Mental Skills Coach Assists Team To National Championship Game- Roger Kitchen Builds Character
MADISON- Roger Kitchen Jr. pulls no punches when it comes to facing his past trials and tribulations and now wanting to help others to stray away from facing similar obstacles in their lives by offering not only experience, but elite training in the areas of mental skills. The 53-year old Kitchen is the founder and mental skills coach for Power Mental Performance, a company he began in 2017 and has since influenced hundreds of athletes, both individually and as members of a team from all sports.
“I share my life experiences of being what I call a ‘wild child’ as I lacked dedication and work ethic to be successful in both athletics and academics,” said Kitchen. “I skated through high school and college and threw away many opportunities. I tried all the typical sports, but none of those worked for me. In high school, I was cut from two baseball teams and one basketball team. My grades were too low to enter college and I was lucky as Kutztown University (Pennsylvania) was the only school that would talk to me. They admitted me with conditional admittance.”
While in college, Kitchen began lifting weights in a local gym and soon fell in love with the sport of powerlifting participating in a few competitive meets with some success. With what many times comes with life, Kitchen stopped lifting weights and the sport in general for 24 years. It wasn’t until 2016 did he return to the sport and soon used his own mental skills training to excel to where he participated in state and national meets. He owns the Alabama State Record in each of the individual lifts in powerlifting (squat- 435-pounds, bench press- 253, dead lift-501) and the total amount lift of 1,190 pounds while partaking in the master’s 50-54 age division at 198-pounds.
“I was my first client,” said Kitchen. “I was working for Marshall Space Flight Center and was mentored by Dr. Mat Park and Graham Betchart who is a skills coach. I soon opened my own business to help the wayward ‘kitchens’ of the world who regret some of their choices in life. As an Organization Development Specialist, I met a new employee who was a sports psychologist who was my first mental health coach. He got me back to where I wanted to be. After that job ended in 2019, I joined Guidehouse Inc., one of the world’s largest consulting firms with over 17-thousand employees. I work from home and outside of my work I host Power Mental Performance.”
Kitchen has been married to his wife, Sandi, for 27 years and they have two children ages 23 and 20. He was born in Harrisburg, Pa. and was with his family when they moved to the Huntsville area in 1995.
Through his personal business, Kitchen works with athletes ages middle school through college. He motivates the athletes to play hard without regrets. He consults through workshops, team sessions and individual sessions. He finds out their struggles and gets into their minds and emotions and then works with his clients as they can achieve optimal performance goals.
No matter male or female, each of the athletes have a common denominator according to Kitchen. “Yes, the fear of failing and making mistakes. They all have the fear of letting down their coaches, teams and families as I help them turn things around in a positive direction.”
Kitchen earned his bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications from Kutztown University in 1992 and in 2007 earned his master’s degree in Christian Management and Leadership from Trinity Theological Seminary. He collected an array of professional certifications, all of which have helped him to be able to assess the complex performance problems of athletes and develop unique and customized solutions for those individuals or teams. His passion is rich and deep to coach any athlete who wants to achieve greatness.
The recent Class 7A State Champion baseball team from Bob Jones utilized his training in both 2022 and 2023 and many of those players who attended those sessions with Kitchen were part of the 2024 state title team. Bob Jones head coach Jared Smith said, “Our players have used what Kitchen taught them through the years.”
For Kitchen, his skills coaching is also located on the national level as he’s been assisting the Tigers of Hampden-Sydney College (Va.) for three years and in the 2024 campaign, the No. 1 ranked squad played for the NCAA Div. III National Championship versus Trine (Ind.) University. The Tigers lost a heartbreaker 69-61 in the title game. “My mental skills coaching was fully engrained in their culture and that fact helped them win their first conference championship since 2007 (13th overall),” added Kitchen. “The team embraced the skills as the season was a unique experience for them and I feel I have a special relationship with the team.”
Relationships are a huge part of what Kitchen looks for in his work as a Mental Skills Coach as he constructs a pave into the deep psyche of each participant and builds trust of athlete-coach. “I want them to dream big and not have any regrets. I’ve been blessed to have repeat business,” added Kitchen.
Power Mental Performance can be found through Kitchen on both Instagram and Facebook or on the web at www.powermentalperformance.com. He can be contacted via phone at 256-698-6389.
