Post Game Tips For Young Athletes
You want your kids to walk away from competition with more confidence than they started with, correct? Below, we give you our top Post Game Tip. But first…
Most kids tend to beat up on themselves after they compete. It’s part of human nature. It’s part of being a dedicated athlete. It’s something perfectionists do a lot.
But it’s not healthy. Dwelling on mistakes and losses hurts kids’ confidence in a big way. They think too hard and long about what went wrong in the game. They focus too much on what they could have or should have done better.
We’re sure you’ve heard kids say: “I should have, could have, would have…”?
If you want your kids to boost their confidence after competition (or at least keep it), they need to embrace a different approach to assessing their performance.
You add insult to injury if you discuss or “question” your kids’ mistakes after games. This only prolongs their tendency to dwell on mistakes. It also undermines their confidence.
We suggest you focus on what kids did well in the game even after a loss. Pick two things your kids did well… even if only for one play. We’re sure you can find something encouraging to focus on.
Hold off on your “constructive criticism” until the next practice or day. Your input should focus on ways to improve their performance. For example, if your athletes lost control of the ball a couple times in the game, discuss how they can maintain better ball control next time.
Your athletes already know what they did wrong and can dwell too long on mistakes all on their own.
One of your main goals should be to help them move on and let go of the past.
That’s a top tip. Do you want to learn all the rest of our confidence-boosting strategies for sports parents, coaches, and young athletes?
Check out “The Confident Sports Kid” CD and workbook program. And download the first chapter of the kids’ workbook while you are there:
p.s. We ship our new program to anywhere in the world including Canada and Europe. Just select the correct shipping option. Grab your copy today:
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
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 parents saying?
“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
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