What Hurts Sports Kids Confidence?
Do your sports kids hold goofy beliefs about what boosts their performance?
They may think that they’ll perform well if they wear a certain pair of socks, or sport a red headband, or eat five granola bars before a game.
Often such ideas come from past wins. They may have played well one day when they were wearing green-and-white striped underwear, and think that wearing it every game will boost their performance.
It’s important for parents to help sports kids identify such beliefs and explain how they may be undermining kids’ confidence.
Here’s what happens: When kids hold these beliefs, they easily get frustrated if the game or practice doesn’t go as expected. What’s more, if they forget to wear their green-and-white striped underwear, they are sure they will perform horribly at the game or performance!
Parents, you, too, need to think about whether you contribute to such ideas. Do you say things like, “Don’t forget to wear your lucky red headband today!” Understand that these superstitions ultimately hurt kids’ confidence.
Instead, you should focus on building kids’ confidence in ways that work! For example, ask your young athletes to create a confidence resume. This includes the athletes’ great traits in sports, plus some of their accomplishments. Suggest that your young athletes review their confidence resume before a game.
In addition, be sure your kids focus on the process-not on the score or win! They need to focus on the job they need to do right now- not on what will happen in the future.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to boost kids’ confidence in sports, check out our CD and workbook program, “The Confident Sports Kid: A 7-Day Plan for Building Self-Confidence in Young Athletes” here:
The Confident Sports Kid Workbook and CD Program
You’ll learn many, many strategies for boosting your child’s confidence in sports- and life!
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- How Superstitions Can Hurt Athletes’ Confidence
- Helping Young Athletes Overcome Unhealthy Beliefs About Their Performance
- How Goofy Beliefs Harm Kids’ Sports Confidence 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.
There is nothing wrong with a superstition in itself, or a pre-game routine that helps them get into the right mindset. But when athletes really believe that without their lucky headband or that pre-game ritual their whole game is going to be off they are just setting themselves up for failure. You can’t let their nerves get the best of their talent!