Building Your Child’s Confidence Through Sports
Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women’s World Cup Champion, has some great insights into the world of sports parenting that illustrate the lessons we try to instill in parents.
In a recent article with the Washington Post, she described growing up as a soccer star and how she now sees youth sports from a parent’s perspective…
“The superstar never felt pure love for the game, and nearly quit at age 14 to escape the pressure,” the article says. “She talked about how playing sports, though, taught her resilience, and she’s grateful for that lesson.”
“We think it’s our job to help our children avoid fires, but we need to walk them into the fires to show them they’re fireproof,” Wambach told the Washington Post.
“That to me is everything — teaching kids that they can handle anything life throws at them, the good and the bad. Kids need to learn that they are capable of handling life on life’s terms.”
This is one of our key concepts:
Building your children’s confidence step-by- step so that they can believe in themselves.
Wambach stresses that sports is a learning tool that should be useful to everyone, not just the people possibly going pro.
“Sports provide all kinds of opportunities to grow as a human being,” she says. “Parents go wrong by focusing too much on winning. The process is what will translate beyond soccer.”
We agree 100 percent with Wambach…
Your kids need to focus on the process instead of the results and statistics.
Result-driven kids and sports parents stand in the way of kids’ growth as athletes–losing is perceived as failure, not an opportunity to improve.
Here at Kids’ Sports Psychology and the Ultimate Sports Parent, we encourage kids and parents to concentrate on the process of playing or performing, as Wambach suggests.
That means taking it one shot, one touch, or one play at a time. That means thinking about daily mini-goals, such as doing a good job on defense.
As kids learn to be “in the moment,” their confidence improves and they transfer important life skills to other areas of their lives. They learn how to handle “anything life throws at them,” as Wambach says.
Related Articles on Kids’ Mental Game:
- Boosting Athletes’ Confidence with Life Skills Lessons
- Tips for Helping Athletes Transfer Sports Skills to Life
- Why Mental Game Skills Help Kids in Academics and Life
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We’re certain that, as a parent, you want to help your child develop confidence and discipline in sports and life. And as a sports parent, you’d love for your children to reach their potential in sports. But encouraging your child to strive for greatness without pressuring them can be a challenge.
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