Focus in Youth Sports

Why Kids’ Identities Shouldn’t be All About Sports

Building Confidence in Athletes

Sports kids face a number of challenges when their identity is all about sports, said Dr. Becca Wallace, a clinical pediatric psychologist at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. Children often get overly involved in sports, leading to their identity being closely tied to their athletic performance. She offers tips for creating … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Getting All the Goodness Out of Youth Sports

Building Confidence in Athletes

There’s so much goodness that can come from participating in youth sports, but ensuring kids experience that goodness requires teams to establish team cultures based on clear expectations of players, parents and coaches. Team agreements and ethical coaching can help create the opportunity for sports kids to benefit from all … Read Sport Psychology Tip

When Youth Sports Feels Toxic, Athletes Need These Skills 

When Youth Sports Feels Toxic, Athletes Need These Skills

What Skills Help Youth Athletes with Toxic Team Environments? When coaches are negative or condescending toward their players or when parents argue with refs, youth sports can feel toxic to young athletes. That can lead to anxiety, depression and fear of failure. This behavior from coaches can undermine athletes’ self-esteem … Read Sport Psychology Tip

How Archery Builds Confidence and Focus in Kids

Building Confidence in Athletes

Archery can provide numerous benefits to kids–including building confidence, focus and success. Kids realize these benefits fairly quickly because they often find success as beginners, said Tommy Floyd, president of the National Archery in the Schools Program. The former school principal recently was a guest on our Ultimate Sports Parent … Read Sport Psychology Tip