PARENTS – How to support your kids using sports psychology

Parents can be better equipped to instil confidence in their children than anybody else. As a parent, you will want to learn how to improve your young athletes mental resilience and strength so they can get the most out of their skills in competition.

The type of support that you give is critical to the development of a young athlete and the way that you communicate that support even more important.

There are three main questions that you will need to answer before you do anything

• What support does my child need?

• How much support does my child need?

• How do I support my child without being forceful and overbearing?

A lot of how you extract information, feelings and needs are from the questions that you ask your young athlete. For example, try asking:

• Did you enjoy the game today? Then Listen, don’t interrupt!

• What did you enjoy the most? Then Listen, don’t interrupt!

These questions draw a response from the child but are very open and can lead you into a space of open communication. Follow these questions by commenting with a positive such as:

• It looked like fun out there today, your passing was great!

Or 

• It looked like a tough game today, you tackled really well!

These comments remove the ‘I thought’ from the equation and allow the child to hear positive reinforcements, not just your opinions. The most important thing you can do as a parent is to create an effective & supportive environment without judgement, lavish praise or negative undertones.

Use these six communication tips to help create the foundations of that environment:

Ask questions that prompt the child’s feelings to enter the conversations. For example, how they feel the game went and why?

• Praise through positive reinforcements, not through your emotions.

• Leave the coaching to the coaches, that is not your role!

• Identify where frustrations come from but don’t ask more than one question about this specifically

• Listen, listen, listen without interruption. Allow them to express themselves

• Observe the child’s body language throughout the conversation. This gives a great indication of how comfortable and engaged they are talking with you.

Now that you have the basics, take an important step with us to ensure that you develop the tools that you need to help nurture, support & guide your junior athlete through their growth.

Book your free consultation with Athletic Mindset today!