Helping Sports Kids Who Feel Pressured By Adult Values

Giving Youth Sports Back to Kids

Ultimate Sports Parent Podcast

“Nine-year-olds have the amazing ability to act like nine-year-olds,” says Bob Bialow, a former NBA players and author of “Just Let The Kids Play,” and, “Youth Sports: Still Failing Out Kids,” in a recent interview for our podcast.

“Most of the folks running youth sports, however, haven’t been 9 in decades and sometimes forget what it’s like to be a kid,” he said.

The number one challenge for coaches, adults, and administrators according to Bigalow is:

“Can you suspend your adult brains and make this about kids? Or will your adult brain and competitiveness override your brain?”

While Bigalow likes to use nine-year-olds an an example, he says he is most worried about the young athletes who are are 9-18.

“Now they’re beginning to show talent and competitive urges of kids start to surface. They start comparing themselves to others,” he says.

Here at Kids’ Sports Psychology, we think kids shouldn’t compare themselves to others. That’s what we call a mental game no-no. When they do this, they stop focusing on what they bring to sports, and instead focus on others’ strengths.

During the interview, mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn noted that he sees kids feeling like they need to adopt their parents’ adult work ethics and values, especially when their in high school.

But that often comes across as pressure, which doesn’t boost kids confidence and performance in sports…

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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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