How to Help Athletes Feel Confident After a Game [Podcast]

Postgame Confidence in Sports Kids

Ultimate Sports Parent Podcast

As you may know, we’ve created a series of audios about how you can build your sports kids’ confidence after a game.

In our second audio, we focus on how to communicate with young athletes after a game.

This can be tricky.

First of all, you want to get them off the confidence roller coaster and stabilize their confidence. Part of that can be communication post-game. Whether young athletes win or lose, parents need to ask the right questions.

Second of all, be sure to tell your kids something positive about the game, whether they were good defenders, great team players, or top communicators. If they don’t want to talk about the game, respect that and move on. If they do want to talk, keep it short. Don’t say things like, “Why did you miss that shot?”

You don’t want kids to dwell on the negative. You want to take a growth-oriented approach. That means trying to talk to them about how to continue growing. What did they learn from their mistakes? Again, if they don’t want to talk, don’t push it.

You want to get them focused on what they did well to carry their confidence from one game or practice to the next. Don’t put them on the confidence roller coaster by focusing on their faults.

Listen to Our Podcast About How to Communicate with Young Athletes After a Game here:

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Help Young Athletes Boost Confidence in Sports!

The Ultimate Sports Parent

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.

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