Having Negative Beliefs About Performance
Many sports kids hold negative beliefs about their abilities—and such beliefs can really hurt their confidence and performance.
For example, kids might give themselves negative labels that sound like this: “I always freeze up before I shoot,” or, “I’m terrible on defense.”
Sound familiar?
They might also harbor irrational beliefs, assuming that if something good or bad happened once, it will happen over and over.
For example, they might think that because they played well after eating a jelly doughnut, they should always eat a jelly doughnut before playing a game. Such beliefs are superstitions—and don’t help kids’ confidence or performance.
We bet this one sounds familiar. Many kids do this!
You can help sports kids with these beliefs that hurt their confidence and performance.
Begin by helping them identify some of the negative labels, expectations and irrational beliefs that fill their heads before or during a game or performance. They can even ask teammates or coaches to help them identify some of these beliefs.
Then, help kids replace their negative beliefs with positive—but realistic—ones.
For example, kids may believe they’re too small to play defense. Ask them to replace that thought with, “I’m quick on my feet and can beat other players to the ball.”
When sports kids learn these types of tips for combating confidence busters, their confidence improves—and so does their performance and happiness in sports.
Related Articles on Kids’ Mental Game:
- How Superstitions Can Hurt Athletes’ Confidence
- Addressing Anxiety, Mistakes and Low Confidence in Youth Sports
- Josh Thole’s Take on Coping With Mistakes
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