiet Moment.”
Published by Black-owned publishing company Williams Commerce, the book was created to introduce young athletes to the importance of developing their minds alongside their physical abilities.
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Throughout her basketball journey, Mobley experienced firsthand how confidence, discipline, focus, decision-making, and emotional control can affect an athlete’s performance. While young players spend countless hours learning how to shoot, dribble, pass, defend, and improve their conditioning, the psychological side of competition can sometimes receive far less attention.
Mobley wants to help change that.
From Professional Athlete to Mentor
Retirement did not end Mobley’s connection to basketball. Instead, it opened another chapter.
By launching a girls travel basketball program, she created an opportunity to work directly with young athletes and share lessons that extend beyond what happens on the scoreboard. Coaching and mentoring young players also gave her a closer look at some of the pressures children experience while competing.
Young athletes may have to learn how to respond to mistakes, handle frustration, remain confident after a difficult game, listen to coaching, make better decisions under pressure, and continue believing in themselves when things are not going their way.
Those lessons helped inspire “The Mind Game: Mya’s Quiet Moment.”
Rather than simply telling children to “be confident” or “stay focused,” the book gives younger readers a story designed to help them begin thinking about what happens mentally during competition.
Teaching Kids That Their Mind Is Part of Their Game
One of the messages behind Mobley’s book is simple: physical talent is only part of becoming an athlete.
A player can practice a jump shot hundreds of times, but still needs the confidence to take that shot during a game. A child can learn the fundamentals of basketball but must also learn how to respond after making a mistake. Athletes need to understand that one bad play, missed shot, turnover, or loss does not have to determine what happens next.
Those are skills that can benefit children both in sports and in everyday life.
Through The Mind Game, Mobley is helping introduce concepts such as focus, discipline, confidence, smarter decisions and preparing for a brighter future in a format children can understand.
The basketball theme gives young athletes something familiar to connect with, while the underlying message reaches beyond the court.
Creating an Impact Beyond Basketball
Mobley’s transition from professional athlete to coach, mentor and author represents a different way of continuing a sports legacy.
Instead of keeping the lessons she learned throughout her career to herself, she is passing them down to young players at an age when those lessons can help shape how they approach competition and personal development.
Her work also highlights the role former athletes can play after their professional careers end. Years spent competing at a high level can become valuable knowledge for children who are only beginning their journeys.
With her travel basketball program, Mobley can teach athletes directly. With a children’s book, that message has the potential to reach young people far beyond the players she personally coaches.
And through her partnership with Williams Commerce, a Black-owned publishing company, her story is also part of a growing movement of entrepreneurs, authors and creators developing educational resources that reflect their own experiences and communities.
For Kayla Mobley, basketball may have started the journey, but her next chapter is focused on helping children understand that becoming a stronger athlete begins with more than developing the body.
It also means developing the mind.
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