Nurturing Kids’ Mental Game Strengths To Boost Performance

May 16, 2012 By Patrick Cohn Leave a Comment

Your sports kids likely have mental game strengths–whether or not they’ve had any mental game training.

It’s a good idea to identify and nurture these strengths. This will help your sports kids understand the value of having a strong mental game.

Understanding the keys to a strong mental game can help them to work on their mental game.

And that, we promise, will create stronger, more confident, more successful players!

First of all, you’ll need to understand a little about sports psychology. Which traits in a sports kid are “mental game” strengths?

Here are a few:

• They’re able to let go of mistakes and move on.
• They focus on the process, not on the score.
• They strive for success, rather than on avoiding mistakes or failure.
• They know how to rely on their instincts and “just go for it!” rather than focusing too much on mechanics.
• They keep their game simple and avoid over-analyzing.
• They know how to “enter the role of the athlete” and put aside all their daily distractions
• They understand the importance of being good team players.
• They perform well under pressure.
• They keep their expectations in check and focus on achievable mini-goals, as opposed to difficult-to-achieve goals.

To identify some of these mental-game strengths, you need to simply watch your athlete, possibly with a pen and paper in hand.

• How do they react to pressure?
• What do they do after making a mistake?
• Are they able to focus on the task at hand without getting distracted?

After a game or practice, reinforce their mental-game strengths. Even if your kids’ team lost, be sure to say something like, “I was so impressed with how you continued to focus well, rather than getting distracted by the score.”

Or you might comment about your athlete’s ability to let go of mistakes.

Want to learn more about how to boost your kids’ mental game, confidence and performance?

At Kids’ Sports Psychology, we’ve got many resources that will boost your sports parenting skills and your kids’ mental game.

First of all, exclusive members of Kids’ Sports Psychology have access to this new article about identifying and supporting kids’ mental game strengths:

How Sports Parents Can Identify and Nurture their Kids’ Individual Mental-Game Strengths

What’s more, you can test your athletes’ focus by downloading the first chapter of The Confident Sports Kid here::

The Confident Sports Kid – Download The First Chapter FREE!

What are people saying about our resources?

“Dr. Patrick Cohn and Lisa Cohn are to be congratulated!  Together, they offer a wealth of knowledge, information, and practical mental tools for sports parents on the substantial “mental game” challenges and pressures facing today’s young athletes.”
~Marc D. Anderson, LCSW, MGCP, Mental Game Coach

Sincerely,

Lisa Cohn and Patrick Cohn, Ph.D.

P.S.  You can test your athletes’’ focus by downloading the first chapter of The Focused Sports Kid here:

The Focused Sports Kid – Download The First Chapter FREE!