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