Help Athletes Be Less Self-Critical Are your sports kids critical of themselves? After every mistake or bad game, do they put themselves down? When kids criticize themselves excessively, they experience fractured confidence, low motivation and underperformance. The criticism also creates a loop: they perform badly…they criticize themselves…their confidence and motivation … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How do your athletes respond to constructive criticism? Do they reject it outright or welcome it from coaches? Why do some athletes reject corrections or constructive feedback from their coaches? Athletes are afraid of constructive criticism for several reasons: They feel they are negatively being judged. The criticism confirms some … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Teach Athletes Strategies to Control Their Thinking Are your sports kids anxious during stressful moments while they’re competing? Are they generally anxious as athletes? Why do so many athletes feel anxious during competitions? Two issues contribute to anxiety in sports. First, young athletes label themselves as anxious. When this happens, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Help Young Athletes Build Trust and Confidence Trust and confidence are very important for young athletes’ success in sports and are interrelated. If athletes lack confidence, they don’t believe in their ability to perform under pressure. If they don’t trust their skills, they lack confidence heading into competitions. Let’s take … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Keep Confidence Up, Even in a Pandemic When kids’ sports schedules are interrupted or stopped altogether–which is true for many young athletes right now, due to the pandemic–they can feel anxious. Injuries, illnesses, inclement weather, facility shutdowns and vacations are some of the other circumstances that can disrupt athletes’ training … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How to Strengthen Young Athletes’ Confidence Do your young athletes start to doubt themselves and lose confidence when they are criticized or given feedback in sports? One soccer player puts it this way: “I’m often challenged mentally during practice if a teammate tells me how I can’t do a certain … Read Sport Psychology Tip