Helping Young Athletes Overcome Negative Beliefs It’s common for young athletes to struggle with doubt and negative thoughts about their performance. They tell themselves that: This type of negative self-talk can be detrimental to your young athletes, and if it isn’t addressed, can lead to mental-game challenges. With each negative … Read Sport Psychology Tip
What Should Sports Parents NOT Do? Sports parents can inadvertently undermine their kids’ mental game. You might not be aware of the ways you hurt your athletes confidence and composure… Here are five ways: 1. Yelling directions and “coaching” from the sidelines. This is damaging for many reasons. First, this … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Young Athletes Unlock Their Performance A sports parent asks: “I have a son who is a junior baseball player. To watch him warm up and practice, he looks the part and has already got some small college offers. He fits your description of a perfectionist and therefore lacks confidence. … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Building Your Child’s Confidence Through Sports Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women’s World Cup Champion, has some great insights into the world of sports parenting that illustrate the lessons we try to instill in parents. In a recent article with the Washington Post, she described growing up as … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How Perfectionism Can Lead to Fear of Failure A sports parent writes: “My child is a 9-year old figure skater. She is very passionate with her sport but sometimes she tend to get very frustrated when she performs poorly in her program. Also, when she is performing well, her coach … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Building Confidence in Youth Sports A sports parent asks: “I hear that it’s important to help kids set goals in sports. I’m not at all sure about how to go about this. Do you have any advice?” Goal setting is essential in and out of sports. A 1979 Harvard study … Read Sport Psychology Tip