Young athletes must balance what we call the practice mindset and the performance mindset. Athletes who embrace a practice mindset have a desire to improve. They love to train and are most comfortable with their practice routines. Too much of this mindset, they may lose faith in their skills during
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sport psychology
Balancing Life and Sports
Coaches spend a major portion of their lives training, preparing, and coaching. This leaves little time for other areas of life, including quality time with family or recreation. Success in sports for some coaches is a priority, which can lead to an unbalanced life. You must learn to adapt to the
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Coping with Distractions
Coping with distraction is a part of sports every athlete must learn. Top athletes have the ability to focus under pressure and cope with external distractions by using routines that help them stay tuned into the right performance cues. For example basketball players dealing with hecklers when
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Improving Sport Parenting Skills
As a parent, you have the ability and responsibility to ensure that your child or teen reaps all the physical, social and emotional benefits of playing sports – and stays in the game. It is important that you support your young athletes as they are challenged with the many expectations and mental
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Welcome Pregame Jitters
Every competitive athlete experiences pre-competition jitters. Your jitters may be positive and helpful or induce anxiety and apprehension. Pregame jitters can cause some athletes to not sleep well the night before competition. Some athletes can’t eat the morning before a big game. Your
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How to Win Ugly
Many of the athletes I work with focus too much on having the perfect performance or fixate on how they will appear to others (such as teammates, parents, coaches) when performing. The need to execute flawlessly or to look good in competition undermines performance during competitive
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Helping Athletes Deal with Setbacks
As a coach, one objective is to help athletes play on with confidence and composure immediately following a setback or mistake. Before you can help an athlete regain control you must maintain your own composure, and avoid showing your frustration. This will help your athletes learn through
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Breaking Free From a of Slump
Every athlete, at some point in his or her career, experiences a slump in performance. A slump is a noticeable decrease in your performance for a prolonged period of time. To break free from a slump you must first determine if your slump is from physical or mental game causes. Once you determine the
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