Positive Parenting in Sports by Former Major Leaguer Jack Perconte

Youth Sports Coaching

Optimism – One of my favorite words and concepts that obviously goes beyond sports. In my book, Raising an Athlete, I go into detail talking about comparing confidence and optimism and how to build optimistic kids. Confidence is not something that can be given to someone but is attained by good performance and/or good work ethic. Confidence comes and goes based on ones most recent performance. Some athletes are naturally confident and others are not but both can be successful. Optimism is different and is something that can be given to athletes. Good coaches and parents are constantly looking at the bright side of things and display and state this optimistic attitude to young players. Developing optimistic athletes is essential and this development will often carry over beyond the playing fields into their everyday life. Kids who lack confidence  may still succeed but kids who are not optimistic rarely, if ever, succeeed. Sports is a great avenue for parents to teach life lessons because of the inevitable disappointments that all athletes experience at times. Creating optimistic people should be one of the goals of effective parenting in sports.

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