Kids sports psychology articles for sports parents, young athletes, and team coaches to improve and learn mental game performance and consistency.
What is “Choking” — Crumble Under Pressure. Some examples of chokers: Choking is under performing during pressure moments of a game or competition. The problem is not about kids’ ability to perform. It’s about performing under pressure. For chokers, pressure becomes overwhelming and interferes with performing in the moment. When … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How to Help Your Athletes Stop Tearing Down Themselves Are your sports kids critical of themselves? After every mistake or bad game, do they put themselves down? When kids criticize themselves excessively, they experience fractured confidence, low motivation and under performance. The criticism also creates a loop: they perform badly…they … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Young athletes Commonly Struggle with Comparison “My son is very tentative when playing basketball. He always has his eye on what others are doing—his teammates and his opponents. How can we help him play with more confidence?” This young athlete likely struggles with a common mental-game challenge: He compares himself … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Feelings Can be Contagious in Youth Sports Athletes can pick up on others’ feelings–often negative–in youth sports. In fact, feelings can snowball from one player to another, either lifting the team up emotionally or dragging it down. That’s the message from Jess Woods, Ph.D, a sport and performance consultant, sports … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Helping Young Athletes Boost Resilience Resilience is an important trait for all athletes in sports. It helps them bounce back after losses, injuries and other types of adversity, says psychologist and former sports mom Kathryn Den Houter, author of “Resilience: A Workbook: Powering Through Adversity to Find Happiness.” To help … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How to Control What is Controllable Do your sports kids worry too much before and during competitions? When they worry, they’re often trying to control issues related to performance that are outside of their direct control. These issues include getting injured, being benched by a coach, playing against a higher … Read Sport Psychology Tip