Giving Youth Sports Back to Kids
“Nine-year-olds have the amazing ability to act like nine-year-olds,” says Bob Bialow, a former NBA players and author of “Just Let The Kids Play,” and, “Youth Sports: Still Failing Out Kids,” in a recent interview for our podcast.
“Most of the folks running youth sports, however, haven’t been 9 in decades and sometimes forget what it’s like to be a kid,” he said.
The number one challenge for coaches, adults, and administrators according to Bigalow is:
“Can you suspend your adult brains and make this about kids? Or will your adult brain and competitiveness override your brain?”
While Bigalow likes to use nine-year-olds an an example, he says he is most worried about the young athletes who are are 9-18.
“Now they’re beginning to show talent and competitive urges of kids start to surface. They start comparing themselves to others,” he says.
Here at Kids’ Sports Psychology, we think kids shouldn’t compare themselves to others. That’s what we call a mental game no-no. When they do this, they stop focusing on what they bring to sports, and instead focus on others’ strengths.
During the interview, mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn noted that he sees kids feeling like they need to adopt their parents’ adult work ethics and values, especially when their in high school.
But that often comes across as pressure, which doesn’t boost kids confidence and performance in sports…
Listen to the entire Ultimate Sports Parent podcast now:
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- The Pressure of Expectations for Kids
- A Big Mistake Sports Parents Make After Games
- How Do Parental Expectations Hurt Young Athletes?
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