abusive coaches youth sports

Help Your Athletes Benefit From Criticism by Coaches

Learning from Criticism

How Athletes Can Deal with Coach Criticism It can be hard for your young athletes to take criticism productively from coaches. Kids often don’t interpret communication from coaches correctly because of the delivery or the emotion with which the feedback is conveyed. When their coaches criticize young athletes, the kids … Read Sport Psychology Tip

When Coaches or Teammates Hurt Kids’ Confidence

Sports Kids Confidence

How to Help your Athlete have Self-Confidence A volleyball player wrote us recently: “Volleyball just started up again a few weeks ago and I was very excited. My coach told me I would probably play varsity by our first game, I got to go with to tournaments and team camps … Read Sport Psychology Tip

When Sports Kids Are Bullied By Coaches

Ultimate Sports Parent Podcast

How to Deal With Bully Coaches Do your sports children complain about being bullied, teased, or intimidated by coaches? One sports mom recently told us her own story about how much a bully coach hurt her son… “Some of it was outright verbal, mental, emotional abuse. And a lot of … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Protecting Sports Kids From Predators, Bullies and Other Dangers

Ultimate Sports Parent Podcast

How Parents Can Help Sports Kids Stay Safe It’s hard to read the stories about members of the USA Gymnastics Team being harassed and abused by the team’s doctor. And it’s easy to worry about such dangers. Kids who are bullied, abused or harassed as sports kids can suffer throughout … Read Sport Psychology Tip

College Sports and Bully Coaches: Rutgers’ Rice Fired

The Power of Pregame Visualization

Staying Tough in The Face of Bully Coaches We’ve warned you over and over that it’s critical to protect your young athletes from bullying in youth sports. The firing this week of Mike Rice, Rutgers basketball coach, for physically kicking players, throwing balls at them, and verbally abusing them is … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Dealing With Coaches Who Humiliate Sports Kids

Youth Sports Psychology

How to Handle Bully Coaches Parents, if your kids are being humiliated, harassed, intimidated or threatened by a coach, don’t hang around waiting for things to get better. It’s up to you to take action. We’ve found that too many parents tolerate unacceptable behavior from their sports kids’ coaches because … Read Sport Psychology Tip