Richard Burke, who has been coaching baseball, football and basketball for the last 12 years, recently told us how he used our Ultimate Sports Parent program to help a perfectionist pitcher. “I had a 10-year-old pitcher playing on an 11-year-old travel team. He was doing really well, but once I got to know him I found out he was very much a perfectionist,” Burke said. “From time to … [Read more...]
Why Sports Parents Should Drop the Sports Fan Mindset
How to Encourage Sports Kids to Stay in Sports It's important for sports parents to drop the sports fan mindset when watching their kids perform, said Bob Katz, a journalist, former sports dad and author of the kids' book "EZ and the Intangibles” in a recent interview. "We are a nation of sports fans," said Katz. "We tend to be sports crazed." Katz argues that the informality and fun integral to … [Read more...]
Building Confidence With Supportive Communication
Do You Over Coach Your Athletes From the Sidelines? It’s important to build kids' confidence, on and off the field. But its' not always obvious to sports parents about how to do that. In a recent interview, Greg Winkler, award-winning soccer coach and author of "Coaching a Season of Significance," gave tips for sports parents. Sports parents often have the urge to talk to their kids about the … [Read more...]
How Nutrition Impacts Kids’ Confidence in Sports
What Should Sports Kids Eat on Game Day? There’s an important link between what kids eat and their confidence in sports, says Kimberly Lackey, founder of Empath Coaching. "When I think of confidence, I think of mood," she says. "You want to keep kids away from food that might sap energy or cause foul moods and steer them toward healthier options." Sugary foods, she says, can cause kids to … [Read more...]
Injuries and Self-Image in Youth Sports
How Injuries Can Affect Self-Image Injuries and lack of rest are among the many confidence killers in youth sports, says Dr. Shawn Worthy, Metropolitan State University of Denver professor and clinical psychologist who specializes in sports and adolescent psychology. They can prompt kids to feel burned out and to quit altogether. "My daughter was a gymnast first and actually injured out of … [Read more...]
Coping With The Mental Side of Sports Injuries in Kids
Helping Sports Kids Build Confidence When Injured When kids experience sports injuries severe enough to keep them from playing or participating, they tend to have fairly dramatic reactions, said Dr. Jorge Gomez, Pediatric Sports Medicine Physician at Texas Children’s Hospital in a podcast interview. As we’ve said here at the Ultimate Sports Parent in the past, injuries can hurt kids’ … [Read more...]
When Sports Kids Are Bullied By Coaches
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 times the coach would say, 'I do this because I want you to get better or I am being hard on you because I care,'" … [Read more...]
The Importance of Creating Team Culture
Creating Team Culture to Support Kids' Mental Game Intentionally or not, all teams have a culture. While cultures are usually not created intentionally, the impact of the culture is far reaching. But what is team culture? "The culture is how it feels to be involved with the team," says Mark Lawton, a longtime teacher and coach who has led numerous teams to the championship level. "How the … [Read more...]
Building Confidence in Sports Kids With Fairness
Helping Sports Kids Control Expectations If you’ve done a great job instilling in your sports kids a sense of right and wrong, they may have problems with a coach who appears to pick favorites. "Often, kids and parents alike will have perceived fairness issues, which can really take a toll on the kids’ confidence level," says Mark Lawton, a teacher and longtime coach who has led numerous teams … [Read more...]
Helping Youth Baseball Players Deal with Failure
Strategies to Help Sports Kids Overcome Failure Fear of failure affects sports children in all types of sports, but can be especially challenging in baseball, says Nova Newcomer, executive director, Friends of Baseball, in Portland, Oregon. "The tough challenge with baseball is it’s a failure-based sport," says Newcomer, whose organization is a partner of the Positive Coaching Alliance. "What I … [Read more...]
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