Breaking the Perfectionist Pattern
Richard Burke, who has been coaching baseball, football and basketball for the last 12 years, recently told us how he used our Ultimate Sports Parent program to help a perfectionist pitcher.
“I had a 10-year-old pitcher playing on an 11-year-old travel team. He was doing really well, but once I got to know him I found out he was very much a perfectionist,” Burke said.
“From time to time he would show signs of frustration, and one time in particular he wasn’t quite himself, and he was getting frustrated, and one of his pitches got hit and he had a complete meltdown.”
His reaction was typical for a young perfectionist athlete…
“He went down on his knees and started banging on the ground with his mitt while the ball was laying right next to him. He was so out of his mind with frustration that he couldn’t even toss the ball to another player while the other team’s players ran the bases.”
Burke had recently become familiar with Kids’ Sports Psychology and our mental game programs. He took the young player aside and shared some information from our resources about the advantages and disadvantages of perfectionism. And it’s okay for athletes to make mistakes.
The next day, the boy’s mother called Burke and told him that something he had said helped the young athlete feel much better. Richard gave her the link to the Ultimate Sports Parent program, and she bought the program that day.
“You could almost immediately see the difference,” said Burke.
“His mom said that they were working through the workbook every day, and each practice I would check in on them and see how that progress was coming along. While no complete transformation happens overnight, I could see that the workbook was making a huge difference for him.”
While Burke left that team at the end of the season, he saw this player two years later, playing in an elite-only tournament against his own son.
“He and his mom both hugged and thanked me, and they said I changed his life for the better. And he was better! He was cool, he was calm, he was collected. Nothing bothered him, and it was just amazing the transformation that he went through.”
Richard says he continues to coach baseball, basketball and football and continues to incorporate mental toughness training for every team, kid and season that he coaches. And he continues to use our mental game programs for young athletes.
You can listen to the full interview with Richard Burke below:
Related Articles on Kids’ Mental Game:
- Helping Perfectionists Overcome Fragile Confidence
- The Expectations Trap for Perfectionists
- Why Perfectionist Sports Kids Aren’t So Perfect
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