Boosting Sports Kids’ Confidence with Repetition and Practice

Youth Sports Psychology

Repetition in Youth Sports To Build Confidence

Parents, do you know practice and repetition can boost young athletes’ confidence?

That’s the word from Dr. Vernon Williams, neurologist and medical director of the Kerlan-Jobe Center for Sports Neurology in Los Angeles.

“High quality repetition will help your brain learn patterns,” he says.

With lots of practice and repetition, the brain will internalize patterns and be able to predict earlier and earlier what will happen next, he says.

In other words, repetition can boost kids’ confidence by helping them react more quickly to what’s happening around them.

Here’s an example in baseball:

“The best hitters as pros don’t necessarily have the best reaction times, but have brains that can predict based on subtle clues,” he says.

“A baseball player may see a pitcher pitch over and over so the brain picks up how to recognize certain pitches,” he explains. “With practice, over time, he will recognize that this will be a curve ball or fast ball.”

Here at Kids’ Sports Psychology, we agree that practice and repetition have many benefits.

If kids practice skills over and over, their efforts become more “automatic.” This frees up athletes to play intuitively, without thinking too hard about each step.

Once kids get to the point where they can feel free to be intuitive, their game gets a big boost.

They take more risks and are more likely to grow as athletes.

At Kids’ Sports Psychology, sports parents and coaches can learn lots of ways to boost kids’ confidence. First of all, exclusive members can listen to our interview with Williams here:

Interview with Dr. Vernon Williams

What’s more, at Kids’ Sports Psychology, you’ll find plenty of eBooks, articles, audios and videos that will help ensure your sports kids make the most of their experience.


*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on iTunes
*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on Spotify


Help Young Athletes Boost Confidence in Sports!

The Ultimate Sports Parent

Every day, we receive letters from parents like you who want their children and teens to excel in sports. However, these parents can see fear, doubt, and frustration on the faces of their kids who struggle with the “inner” game of sports. But these parents have no idea how to help their kids overcome the worries, expectations and self-defeating thoughts that prevent their young athletes from feeling confident and successful.

You can benefit from our 15-plus years’ of work in sports psychology and sports parenting research. Now, you can tap into our secrets to sports success through a cutting-edge, 14-day program that helps young athletes overcome the top “mental game” challenges that sports parents face—and the top challenges young athletes face.

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