Youth sports psychology articles and strategies for sports parents of young athletes to improve mental game and performance.
Do Parents Expect Athlete to Not Make Mistakes? Do your sports kids struggle with their composure or game after making mistakes? We receive this question a lot: A coach asks: “I coach a U16 girls team, and I find that while they are great athletically, they tend to fold under … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Pregame Mental Preparation For Young Athletes A sports parent asks: “My son is an excellent baseball player, but his coach will barely play him. My son is very frustrated and has tried to talk to the coach a couple of times about getting more playing time, but the coach has … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Mental Game Coaching For Young Athletes A sport parent asks: “My son has been in a slump with all his baseball activities that he cannot seem to shake. He cannot communicate to us what he needs to help him and we don’t want him to fail even more. How do … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Sports Kids Overcome Pregame Anxiety Just before a game, your kids may say they’re feeling jittery and will look distracted, over-excited and tense. They may have sweaty palms and a pounding heart. In many cases, such feelings are pregame jitters or “butterflies” that actually help kids perform better. These … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Help Sports Kids Feel Motivated, Not Pressured A new book, “Trophy Son,” about tennis prodigy Anton Stratis, is an important warning about the dangers of being over-involved, albeit well-meaning, sports parents. The book details the world of tennis from young Anton’s point of view. “Anton has the tennis dad from … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Motivating Young Athletes Without Pressuring Them In our survey of more than 3,000 sports parents, the top challenge cited by parents of young athletes is this: How can I help my kids get the most of out sports without pressuring them? In the survey, 68.7 percent of respondents named this … Read Sport Psychology Tip