Help Sports Kids Improve Confidence
When it comes to confidence, kids can be their own worst enemies.
That’s because they hang onto thoughts that hurt their confidence and performance—not understanding, of course, that they’re undermining their experience in sports.
For example, they may constantly berate themselves by telling themselves they’re too small, too slow or not experienced enough. Or they hold super high expectations, telling themselves they MUST grab all there rebounds or score most of the points in a game.
Another no-no is the “I can’t” statement. Kids say things like, “I can’t kick a ball far enough; I can’t make that kind of pass.”
They even hold onto silly beliefs that they think will improve their performance. They may insist that they wear the same blue socks every game, and that to wash them would be bad luck.
All these ideas and beliefs “stink” as much as the unwashed socks. Yet, they’re very common–and they hurt kids’ confidence!
But you, as sports parents, can help them identify and then understand why these beliefs hurt them.
You can also help them overcome them.
To begin with, help your sports kids identify some of the beliefs—like the ones above.
- Do they call themselves negative names?
- Do they hold super high expectations?
- Do they tell themselves, “I can’t.”
- Do they hang onto silly ideas about what brings them good luck?
Once you’ve helped your sports kids identify these beliefs, you want to help them replace these beliefs with more positive ones.
If, for example, your sports kids says, “I need to grab all the rebounds,” help them understand that this will put undue pressure on them and cause them to feel frustrated if—and when—they fail. Ask them to replace those high expectations with more reasonable ones—smaller, more achievable goals.
“I am going to go hard for every ball today,” for example.
You want them to focus on the process—not so much on the score and on their statistics.
While they’re practicing, they want to remind themselves to avoid negative thinking and high expectations. It won’t happen overnight-but we guarantee, it will work, with time and patience!
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- Helping Kids Overcome Confidence Busters
- Helping Sports Kids Regain Confidence
- How Superstitions Can Hurt Athletes’ Confidence
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Every day, we receive letters from parents like you who want their children and teens to excel in sports. However, these parents can see fear, doubt, and frustration on the faces of their kids who struggle with the “inner” game of sports. But these parents have no idea how to help their kids overcome the worries, expectations and self-defeating thoughts that prevent their young athletes from feeling confident and successful.
You can benefit from our 15-plus years’ of work in sports psychology and sports parenting research. Now, you can tap into our secrets to sports success through a cutting-edge, 14-day program that helps young athletes overcome the top “mental game” challenges that sports parents face—and the top challenges young athletes face.