Youth sports psychology articles and strategies for sports parents of young athletes to improve mental game and performance.
What Pressures Sports Kids? Parents, think twice before investing a lot of money into youth sports. While your intentions may be well-meaning, your efforts may backfire. That’s the word from a new study about spending and youth sports. The author, Travis Dorsch, found that higher parental spending creates sports kids … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Young Athletes Compare Themselves to Other Athletes? Do they worry that they aren’t good enough when standing next to an opponent, or even a friend? Many young athletes don’t focus on their own talents because they are too busy comparing themselves to others. Making comparisons to other athletes leads to … 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
Positive Self-Talk in Youth Sports Even top athletes tell themselves, “I need to talk to myself more positively. I need to take a hard look at the way I talk to myself about sports.” In youth sports, kids need to do this, too, says Dan Schaeffer, Ph.D., who works with … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Repetition in Youth Sports To Build Confidence Parents, do you know practice and repetition can boost young athletes’ confidence? That’s the word from Dr. Vernon Williams, neurologist and medical director of the Kerlan-Jobe Center for Sports Neurology in Los Angeles. “High quality repetition will help your brain learn patterns,” he … 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