Inside the Lines: Protecting your peace with USWNT star Rose Lavelle

Whether it’s her fancy footwork or her penchant for karaoke, Lavelle’s a fan favorite, on and off the pitch. Here are just a handful of her career highlights before we dig into her Inside the Lines conversation:

🎓 Lavelle was a four-year starter at Wisconsin, helping the Badgers win the Big Ten tourney her sophomore year and earning All-American honors her senior year, making her the first Wisconsin player to receive the recognition since 1991.

🏆 Lavelle burst onto the international scene during the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, earning the Bronze Ball as the third-best player at the tourney, along with receiving FIFA FIFPRO World XI honors.

• Oh yeah, and she scored this truly iconic goal in the final vs. the Netherlands, sealing the World Cup trophy for the USWNT. Unforgettable.

💪 Taken No. 1 overall by the now-defunct Boston Breakers in the 2017 NWSL Draft, Lavelle’s been a mainstay in the league ever since, including winning the 2023 title with NJ/NY Gotham FC.

💰 Lavelle helped to advocate for the USWNT’s landmark 2022 collective bargaining agreement that finally achieved equal pay, a monumental moment she discusses in today’s episode. LFG.

Returning from injury, setting digital boundaries, and preparing for big games — Lavelle and host A.J. Andrews ran the gamut in today’s installment. But it all connects back to one central theme: staying present.

• Research indicates most people spend nearly 47 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they are doing. Sheesh.

• Here are some highlights from our conversation with Lavelle, including how she keeps her focus on the here and now.

Andrews: Was your injury a turning point to help you focus or really dive deeper into how you wanted to maintain mental health throughout sports?

Lavelle: Yeah, for sure. That was the thing that made me realize there's so much more that goes into it than just the physical side. I can be feeling physically the best I can, but if your brain’s not with you, then you're not going to have the best product that you can or be the best version of yourself.

Andrews: Confidence can come in waves. What are some tactics or strategies that you use to make sure you can come back and that you're still riding the confidence wave?

Lavelle: I would always pick two or three things in training that I wanted to focus on. And they were usually really simple things like making sure that my pass was clean and my touch was clean so that I'm focusing on the action that I'm doing and not the action ahead.

• I also work[ed] on compartmentalizing. So if one drill didn't go my way or I didn't do as well as I would have liked, now the next drill is a new phase of training. The other one’s behind me and this is a new chance to iron out the kinks and be better.

• And then I applied that same thing to the games. If I had a terrible first half, it's coming in at halftime and being like, that's behind me. It’s that ability to be a little more present and not harp on my mistakes as much.

Andrews: What is the best mental health advice that you've ever received?

Lavelle: My college coach would always tell me: “Don't get too high on your highs or too low on your lows.” I think that always helped me stay even-keeled and present, because I think sometimes it's hard to not let your low points really bring you down, or sometimes you get too high off a big success.

She’s not just a prolific goal scorer — Lavelle’s a mindfulness role model. Let these lessons from her Inside the Lines convo inspire opportunities to stay present in your own life.

❌📲 Log off. No, seriously — Lavelle discusses the boundaries she’s implemented when it comes to online habits, including being off social media throughout her first major tourney with the national team.

• You don’t need to delete Instagram or TikTok completely, but setting healthy guidelines — like using a screentime tracking app — will help you live in the here and now.

🧘 Find a routine you love. For Lavelle, that’s “drinking coffee, reading a book, or watching sports,” aka the ideal day. In all seriousness, finding habits and rituals you truly enjoy is a great way to stay grounded.

✅ Take it one step at a time. Just like Lavelle focusing on a specific skill in her training, breaking larger projects into smaller chunks can make the entire process more manageable, helping to build momentum along the way. Stay present and focus on the job at hand, not what’s coming down the line.

🎧 Listen to our complete conversation. Take a mindful moment and queue up the latest podcast episode for even more of Lavelle’s signature wit and insights.