Do Your Kids Embrace the Underdog Role?
When athletes are the underdog, they have two choices: believing they can win or believing they will lose.
If kids believe they are going to lose, their bodies and minds will likely follow suit. They won’t prepare fully. Self-doubt will take over their minds. They’ll lack confidence, which will create focusing challenges during the competition.
All these mental and physical factors will hinder their performance. Believing they will lose will probably cause them to lose.
However, if young athletes embrace the underdog role and believe they can win, they will be able to tap into their mental and physical potential, maximize their efforts and put themselves in a position to achieve their goals.
Embracing the underdog role requires:
- Ignoring outside noise – What others say means NOTHING. Kids should shut out the external noise and focus on executing their game plan.
- Preparing to compete and win – Preparation builds confidence, sharpens athletes’ technical skills and improves their ability to perform under pressure.
- Playing with freedom – It’s important to just play the game. The place for in-depth analysis is in the locker room and not on the court or field.
- Turning negativity into motivation – Kids should let negativity from others ignite their competitive fire, rather than extinguishing it.
- Looking at the Facts – Both teams start 0-0 and the competition is not determined until the last second. Sports kids need to perform their best between those two points.
Vanderbilt University enters the men’s 2025 NCAA basketball tournament as an underdog. Vanderbilt (20-12), will face St. Mary’s (28-5) in the first round.
Vanderbilt is a 5.5 point underdog against St. Mary’s, which is ranked 19th in the AP poll.
Vanderbilt surpassed the predictions forecasted by the media, and beat five tournament teams (Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Missouri) during the regular season.
How is Vanderbilt approaching the underdog role?
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington reminded his team members that they have beaten the odds all season and this game is just another chance to do the same.
“We were against the odds the entire season,” Byington said. “With what we had to do building this team and how fast … a lot of times [doubters] said something can’t be done. Then you’re picked at the bottom of the league. So we were always against the odds. … We did it so far this year. Now is the next time to do it again.”
The underdog role is not a disadvantage, but a negative mindset is. It is up to athletes to refuse to accept limitations or expectations set by others.
When kids prepare with confidence, embrace the situation and give themselves a chance to succeed, they can turn doubt into an advantage.
Winning starts in the mind. When athletes choose to believe, anything is possible.
Being the underdog can either be an obstacle or a source of motivation.
When most people predict that your athlete’s team will lose, the team members face a critical decision: do they accept their judgment and let doubt take hold, or do they disregard their opinions and fight for victory?
Making that choice will shape how sports kids perform.
Related Youth Psychology Articles
- What Athletes Learn From the US Open Upset? [Podcast
- When A Sport Kids’ Intensity Leads to Anger and Upset
- Helping Athletes Cope with Distractions
The Focused Sports Kid – Digital Download
“The Focused Sports Kid” helps sports kids who get easily distracted and can’t maintain their focus in competition. In this program, you and your athlete learn concentration-boosting strategies to help young athletes develop laser focus during competition. “The Focused Sports Kid” is two programs in one. You get a manual and Audio program for parents/coaches, and a PDF workbook and audio programs for young athletes.
“We just completed the first ten tips, it has helped tremendously for (our daughter) and us. We’ve learned to keep our behavior and comments in check. She’s letting mistakes happen and not worrying about them, she’s now just moves on to the next play with the same attitude as before the mistakes. She’s playing more aggressively all game. Her coach even mentioned that whatever we are doing, keep doing because it’s working.”*
~Scott, Sports Dad