Mental Preparation For Young Athletes
A parent asks:
“My child doesn’t seem as mentally ready as some of the other kids in his league. I need concrete ideas on what to say and do to help my child prepare for competition.”
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
This old Benjamin Franklin quote says it all! Lack of mental preparation by kids leads to lack of consistency in their play.
If kids play without proper mental preparation, their confidence or focus will suffer, and thus performance. It’s a bad spiral.
For example, when kids fail to prepare, they aren’t as focused or ready to cope with making mistakes.
The mistakes caused by their lack of preparation can pile up.
Often, this leads to fear of making more mistakes, which means they’ll play tentatively, inconsistently and won’t perform up to their potential.
What’s more, when kids fail to prepare mentally, they often don’t have proper game plans. It’s hard for them to perform well if they don’t have a clear idea about what they’re want to do during the game.
There are many ways to help kids prepare mentally. You can begin by asking them to focus on their goals or objectives, such as good footwork or focusing on one play at a time.
High expectations, such as wanting to score the most goals or points on a team, can lead to frustration and lower confidence when they don’t. You want your athletes to keep their expectations in check about outcomes.
If kids are expecting to be the best players or highest scorers, encourage them to replace these expectations with smaller or more manageable goals.
For example, if they say they want to score thirty points in their basketball game, encourage them to focus on good footwork or sharp passing.
Help sports kids set small, achievable short-term objectives that help them focus on the process instead of judging their performance.
By setting smaller goals, your children can feel more self-confidence, rather than having it beaten down by perceived failure.
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
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The Composed Sports Kid
“The Composed Sports Kid” audio and workbook digital download program for young athletes and their parents or coach helps kids cope with frustration and anger in sports. Help your sports kids learn how to manage expectations and let go of mistakes so they can keep their head in the game.
The Composed Sports Kid system is really two programs in one–one program to train parents and coaches how to help their kids practice composure, and one program that teaches young athletes–ages 6 to 13–how to improve composure, let go of mistakes quickly, have more self-acceptance, and thus enjoy sports more!