WhenKids Have High Expectations in Sports
Sometimes kids don’t even understand that they go into a game or practice with big expectations that pressure them to perform well.
For example, they might have a list of unwritten, unspoken “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts.”
These might include, “I should never make mistakes,” “I should always be the top scorer,” “I should never double fault,” or, “I should never have a turnover.”
These expectations—which are different than the expectations of coaches—can hurt kids’ confidence.
Here’s What Happens
Kids go into a game with high expectations, and the minute they don’t meet these expectations, they start to doubt themselves. Their confidence sinks.
You don’t want your athletes to have these pressure-packed expectations because they’ll focus on outcome, scores, and stats.
Instead, kids need to focus on smaller, more manageable goals. For example, they might focus on getting open for the shot, seeing the target well, or getting open to take a shot.
These aren’t technical goals, they’re mini-goals to help kids focus on running plays and focusing on execution instead of outcome.
If you’d like to learn more about how to help kids with this very important issue—one of the main confidence boosters for kids—we just prepared an audio, one of a series, in which mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn speaks directly to kids about this topic.
Exclusive members of Kids’ Sports Psychology can download it here:
Kids’ Sports Psychology
While you’re there, you might check out our videos, eBooks, articles and audios—all designed to help you boost your kids’ confidence and enjoyment in sports!
What do experts have to say about our resources?
“I applaud what you’re doing and I’m impressed with your work.”
~ John Tauer, professor, Dept. of Psychology at University of St. Thomas, and assistant men’s basketball coach
Help your athletes develop mental toughness and make the most of their sports experience!
P.S. Exclusive members of Kids’ Sports Psychology should be sure to check out our audio series in which Dr. Cohn speaks directly to kids about mental game issues. Check out our most recent audio, about high expectations, here: Kids’ Sports Psychology
Help Young Athletes Overcome Perfectionist Challenges in Sports
Sports Parents’ Top Dilemma: Helping Young Athletes Kick Perfectionism And Fear of Failure will walk you through the problem and arm you with practical solutions.
The Sports Parents’ Top Dilemma is a two part program. It includes:
- A 23 page E-book that identifies the challenge, explains why it is harmful to young athletes and gives step-by-stop sports psychology tips for helping kids.
- A 21 page kids’ sports psychology workbook that is intended to help you kids identify beliefs and expectations that are the root of perfectionism.
Now you can learn how to help young athletes overcome the difficult cycle of perfectionism, fear of failure and loss of confidence!
Sports Parents’ Top Dilemma: Helping Young Athletes Kick Perfectionism And Fear of Failure
What are sports parents saying?
“Your Information Had Been So Helpful”
“After listening to a couple of your podcasts and reading your “10 tips to confidence in youth sports,” most of the challenges you make note of apply to my 14-year-old son. He’s got all the physical ability, but the more mistakes he makes, the worse it seems to get. So reading and listening to your information has been so helpful and validates what I have observed in him for the past few months. Thank you so much!”
~Brenda Felder, Everett, WA
Help Your Young Athletes Overcome Self-Doubt In Sports!
The Confident Sports Kid helps young athletes improve confidence quickly and overcome common confidence killers that destroy motivation and fun in sports!
This is a 7-day program for sports parents and kids to boost young athletes’ performance, happiness and success… in sports and life!
The Confident Sports Kid program is actually two programs: one that teaches sports parents how to boost their kids’ confidence, and another that teaches young athletes age 8 to 12 how to improve their self talk, avoid negative thinking, overcome expectations that limit confidence, and much more.
Read more about The Confident Sports Kid
What are parents and coaches saying?
“Each Race He Was More Calm, Composed, And Relaxed”
“I just wanted to say thank you for your wonderful programs. My son Kai was one of the fastest 10 and under swimmers in Southern California and after he “aged up” to the 11-12 group he really lost confidence swimming against the much faster and bigger boys. He started with the Confident Sports Kids series and really enjoyed each and every lesson. He then started the Composed Kid series and built on the important building blocks that he was using from the first series. I so happy to report that Kai was able to swim to best times in each and every event he swam at the biggest and most important meet of the year in So Cal, the Club Championships. Each race he was more calm, composed, and relaxed. The final race was one that he was ranked last and one of his goals was to try for top 16…he was 49th! He cut over 4 seconds off his time ending up in 17th. He was ecstatic to say the least.”
~DD Bartley
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