Helping Sports Kids’ Boost Performance
Your sports kids likely have mental game strengths–whether or not they’ve had any mental game training.
It’s a good idea to identify and nurture these strengths. This will help your sports kids understand the value of having a strong mental game.
Understanding the keys to a strong mental game can help them to work on their mental game.
And that, we promise, will create stronger, more confident, more successful players!
First of all, you’ll need to understand a little about sports psychology.
Which traits in a sports kid are “mental game” strengths?
Here are a few:
- They’re able to let go of mistakes and move on.
- They focus on the process, not on the score.
- They strive for success, rather than on avoiding mistakes or failure.
- They know how to rely on their instincts and “just go for it!” rather than focusing too much on mechanics.
- They keep their game simple and avoid over-analyzing.
- They know how to “enter the role of the athlete” and put aside all their daily distractions
- They understand the importance of being good team players.
- They perform well under pressure.
- They keep their expectations in check and focus on achievable mini-goals, as opposed to difficult-to-achieve goals.
To identify some of these mental game strengths, you need to simply watch your athlete, possibly with a pen and paper in hand.
- How do they react to pressure?
- What do they do after making a mistake?
- Are they able to focus on the task at hand without getting distracted?
After a game or practice, reinforce their mental game strengths. Even if your kids’ team lost, be sure to say something like, “I was so impressed with how you continued to focus well, rather than getting distracted by the score.”
Or you might comment about your athlete’s ability to let go of mistakes.
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- How Young Athletes Can Use Mental Imagery to Boost Performance
- Helping Sports Kids Resolve Conflict to Boost Performance
- How Nutrition Affects Sports Kids’ Focus and Performance
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Help Young Athletes Boost Confidence in Sports!
Every day, we receive letters from parents like you who want their children and teens to excel in sports. However, these parents can see fear, doubt, and frustration on the faces of their kids who struggle with the “inner” game of sports. But these parents have no idea how to help their kids overcome the worries, expectations and self-defeating thoughts that prevent their young athletes from feeling confident and successful.
You can benefit from our 15-plus years’ of work in sports psychology and sports parenting research. Now, you can tap into our secrets to sports success through a cutting-edge, 14-day program that helps young athletes overcome the top “mental game” challenges that sports parents face—and the top challenges young athletes face.