For sports kids, maintaining confidence after a loss is always a big challenge. Athletes tend to be critical of their performance when they lose the game or don’t play up to their own expectations. Parents can sometimes add “insult to injury” when they pick up on mistakes, get frustrated with their athletes’ performance, or unknowingly punish kids with the silent treatment. As a sports parent, it’s important to understand the mental game challenges athletes face after a loss. Here are the top five tips for being supportive after a loss: 1. The goal is to help your athletes maintain […]
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05
Nov
2010
Being Supportive After a Loss
04
Nov
2010
Building Team Cohesion for Success
Individual talent alone won’t make a team successful. Team members must be able to understand and take advantage of each others strengths to be successful. That’s teamwork. Coaches play an important role in enhancing teamwork. They set the tone for the whole team. If the coach is committed to the team, players also see the importance of being committed. In contrast, coaches who are not as committed imply that the team isn’t that important. Coaches can encourage teamwork by treating each player equally. For example, a coach may have a team rule that if players miss practices, they don’t […]
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02
Nov
2010
Sports Parents: Coaching From the Sidelines
Too often, well-meaning parents live through their children and expect their kids to take on their own dreams and goals. They evaluate their child’s success or failure based on his or her performance–not his or her happiness. They are overly critical. And, often, coach too much from the sidelines. Rather than expressing enthusiasm by coaching from the sidelines and criticizing, parents need to take a step back. Try to understand why your child takes part in sports. Does he or she play to be with friends? Does your child play because she loves to be part of a team? […]
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01
Nov
2010
Winning Isn’t Everything, but it is Fun…
All kids want to win unless they purely participate for the social aspect of sports. Winning is fun. Most parents want their kids to be successful in sports. You might examine your motivation for wanting your child to be successful in sports. For example, do you want bragging rights? Or, do you want your children to gain confidence through sports that can be transferred to other areas of their lives? Do you want your kids to learn the power of discipline and hard work and how these positive qualities can translate into success? When kids are having fun and […]
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