Sports Coaching Tips

     Another common concern parents have is that their child has no confidence. Often, they would ask me to help build up their child’s confidence. Of course, I would work on that because that is what good coaches do. Of more importance, I felt, was to make sure the young players had an overall optimistic outlook. Confidence is great, optimism is even better. Just like people in general, some athletes are naturally confident whereas others have no confidence. Players also have different confidence levels, ranging from very confident to somewhat confident. Usually, the higher the confidence levels of the athlete the better chance of a good performance. Confidence helps but it does not guarantee good results.

     Likewise, some players have an optimistic outlook and others are pessimistic. Optimistic players would say, “My fault, but I’ll get them next time,” while pessimistic players would say things like “I’m no good,” or “the umpire screwed me.” I was an example of a player who played and succeeded without much confidence, yet always had an optimistic feeling about where I was headed in my career. Players can succeed and progress without high levels of confidence, but I have never known a successful player who did not have an optimistic outlook.

Post from: Positive Parenting in Sports - Raising an Athlete

Raising an Athlete – Book Excerpt

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Coaching Youth Sports

Trust -

The obvious word that comes to the sports mind with the letter T is Talent. Talent is a combination of God-given athleticism and some develped skills and generally manifests itself at a young age in kids. The word that I want to talk about is trust because this is an extrememly important concept when parents and coaches work with athletes. Trust is something that people earn over time and is vital in keeping a good coach/student relationship. It is especially difficult to work with one’s own child and developing extreme patience is necessary. Following are some things to additionally consider in developing an athletes trust in you, the coach.

* Study up or be quiet – kids generally can recognize when someone does not know what they are talking about. This recognition is easy for kids when their coach tells them to to something one way and their parent tells them something different. Have the evidence on your side by doing some reseach if needed and don’t demonstrate something if you are not very good at it. It is hard to trust someone that looks awkward doing it themselves.

* Give kids a little time to fail before correcting them. When someone expects perfection too soon they will get defensive and may want to quit practicing.

* Say a positive before a negative – “I liked the way you did that, next time try this also,” for example.

*Address the action as much as possible – that swing, throw catch,kick – instead of “you” did this wrong.

* The tenor of the voice used is the key – saying things in an informative, non-emotional voice will go along way to gain trust as opposed to a “listen to me or else” voice. If you notice your son or daughter gets upset when you tell them how to do something then you are probably saying things in an accusing voice.

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ABC’s of Positive Parenting in Sports – T

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Coaching Youth Sports

Success – The old saying “nothing succeeds like success” does make sense. Without positive results in sports, most kids will not want to continue, and that is understandable. Success is sometimes hard to define though and just as important is what I call “the feeling of success.” Often, success is judged by who won  and who had the best statitistics, but those should not be the only factors which determine success. In my mind, kids who give as close to 100% as possible are a success no matter what their results. However, this is only the case when parents and coaches recognize this and reward kids for their effort. Parents and coaches who are win at all cost or statistically oriented do not give kids this “feeling of success” and often a kids self-esteem suffers because of this. Positive parenting in sports suggests that parents judge kids on effort and not results and the good news is that often the results will follow for those that give maximum effort.

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ABC’s of Positive Parenting in Sports – S

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