About Mettle
Mettle helps youth athletes, their parents, and their coaches make sense of the emotional side of sport—so kids can compete hard, stay steady, and still love the game.
We focus on performance readiness: how an athlete is really doing beneath the surface, not just what the scoreboard says.
Why Mettle
Youth sports have never been more organized, intense, or expensive.
But most families say the hardest part isn’t the logistics. It’s the emotional weight:
The pressure.
The expectations.
The quiet “Is this still good for them?”
We started Mettle because the kind of support pros get for this side of the game is still rare in youth sports. We want to change that—calmly, accessibly, and without turning kids into projects.
What we do
Mettle builds calm, practical supports for the people around an athlete: families, coaches, and clubs.
Our tools are designed to be:
simple enough to use on a busy weeknight
grounded in sport psychology research
focused on steadiness, not hype or fear
You’ll see this in things like:
the Performance Readiness Map, a quick snapshot of an athlete’s emotional strengths and blind spots
Mettle Coach, a simple check-in tool for staying connected between games
projects like Ready in 20 and Running Signature, which explore how we can support athletes around specific pressure moments and training patterns
Who we are
CEO & Co-founder, Mettle
Robert has spent more than 30 years building at the intersection of design, technology, and performance—across architecture, video games, and web products.
He started Mettle to bring thoughtful, pro-level support to youth athletes and their families, and to build systems that scale human coaching rather than replace it.
He also writes Raising Champions, a set of letters and tools for parents and coaches who care as much about what’s inside the jersey as what shows up on the stat sheet.
Robert Yang
Co-founder, Mettle & Partner, Momentum Labs
Alex is a sport psychologist and performance coach who has supported athletes and leaders across the NBA, NFL, MLB, college athletics, elite military units, and high-performing companies.
He co-founded Mettle and Momentum Labs to make evidence-based mental performance support more accessible to youth athletes and the people around them.
At Mettle, Alex leads the sport psychology framework and helps turn research into simple tools families and coaches can actually use.
Alex Auerbach
Our sport psychologist & CMPC partners
Momentum Labs is a sport psychology and performance practice led by Alex and a team of experienced clinicians and coaches.
Together, Mettle and Momentum Labs:
design assessments and tools based on real work with athletes
provide 1:1 and team coaching when deeper support is needed
pay particular attention to groups often underserved, including female athletes and youth athletes in high-pressure environments
We bring the product and systems.
They bring decades of on-the-ground expertise. Families and teams get both.
Momentum Labs
Who we’re here for
We build for:
Student athletes who want to compete hard without losing themselves
Parents who feel the weight of youth sports and want a calmer, clearer way to support their kids
Coaches and clubs who see the emotional side of performance every day and want better language, visibility, and systems to help