Is Your Athlete a Gamer, Choker or Steady Eddie?
Some kids perform better in competition than in practice. Some struggle with maintaining their focus during practice because it lacks the excitement of a match or game.
And some excel in practice, but underperform during competitions or matches. These athletes often suffer from fear of failure and anxiety, which hurts their performance during games.
Sports kids roughly fall into three categories: gamers, chokers or steady Eddie/Steady Sally.
Gamers live for competition; that’s what excites them. They perform better in competition than practice. For them, practices are less exciting than games. During practice, they often go through the motions and feel like no amount of practice will improve their performance.
The second type of athlete is the choker. These athletes perform well in practice, on a daily basis.. But during competitions, they look completely different. They often underperform because they’re afraid of failing, or experience anxiety or worry. They worry about what others think. They focus too much on outcomes. They tend to play tight and controlled and try too hard to be perfect.
During playoffs, when the stakes are high, some players put tremendous amounts of pressure on themselves and end up choking. The pressure results in players trying too hard to do too much. They have a few bad plays, which can snowball into catastrophe. Often, these are talented athletes who often aren’t able to deliver in a clutch. Well-known chokers include Patrick Ewing, Tim Henman and Charles Barkley.
The third type of athlete is Steady Eddie or Steady Sally. These athletes perform well during practice and are open to learning and improving. They trust themselves during competition and often perform intuitively. In many ways, this personality type combines the best of both worlds. They have good work ethics and genuinely enjoy practice. They don’t fold or choke during competition. They tend to perform consistently. The Steady Eddies and Steady Sallies are coaches’ dreams.
Help sports kids who are chokers by suggesting they stop trying to give 110%. If they try too hard or force their game, they may not do well. They need to channel the additional intensity they feel during big games into helping them focus. They also need to stay in the moment and avoid focusing on the score or win.
Are your sports kids gamers, chokers or steady Eddies/Steady Sallies? Once you–and they–know what type of players they are, you can help them improve their game by understanding the pros and cons of their sports styles.
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?
“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
“My wife and I immediately applied your tips and luckily we got a fast response. Our 16-year-old daughter reads like a case study for lack of confidence. She matches the profile your e-book describes: high technical ability and successful in soccer practice but looks like she forgets how to play in games!”
~Glenn G. New Jersey
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