Kids sport psychology articles and tips for sports parents, young athletes, and youth coaches to improve mental performance and overall consistency.
How Can Sports Parents Distract Kids? Unruly parents and crowds can really hurt kids’ confidence, says Gil Fried, professor and head of the sport management department at the University of New Haven and an expert on crowd control. Why? Just think about it. When athletes are trying to perform, what … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Encouraging Sports Kids Bjorn, a 12-year-old hockey player, joined a AAA team after three years of playing hockey, and suddenly found himself surrounded by other athletes with 7 or 8 years’ experience, while he only had three years’ experience. The other players didn’t pass to him and the coach initially … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Parents: Motivating Your Young Athletes Sports parents and coaches tell us that one of their biggest challenges is motivating their young athletes– especially without pressuring them. Parents often say that their athletes have loads of talent, but don’t like to practice. Coaches sometimes say their kids like to goof off … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Building Confidence in Young Athletes Over and over, coaches and parents tell us that when kids build confidence in sports, they boost it in other areas of their lives. For example, at Kids’ Sports Psychology, we teach kids how to cope with worries about what everyone is thinking of them. … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Playing Time in Youth Sports Here’s an interesting study result: If young athletes have to choose between losing and getting to play the whole game, they choose playing time. That’s a tidbit from Steven Frierman, a professor at Hofstra University and a former youth sports coach. Yes, that’s right. Winning … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Parents: Communicating With Sports Kids Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Michael Langlois, co-owner of Prospect Communications, which helps parents and coaches improve their communication skills in youth sports. In this week’s Ultimate Sports Parent podcast: Langlois gives tips about how parent and coaches should communicate with sports kids in ways that boost … Read Sport Psychology Tip