How High Expectations Lead to Pressure in Young Athletes A recent NCAA poll of more than 21,000 current college athletes shed some interesting light on how pressured these athletes feel about making it big. The data, from NCAA’s GOALS Study of the Student-Athlete experience, and just reported in USA Today, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Perfectionism In Young Athletes We recently received a note from a parent about how her 10-year-old’s high expectations lead her to give up when faced with adversity. This is common when a child, like this softball player, has achieved success. She has pitched many perfect games, including at state playoffs, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Fear of Failure in Youth Sports Fear of failure is a common challenge for sports kids. It looks like this: Sally, a soccer player, dribbles down the field and loses the ball. As soon as she makes a mistake in the game, she starts worrying about making other mistakes. So … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Do you have a sports kid who excels in practice, but freezes up during games? Does your sports kid criticize herself or himself for making mistakes? As soon as your young athlete has goofed up during a game or competition, does he or she freeze up and play it safe? … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Kids Move on After Mistakes Too often, kids get hung up on the mistakes they make in sports. That means as soon as they goof up, they have trouble getting the mistake out of their minds. They dwell on the mistake—instead of moving past it. They scold themselves for … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Perfectionistic Sports Kids Sports parents, you don’t want to raise perfectionists in sports. You may think that kids who have high expectations and want to get everything just right will be big winners. But in sports, that’s generally not true. Sure, perfectionists show up on time and work really hard. … Read Sport Psychology Tip