Ensuring Kids are Focused, Immersed and Engaged in Youth Sports [Podcast]

Ensuring Sports Kids Are Focused

Ultimate Sports Parent Podcast

Too often, sports kids simply go through the motions in youth sports, says Bobby Kipper, a former college coach and co-author of the book, “Performance Driven Thinking.”

The kids are there physically, but their minds are not there,” he says. “They’re not giving their all.” Too often, their minds are occupied with their other activities, including video games and surfing the web, he says.

Kipper says that if kids are going to play, they need to focus on performing well.

One important lesson from Kipper:

Kids need to focus on the small wins. “We live in a society that tells kids they need to win the championship,” he says. “But we need to let kids know that the small wins are important.

For example, Kipper once began coaching at a small prep school that had suffered a lot of losses. Many of the players acted like they didn’t even want to play. He says he convinced them that celebrating small wins was important. They celebrated winning the first game, then the second game, and ultimately, ended up with a winning season.

Another aspect of performance driven thinking focuses on helping kids focus on their own skill level-not on that of their opponents. Even if sports kids play against really tough opponents, it’s important to focus on ensuring that they do their very best-even if they lose.

Listen to the podcast here:


*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on iTunes
*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on Spotify


Help Your Young Athletes Improve Focus In Sports!

The Focused Sports Kid

Are your young athletes easily distracted by people shouting on the sidelines? Do they obsess over their mistakes? Do they worry about what people think of them?

These issues will cause their concentration and performance to suffer!The Focused Sports Kid helps kids overcome distractions that can hurt their performance in sports.

The Focused Sports Kid program is actually two programs: one for sports parents/coaches that provides mental game tips especially designed for parents and coaches, and for young athletes, ages 8 to 12, that will walk them through 7 simple lessons in mental focus in sports.

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