Inclusivity and Teamwork Increase Confidence It’s important to build youth sports teams that focus on inclusion; this boosts all players’ confidence and success, says Nadine Haruni, a lawyer and author of “Freeda the Frog and Her New Blue Family.” She’s also a sports mom in a blended family with five … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Help Young Athletes Build Trust and Confidence Trust and confidence are very important for young athletes’ success in sports and are interrelated. If athletes lack confidence, they don’t believe in their ability to perform under pressure. If they don’t trust their skills, they lack confidence heading into competitions. Let’s take … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Give Sports Kids Tanglible Goals For Cami Hawkins, CEO of Marathon Kids, an organization that provides resources for schools to start running clubs, motivating kids is all about setting small goals and celebrating success. In an Ultimate Sports Parent podcast interview, Hawkins described how the organization’s coaches set goals that … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Improve Sports Kids’ Confidence and Focus Mental imagery is a useful mental game skill that can improve young athletes’ performance. Many athletes have experienced success using visualization daily in their training regimes. Athletes say that visualization boosts confidence, improves focus, creates poise under pressure, improves consistency and makes it easier … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Get Kids Moving to Avoid Obesity and Sickness To ensure both their physical and mental health, kids need to get exercise and take part in outdoor play, says Dr. Dan O’Neill, an orthopedic surgeon, sports psychologist and author of “Survival of the Fit.” Twenty percent of kids are obese, and … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Focus on Small Objectives It’s important for young athletes to establish goals in order to improve their training for the new year. Many young athletes have goals about the successes they’re aiming for in competition, but don’t have well-defined goals for training and practice. Training is critical to success in … Read Sport Psychology Tip