Pressure in Youth Sports

When Youth Sports Feels Toxic, Athletes Need These Skills 

When Youth Sports Feels Toxic, Athletes Need These Skills

What Skills Help Youth Athletes with Toxic Team Environments? When coaches are negative or condescending toward their players or when parents argue with refs, youth sports can feel toxic to young athletes. That can lead to anxiety, depression and fear of failure. This behavior from coaches can undermine athletes’ self-esteem … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Helping Sports Kids with “What if” Thinking 

Helping Sports Kids with “What if” Thinking

How to Deal With Distractions Sports kids struggle with a number of distractions. They include: These examples are external distractions. While external distractions are bothersome, they are not the most formidable challenge for athletes. Internal distractions are much more destructive and difficult to manage, particularly the “what if” trap. ‘What … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Why Girls Drop out of Sports at Higher Rates than Boys

Building Confidence in Athletes

Girls in sports drop out at higher rates than boys, and a number of challenges lead to that problem, says Kathryn Ackerman, a physician and director of the Female Athlete Program in the sports medicine division of  Boston Children’s Hospital. She’s also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical … Read Sport Psychology Tip

What Can Athletes Learn from Elite Athletes’ Mindset? 

What Can Athletes Learn from Elite Athletes’ Mindset?

Elite Athletes Aren’t Elite Just Because They Are Talented. Plenty of talented athletes have not lived up to their potential. Do elite athletes just have better coaching? Again, many athletes have risen to the top without the best coaching. And many talented athletes have elite coaches and still consistently under … Read Sport Psychology Tip