SMBA 22 Consults Youth Mental Health Startup
SMBA '22 on night hike excursion with Sean Tuohey
Members of SMBA ‘22 spent a month this semester consulting with a growing youth mental health fitness company in San Diego, Intellectual Athlete, founded by Sean Tuohey.
Intellectual Athlete (IA) is a proactive mental health fitness company focusing on youth and the idea that resilience needs to be experienced. Through pressures of play and sports, IA teaches mindfulness, breathing, and self-regulation techniques to youth to better handle stress in their daily lives. Since launching, Intellectual Athlete has a few different segments of their business to facilitate the learning of intentional breathing and response to stress through differing activities, sports, and camps. Their current business segments include IA Plays (School-based program), IA Wanders, and IA Trains, all with the same goal of teaching mindfulness and self-regulation techniques to youth.
On the mission of IA, Claudia Cox (SMBA ‘22) said, “As a former collegiate athlete I highly value the skills that Intellectual Athlete is teaching youth, as mindfulness and self-regulation skills can be applied to all aspects of life challenges, and prioritizing mental health has been a hot topic of conversation over the past few years. I think that IA’s proactive focus on teaching these skills to all youth will provide kids the tools they need to tackle future stressors and challenges in all aspects of life that they will encounter inside and outside of sports.”
IA took SMBA students through a few of their excursions to get first hand experience on how the sessions work and to learn about some of the breathing techniques and mindfulness tools taught through them. The students then consulted with IA on the three excursion activities they participated in, a night hike, survival hike with a cold plunge, and parkour.
SMBA '22 pictured post cold plunge at Torrey Pines with IA Instructor Alec Wortman
The first excursion that SMBA ‘22 participated in was a night hike in Encinitas. The group met right before sun down, started off with learning a breathing technique that they would later use, and then set off for the hike. IA instructors lead the group through a variety of exercises to further induce and reduce stress, for example having tham spread out and walk further apart and then using a mindfulness session to practice their breathing and calm back down. When asked about the techniques learned through the excursion activities Haley Kachigan (SMBA ‘22) said, “The techniques that Intellectual Athlete introduces to the youth they work with are unique and will benefit the kids in the long run. I wish there were programs like this when I was younger because they are tactics and concepts I was not really introduced to until I was in college. “
The survival skills hike and cold plunge at Torrey Pines State Reserve was the second excursion activity that SMBA ‘22 participated in with IA. The hike ended with a cold plunge in the ocean where students were introduced to a scenario and tasked to “catch a fish”. The cold water plunge was a great way to practice breathing techniques to relax in the water.
Parkour was the last activity that students participated in with Intellectual Athlete. Students met at Balboa Park where they were greeted by a parkour expert who taught them foundational moves and skills to induce stress and fear. Breathing exercises and mindfulness tricks were then used to try to overcome mental blocks to complete the parkour moves that they were scared or nervous to complete.
SMBA '22 learning parkour at Balboa Park
After the final excursion activity with IA, SMBA ‘22 met with founder Sean Tuohey over breakfast at Caroline Seaside Cafe, to give feedback and discuss the business strategy of the company. On the experience working with IA and Sean, Sam Galaif (SMBA ‘22) said, “Consulting with Intellectual Athlete was one of the highlights of the semester. It was a fun and educational experience in being able to work with a local start-up looking to grow within San Diego in a sports adjacent industry. My favorite activity was the cold plunge we did at Torrey Pines because it challenged us to stay calm in a stressful environment, which is one of the key ideas behind IA’s product and service. Wrapping up with a round table style meeting with IA’s Founder was great because he was open to all of our ideas and truly believed that we could help the company grow.”
As issues revolving around mental health in the U.S. and its youth are becoming more and more apparent, SMBA ‘22 sees the need for IA, being proactive and teaching breathing and mindfulness techniques at a young age, allowing kids to better handle stress in their futures. SMBA ‘22 is looking forward to a continued relationship with Sean and Intellectual Athlete, and hoping for their success as they continue to grow.
