When Kids Have High Expectations in Sports Sometimes kids don’t even understand that they go into a game or practice with big expectations that pressure them to perform well. For example, they might have a list of unwritten, unspoken “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts.” These might include, “I should never make mistakes,” … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Taking Practice Confidence to Games in Youth Sports Lisa Cohn here to tell you we are seeing more and more perfectionist athletes today. And that’s good news and bad news when it comes to sports. For example, my 6-year-old son loves to practice, but freezes up during games. If asked … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Expectations in Young Athletes Mary, a sports mom, says she’s at a loss about how to help her talented 16-year-old baseball player overcome his perfectionism and start playing well again. “He has always been a very strong baseball player. He is a pitcher who hitters don’t like to face and … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Perfectionist Sports Kids Do you have sports kids who criticize themselves for making mistakes? Do they hang onto a mistake for too long, talking about them or reminding themselves about how much they goofed up? If so, it’s likely you have a perfectionist on your hands… Many people think … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Teaching Sports Kids to Embrace Failure We just read a great Huffington Post blog-actually, a rant–called “7 Reasons Why You Will Never Do Anything Amazing With Your Life,” about the importance of embracing failure and taking risks. In youth sports, these traits are critical. And it’s true, young athletes won’t … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Valuable Lessons For Sports Kids We work with a lot of young athletes today who struggle with perfectionism. Although perfectionism has many good qualities, it also can sabotage kids’ success in sports. Perfectionists tend to be highly motivated, strive to do their best, and they work hard. However, perfectionists may … Read Sport Psychology Tip