Travis Snider Is Helping the Next Generation Win the Mental Game

Travis Snider once roamed the outfield at Rogers Centre, hailed as a top Toronto Blue Jays prospect with a big bat and even bigger expectations. But today, he’s making his biggest impact off the field—guiding the next generation of athletes through the mental and emotional grind of competitive sports.

Now the CEO of 3A Athletics, Snider sat down with Jay Bird Watching Podcast to discuss his powerful journey from Major Leaguer to mental health advocate, sharing how he's helping young athletes, their parents, and coaches approach sports with a deeper sense of purpose and emotional awareness.

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More Than the Numbers: Snider’s Message to Young Athletes

Snider knows firsthand how chasing numbers—home runs, batting average, or prospect rankings—can distort an athlete’s self-worth. During the interview, he opened up about tying his identity to on-field performance, and how that narrow mindset haunted him through the highs and lows of his MLB journey.

“The hardest thing is being a kid who builds their whole sense of value around stats,” Snider said. “But your worth isn’t in your numbers—it’s in how you show up, grow, and respond to adversity.”

He encourages young players to resist turning baseball into their identity. Instead, they should embrace it as a vehicle for learning life skills—resilience, focus, leadership—that will outlast their playing days.

Journaling for Growth: A Game-Changer for Emotional Intelligence

At the core of Snider’s work with 3A Athletics is a concept most athletes rarely touch: journaling.

His youth-focused journal isn’t about recording box scores—it’s designed to help athletes reflect on mindset, identity, confidence, and emotional triggers. With pages tailored to both conscious and subconscious growth, young players can explore how frustration, pressure, and even self-talk impact their ability to perform and enjoy the game.

“Athletes often don’t realize how much a bad BP session can sabotage a game. But through journaling, you start seeing patterns,” he said. “Then you learn to respond—not just react.”

For Snider, journaling became his gateway to mental clarity late in his career, especially after confronting deeper emotional challenges. It’s now a cornerstone of what he teaches through his company.

Coaching the Parents, Too: Building Better Sideline Support

Snider emphasized that athlete development isn’t just a kid’s journey—it’s a family one. He highlighted the importance of helping parents recognize how their own sports experiences and reactions shape their child’s self-talk.

“Your voice as a parent becomes their inner critic—or their inner coach,” he said. “We have to model the emotional control and curiosity we want them to show.”

3A Athletics offers parent-specific guidebooks that tackle the infamous “car ride home,” expectations around youth stardom, and how to support young athletes without overwhelming them with judgment.

He challenges parents to ask themselves: How did your parents show up in your sports journey? How much of that are you repeating?

3A Athletics: A New Model for Sports Mentorship

Through 3A Athletics, Snider is building a modern approach to athlete development—one where mental health, emotional growth, and healthy relationships are as important as drills and reps.

The company offers:

• 📘 Athlete Journals for self-reflection and goal-setting

• 🤝 Parent and Coach Guidebooks to reshape sideline interactions

• 🗣️ Workshops and Seminars to deepen communication within teams and families

At its heart, the mission is simple: help kids become better athletes by first helping them become more self-aware, confident human beings.

Final Thoughts: The Comeback Is Emotional, Not Just Physical

Snider’s story is one of redemption—not from physical injury or stat slumps, but from the internal battles many athletes never talk about. And now, he's using that journey to give others the tools he wishes he had earlier in his career.

“We all tell kids to grind—but what if we taught them to grow?”

That’s the question Snider and 3A Athletics are answering, one journal, one conversation, and one breakthrough at a time.