Performing With Trust And Freedom in Youth Sports
Do your sports kids excel in practice, but freeze up in competition?
Do they have a hard time just being spontaneous and free when they compete?
If so, you might need to help your child trust his or her athletic ability…
Freezing up in competition is a common challenge for young athletes.
Some kids and teens love to practice and improve, but when it comes to competing, they suddenly don’t trust in their own skills and or have confidence in their abilities.
All young athletes face a lack of trust and confidence in their skills from time to time.
Maybe they’re new to a particular sport…
Maybe they’re trying to learn a brand new skill and haven’t quite gotten it yet…
Perhaps they’re perfectionists and feel that their performance isn’t “perfect”enough…
They may also be afraid of making mistakes, so they play or compete tentatively…
Why should kids trust in their skills and abilities?
If they believe in their ability to execute a skill successfully, they’ll feel more confident. And more confidence will lead to more trust.
That’s crucial to success and happiness in sports.
In order to trust, athletes need to let go of conscious control of their motor skills, for example. They must be able to perform spontaneously and intuitively.
As parents and coaches, there’s lots you can do to help young athletes learn to compete with trust and freedom.
First of all, look at your own behavior.
Do you:
- Ask your child to focus on proper or perfect form during the game?
- Encourage your child to try to be perfect when performing?
- Over coach your child right before game time?
- Introduce a different method than the coach’s and confuse your child?
Instead, you need to:
- Help your young athletes leave practice on the practice field, and learn to trust in their abilities.
- Help them switch into an athletic, “let it happen” mindset in competition. Tell them to react intuitively, to keep it simple: See the ball and hit it.
- Help them think of ways to perform in the here-and-now. How can they get the job done without worrying about or analyzing how to get the job done?
- Help them accept that they can’t perform perfectly.
Want to learn more about how to help kids improve their performance, trust and confidence?
Check out our Ultimate Sports Parent workbook/CD program.
You’ll learn how to:
- Instill a confident mindset in your young athletes
- Help kids deal with competitive pressure
- Help kids trust their skills on game day
- Help young athletes set goals
- Guide sports kids who are dealing with difficult feelings and much more!
Hop over to our web site to snag your copy:
P.S. The Ultimate Sports Parent workbook program comes with a neat bonus that helps parents act and say the right things before a game or competition.
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- Help Athletes Trust the Training
- Helping Athletes Improve Trust in Skills
- Young Athletes Must ‘Trust the Grind’
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Help Young Athletes Boost Confidence in Sports!
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.