Pre-Game Butterflies in Youth Sports

Pre-game butterflies are good for young athletes…Pre-game fear is not.

That’s the word from Twan Russell, a former Miami Dolphins player and current Director of Youth Programs for the Dolphins.

“We tell kids, ‘Be nervous.’ That anticipation prepares your body for what you are going to do,” Russell told us in a recent interview. “It’s hard to believe the CEO of a Fortune 500 company wouldn’t be nervous before his first day of work. That’s the way we’re made. We’re nervous if we want to be successful,” he says.

Fear before a game, on the other hand, is not such a good thing, he explains. Fear is often about the fear of failing.

“If you’re worried about failing, you won’t have a successful play because you’re not letting your mind and body be free,” says Russell. Kids shouldn’t be afraid of taking chances to make a play work, he says. “If you look at the great players, every so often they do something they didn’t learn during practice; they’re not worried about failing, but about making the play. You sometimes just have to react,” he says.

The key, as we’ve said before here at Kids’ Sports Psychology, is for kids to trust what they’ve learned and feel free to act intuitively and take risks. That’s what makes them learn and grow.

Kids worry about failing because of the pressure and feedback they get from adults, says Russell.

“The best coaches I had in the NFL said, ‘You learned a lot this week, let’s go out and have fun. The nature of sports is you’re going to make mistakes.’ We tell kids, go out and have fun. Use your energy to motivate you and be strong and play hard.”

Parents shouldn’t be sideline coaches, Russell says. They need to help their kids make decisions for themselves. In fact, their most important role is to support the coach. And they should always begin a conversation about sports with a positive statement about their kids’ performance, he says.

Exclusive members of Kids’ Sports Psychology can get additional tips from Russell by downloading our informative, advice-packed interview with him. To do that, listen to part of his interview here:

Interview with NFL Player Twan Russell

You can listen to part of the interview with Twan and Lisa here:

But that’s not all that’s available to exclusive members of Kids’ Sports Psychology. We have loads of articles, videos, audio interviews, question-and-answers, plus e-books. Just a few examples:

Six Steps for Helping You Kick Fear of Failure and Perfectionism: A Workbook for Sport Kids
Twelve Pre-Game Mental Strategies to Help Young Athletes Trust in Their Skills, an e-books for sports kids
Confidence Video Tip 13: Pre-game Tips to Boost Confidence

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Do Pre-Game Jitters Help Sports Kids Perform Better? [Podcast]