Youth Sports Psychology

Why Kids’ Identities Shouldn’t be All About Sports

Kids Sports Psychology for Parents and Young Athletes

Sports kids face a number of challenges when their identity is all about sports, said Dr. Becca Wallace, a clinical pediatric psychologist at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. Children often get overly involved in sports, leading to their identity being closely tied to their athletic performance. She offers tips for creating … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Getting All the Goodness Out of Youth Sports

Kids Sports Psychology for Parents and Young Athletes

There’s so much goodness that can come from participating in youth sports, but ensuring kids experience that goodness requires teams to establish team cultures based on clear expectations of players, parents and coaches. Team agreements and ethical coaching can help create the opportunity for sports kids to benefit from all … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Dealing with Outbursts in Youth Sports

Kids Sports Psychology for Parents and Young Athletes

Athletes and Tantrums Kids get emotional in street hockey. They might throw their hockey sticks because they missed a shot, for example. Coaches with the Charlotte Street Hockey League deal with such behavior by inviting kids to express their feelings, and then trying to help them find more appropriate ways … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Self-Criticism In Youth Athletes

Youth Sports Psycholgy

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