Mentally Prepare to Compete Against Higher-Ranked Teams The main mental ingredient in upset victories is belief. By belief, we’re not just talking about pie-in-the-sky belief, but belief steeped in reality. The first step in understanding belief is to know the effect of a lack of belief. Young athletes who lack … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How to Handled Challenges with Youth Athletes At Peak Performance Sports, we’re contacted everyday by sports parents wanting us to work with their young athletes. They are often looking for resources or coaching to improve their athletes mental game and performance. In some cases, sports parents contact us because they … Read Sport Psychology Tip
The phrase “to make matters worse” catastrophizes an adverse event. Many sports announcers use the phrase to describe an athlete’s or team’s worsening prospects or condition throughout a season Many young athletes get stuck in the habit of catastrophizing. They often highlight every bad break, unlucky event and poor showing … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How Athletes’ Confidence is Fragile Athletes can feel confident in their ability to successfully perform in some circumstances and not others. For example, a basketball player may feel more confident when shooting free throws early in a basketball game than when on the foul line in the fourth quarter of … Read Sport Psychology Tip
What Does “Setting the Standard” Mean in Youth Sports? Setting a high standard refers to establishing a level of quality, expectation or performance. Some teams set winning as the standard. Often, teams with a high expectation of winning adopt the credo, “Championship or Bust.” While winning may be the goal, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Kids Confidence is Directly Impacted by Their Mistakes All athletes make mistakes. But how kids respond to mistakes is critical. For example, if a player misses the last shot of a basketball game, will that athlete pass up shots late in future games? If a young athlete drops a pass … Read Sport Psychology Tip