Why Confidence is a Youth-Sports Cure-All
Why is confidence so important in youth sports? Because it’s a cure-all. It’s that simple.
When kids feel confident, they don’t get scared. They don’t get worried or tense. They believe their skills are just as good as their competitors’. Confident athletes recover easily from mistakes. This leads them to perform to their best of their abilities.
What exactly is confidence?
It’s athletes’ belief in their own abilities to perform skills. Sometimes young athletes have more confidence in one skill, and less in another. For example, they might feel confident about their defensive skills but less sure about their offensive skills.
Given the power of confidence, it’s important that you as sports parents know how to help kids gain confidence. First, be sure to identify what makes your young athletes feel confident.
Most young athletes say confidence comes from a number of sources. For example, some kids say they know they’re physically talented and that boosts their confidence.
Some young athletes say confidence comes from past successes. Kids also say they derive confidence from their practice and training routines.
Other kids say that having access to the right equipment boosts their confidence. Positive feedback from coaches, parents and peers is also a confidence-booster.
If kids understand how they gain confidence, they’ll be more in control of improving their confidence—and their success in sports.
Want to learn more about how to improve kids’ confidence and your sports parenting skills? We recently posted a video series about confidence…
If you’re already an exclusive Kids’ Sports Psychology member, you can access the video series. You’ll also gain access to e-books that address these topics (and more):
- Growing From Adversity: How to Stay Confident after Failure (for sports kids)
- Building Self-Confidence in Sports—for Kids 10 and Under
- 7 Strategies to Help Sports Kids Stay Composed after Making Mistakes
But that’s not all. At Kids’ Sports Psychology, you can download more than 17 e-books—some written for parents and some specifically for sports kids.
You can also access audio and video programs and articles that help you and your young athletes get the most out of their physical talent.
Our mission is to help you help your athletes to perform with confidence and have more success in sports:
Sincerely,
Patrick Cohn, Ph.D. and Lisa Cohn
P.S. If you’re already a Kids’ Sports Psychology member, you can visit this page to view our audio series about confidence:
Confidence for Young Athletes Video Series
Confidence!
I am a parent going through issues with this. My son is very confident in his batting skills. This is a result of us going to the batting cages often. As a matter of fact he may be one of the best sluggers on the team DURING PRACTCE. During the games so far no hits and way behind on the pitches. I re-read the Ultimate athlete and we are presentlly working on the ability for my son to TRUST his confidence and swing away. Easily said than done. To break it done more we are working on him just seeing the ball and swing away. My son admitted he was trying to be perfect that he was running all 36 steps to a swing in his head. Needless to say I have rerouted his thinking proces to two simple steps… see the ball and watch the bat hit it. We have only had one game since than and nothing has changed. However, I am patient and I think we are on the right track because the Ultimate Sports Parent. I will check back with everyone when things improve.