Letting Kids Decide What Sports They Want to Play What are the Habits of Supportive Sports Parents? To be a supportive sports parent, you first have to ensure your kids are having fun. Second, you should help ensure they are prepared for practices and games, says Sharkie Zartman, a college professor, UCLA and USA national team volleyball athlete, author, coach and radio host. She recently spoke to us for an Ultimate Sports Parent podcast interview. “Make sure the kids are fed properly before competitions and practices, listen to the kids and have open communication. Also parents can teach kid ..read more

Listing Goals You Want to Achieve A study by the Aspen Institute and Utah State University–commissioned by TeamSnap–revealed what parents want most from youth sports and kids’ ability to meet those goals. Team Snap’s survey showed that parents, most of all, want kids to have fun, said Peter Frintzilas,  CEO of TeamSnap, a youth sports management app., in an interview with our Ultimate Sports Parent podcast. Ninety-five percent of parents said they want their kids to have fun in sports, said the TeamSnap survey. Eighty-nine percent said mental health support is important and 88 percent sa ..read more

Providing Your Young Athletes Control With the start of a new season, it provides a much-needed opportunity to enhance youth sports in a way that provides kids with more fun and human connection, and ultimately, more confidence. That’s the word from Meredith Whitley, PhD, associate professor in Adelphi’s School of Health Sciences and co-editor of the Journal of Sport forDevelopment. She  recently served on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition Science Board and led the writing of Reenvisioning Postpandemic Youth Sport to Meet Young People’s Mental, Em ..read more

Helping Kids Look at Pressure as an Opportunity What causes choking? Why do some young athletes choke while other athletes rise to the occasion? Most young athletes don’t like to hear the word “choking,” let alone admit that they choke. Yet, some athletes believe they “always choke” when the pressure is on. Choking generally results from kids dealing with three issues. The first is negative self-talk.  If kids tell themselves they will choke over and over or refer to themselves as chokers, they will likely choke when the pressure is on. Self-talk is powerful. Think of self-talk as a dire ..read more

Turning Feeling into Goals When Breanne Smedley was a college volleyball player, her roommate earned the role of starter in Smedley’s position. Smedley, who is now a certified female athlete Confidence Coach, at first felt as if her friend shouldn’t have gotten the position. “I started going down these holes of why I should get the position and she shouldn’t,” says Smedley. But instead of following up on those feelings, she decided to handle the situation in a positive way. She let herself feel hurt and told herself she could either be a victim or do what she could to help herself and her tea ..read more

Understanding Fight, Flight and Freeze Learning about the nervous system can help parents and young athletes better understand some of the feelings they experience, especially before games and competitions. “Our nervous system’s job is to protect us. Think about it as an early warning system, like an alarm system,” said Pomai Miyata, a sports performance consultant during an interview for our Ultimate Sports Parent podcast. When the nervous system senses danger, it reacts and starts to do its job, activating the fight, flight or freeze response. As cavemen, when danger was all around us, the ..read more

Help Athletes Welcome Friendly Competition Young athletes can reap many benefits from embracing friendly competition. Often, kids shy away from competing with their teammates. They feel as if they’re not as talented as their teammates or are afraid of being embarrassed in front of them. For example, a basketball player with a cautious mindset may not want to guard a top scorer during drills because she is worried about being judged negatively.  She fears being faked out and looking foolish. Instead of playing aggressively, she plays cautiously. She’s tight and flat-footed. As a result, s ..read more

Training Young Athletes to take their Sports Seriously Does Focusing Too Much on Fun Lead to Sports Kids Dropping Out? Often, parents focus too much on ensuring their kids are having fun in youth sports, which results in kids dropping out if the experience isn’t fun or entertaining, says Jonathan Edwards, Olympian, speaker, coach and author of “An Athlete’s Guide to Winning in Sports and Life.” But kids don’t drop out of math or English when they’re no longer fun. What should parents do? “We talk about how sports should be fun. I don’t think it’s the right word. It muddies the sports journey ..read more

Helping Girls in Sports Feel Confident Body image worries. Fears of excelling and fears of being chosen to lead. These issues undermine girls’ experiences in sports. Girls and young women not only worry about how they look; they’re concerned that other girls will be angry with them for doing well and being chosen for leadership positions, says Breanne Smedley, a certified female athlete Confidence Coach, former college volleyball player, youth sports coach and founder of The Elite Competitor. Girls and young women also mirror their mothers’ confidence issues, she says. Many of the girls Smedl ..read more

Sports Experience Belongs to Young Athletes The main message from Amy Oliphant, a former Division 1 player, mom to four young athletes and youth coach: Sports should be the kids’ journey. The founder of Transcend Mental Training told us during an Ultimate Sports Parent podcast interview that she never pushes her kids to excel or reach for Division 1 sports. Her daughter was a Division 1 swimmer and her other children participate in high-level sports. While she didn’t pressure her daughter or other children to play Division 1 sports, she did speak positively about her experience and the benefi ..read more