Sports Kids And Negative Self-Talk Some sports kids get into a bad mental game habits: They call themselves names. It sounds like this: “I’m not a defensive player. I’m too skinny to play football. I’m a terrible point guard. I’m a choker. I’m the smallest kid on the team so … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Mental Toughness To Reach Your Goals Kirk Mango is a former Division I National Champion, 3-Time All-American, 3-Time Hall of Fame Athlete, and was selected in 2009 as #8 on Northern Illinois University’s Top 50 Huskies of All-Time list. In high school, however, his coach told him he wouldn’t make … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Social Approval in Youth Sports What your kids learn in sports often transfers to other areas of their lives. Take confidence, for example. If kids learn how to feel confident in youth sports–meaning, if they know how to identify and address confidence busters–this often means higher confidence in other areas … Read Sport Psychology Tip
High Expectations in Youth Sports Parents, it’s easy to hurt your sports kids’ confidence before a game by saying or doing things that you think will help your athletes. You may think that you’re boosting kids’ confidence, but in reality, you might cause them to feel more expectations. For example, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Sports Kids And Trusting Their Skills Just before a game, you want your athletes to trust in their skills. If they don’t trust in what they’ve learned, they’re likely to try too hard to perfect their skills during the game or perform tight—and that will hurt their performance and confidence. … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Over-Coaching Young Athletes Many parents we talk to are guilty of this mental game no-no before their athletes enter competition… Over-coaching your young athletes. When you over-coach kids just before a game, you fill their heads with information they really don’t need at that moment. Just before a game, kids … Read Sport Psychology Tip