Instilling Mental Toughness in Sports Kids
Parents and coaches, preparing kids mentally for games is one of the best ways you can help them feel ready at game time.
Why? Because kids who possess mental toughness often have higher confidence levels and perform better.
First of all, understand it’s best to help kids start training mentally long before the game. You don’t want to throw a lot of information their way on game day. That confuses and frustrates them.
Instead, you should start, when the season begins, by explaining the benefits of mental training. It’s likely you’ll have to dispel a few myths along the way.
For example, kids will tell you things like, “I’m already mentally tough.” If this is the case, remind them that it never hurts to brush up on mental toughness. It’s like any other skill. Practice leads to improvement!
Mental toughness is about looking inwardly at mental roadblocks in sports and taking action to remove them.
At game time, you want your athletes to:
- feel confident in their skills
- focus in the moment
- not feel intimidated by the competition
- get ready to trust in their skills
- have a game plan or strategy
In addition, you can tell them that the tips and strategies they learn about mental training in sports will help them in other areas of their lives!
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- What is Mental Toughness for Athletes?
- Mental Training for Young Athletes
- Improving Young Athletes’ Mental Game
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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.