Youth sports articles and tips for sports parents, young athletes, and youth coaches to improve mental performance and overall consistency in sports.
Understanding Fight, Flight and Freeze Learning about the nervous system can help parents and young athletes better understand some of the feelings they experience, especially before games and competitions. “Our nervous system’s job is to protect us. Think about it as an early warning system, like an alarm system,” said … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Do Sports Help Self-Esteem? A sports parent writes: “My 12-year-old has always had low-self confidence and low self-esteem. My hope was that a competitive sport (baseball for us) could help him develop these but so far results (four years into the mission) are negative to neutral at best. How do … Read Sport Psychology Tip
The Line Between Motivation And Pressure For Sports Parents A sports dad asks a thoughtful question: “My biggest struggle at the moment is truly finding out if my son wants to train and practice to please me ’cause I’m his dad, or because he really wants to improve his skills … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How Your Athletes Benefit When You Support Their Coach A parent asks a very thoughtful question: “What are the coaches thinking and how do I access this information, not to aide my child, but to become a better parent/coach/cheerleader/technician?” Truth is, if you want to understand what your coaches are … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How Parents Can Keep Kids in Sports A parent asks, “How do you encourage participation during the drop out years of adolescence?” Good question… As we have mentioned in the past, more than half of all young athletes drop out of sports by the age of 13. How can parents … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Stay Confident After A Loss It’s easy to hurt your young athletes’ confidence after a game, saying the wrong things or talking too much about the game, especially if your team lost. Many kids link their self-esteem with their performance. We don’t want that to happen. Too often, parents say … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Help Young Athletes Develop A Pregame Routine Just before a game, a number of challenges hurt kids’ confidence. A big one among them, parents tell us, are worries about who will come to kids’ games to watch them perform. Young athletes worry about coaches, friends, girlfriends and boyfriends, parents, and … Read Sport Psychology Tip
The Importance Of A Pregame Routine For Athletes Let’s face it. Many kids join sports teams to be with their friends. That means they love to chat with one another. But you want them to feel confident and capable about their athletic abilities. And when they talk with friends just … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Confidence For Young Athletes A parent asked us in our recent survey, “How do you get kids ready and to games on time? What do you do to make them feel confident?” It’s critical to understand that you, as parents, can’t MAKE your kids feel confident; athletes must earn their … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Help Your Athletes Get Mentally Prepared Do your athletes know exactly how to mentally prepare for competition – so they can perform their best? We think this is a super important area for young athletes and we’d love your feedback about your kids’ pregame mindset… Do your athletes: How can … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Confidence Challenges For Sports Kids The fall season is underway, so you likely are beginning to get a feel for how confident your athletes are feeling in their sport. If you’re uncertain about whether they’re feeling confident, here are a few things to think about. If you can identify what … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Interviewing A New Coach As the summer winds down and you’re preparing for fall, it’s critical to ensure your kids have a coach whose style and philosophy builds their confidence. Whether your young athletes are already on a team or will be with a coach for the first time, it’s … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How Can You Get Sports Kids to Embrace Mental Training? In “Sessions with Doc,” Dr. Patrick Cohn answers your sports psychology and mental training questions about helping your athlete embrace mental training. Visit Peaksports.com and click on contact us to submit your question for Dr. Cohn to answer in his … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Young Athletes With Composure Many young athletes have a difficult time staying composed after making a mistake during competition. Check out the infographic below to help your athlete stay composed: Please share the info graphic with other parents and coaches who you think would appreciate it. The graphic below … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Stressors in Youth Sports Let’s face it, kids these days are under a lot of stress, and that includes young athletes. With information overload from their iPhones and iPads, the stresses of everyday life, and pressure to excel in sports, kids need to learn how to take a break and … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Coaches Who Instill Fun in Youth Sports Lisa here from Kids’ Sports Psychology to tell you about how my 6-year-old’s first soccer practice went- and why I hope your kids have similar experiences. I’m here to report the practice went very well. I’m thrilled with my son’s coaches this year. … Read Sport Psychology Tip