Youth sports psychology articles and strategies for sports parents of young athletes to improve mental game and performance.
Stressors in Youth Sports Let’s face it, kids these days are under a lot of stress, and that includes young athletes. With information overload from their iPhones and iPads, the stresses of everyday life, and pressure to excel in sports, kids need to learn how to take a break and … Read Sport Psychology Tip
The Benefits of a Mental Game What’s more important in youth sports? A strong mental game or physical talent? Linda Crum, executive director of Positive Coaching Alliance Colorado, says the mental game is more important—and gets more important as kids start playing at elite levels. At the younger stages, she … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Sports Kids Refocus With spring almost here and sports kids spending more time outside, young athletes may be distracted by a number of things. When they’re outside, bad weather, mud, barking dogs, birds and other distractions may pull their focus away when playing sports. When kids are distracted, they … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Sports Kids And Negative Self-Talk Some sports kids get into a bad mental game habits: They call themselves names. It sounds like this: “I’m not a defensive player. I’m too skinny to play football. I’m a terrible point guard. I’m a choker. I’m the smallest kid on the team so … 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
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