Youth Sports Psychology Blog at The Ultimate Sports Parent

Recent Youth Sports Psychology Articles

Nurturing Kids’ Mental Game Strengths To Boost Performance

Your sports kids likely have mental game strengths--whether or not they’ve had any mental game training. It’s a good idea to identify and nurture these strengths. This will help your sports kids understand the value of having a strong mental game. Understanding the keys to a … [Read More...]

How to Motivate Talented Young Athletes Who are Early Bloomers

Young athletes who develop early or who possess raw talent often are their own worst enemies. Why? Things come too easy to them. They’re so used to picking things up quickly that they often aren’t open to working hard to learn. “You need to find ways to motivate and challenge … [Read More...]

3 Top Challenges for Sports Kids – And one Solution

Sports parents have lots of theories about why their kids aren’t performing well or enjoying youth sports. They say things like, “He’s really talented, but he stops trying after he makes mistakes. He needs to feel more secure.” Or: “Whenever the coach gives my daughter any … [Read More...]

Can Young Athletes Improve Faster with Playful Practice?

Being playful in sports--finding ways to laugh and joke around during practice--isn’t just for fun. It actually helps kids improve faster in sports. That’s the word from Gary Avischious, founder and head coach of coachingschool.org. Avischious learned about the science of play at … [Read More...]

How Perfectionism Stifles Young Athletes’ Confidence, Performance and Fun

Ever notice how kids in school often aim to get the right answer, at all costs? It’s as if their fear of giving the “wrong” answer disables their ability to be thoughtful, have in-depth conversations, or communicate creative ideas. But even though they likely have the ability … [Read More...]

Helping Young Athletes Embrace Mental Training

Here’s one former sports kid who has lots of good things to say about the benefits of mental training. “Dr. Patrick Cohn, I am so happy to see you exposing the true potential and impact of mental training with children. As a gymnast, I used mental training techniques day in and day … [Read More...]

Why Punishing Kids for Frustration After Mistakes Doesn’t Work

We receive almost daily questions from sports parents about how to help their athletes cope with frustration. For example, a sports parent, Gretchan, says that her 10-year-old baseball player gives up after one bad at-bat or one poor game. He simply checks out, she says. Many coaches … [Read More...]

Are Your Athletes Searching For Answers

Many parents and coaches contact us every day at Peak Performance Sports asking why their kids look like stars in practice, but fail to perform well in competition. Actually, failing to perform well in competition is the number one reason athletes seek me out. It’s a sign that your … [Read More...]