Sports Parents Mental Game: 3 Proven Tools to Avoid Burnout “You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep others warm.” I saw that quote a few weeks ago and couldn’t stop thinking about it. (Thank you, Anonymous, for the gem.) It landed hard because I’m a parent of two young athletes, and
Sports Parents Mental Game: 3 Proven Tools to Avoid Burnout Read More »
A story of young athletes’ self-belief… or lack thereof I often work with clients that struggle with self-belief, but I recently found myself saying something to a client that I never expected to say. “I don’t feel very good at my job right now.” Not because the athlete wasn’t listening. Not because he didn’t care.
Boosting Young Athletes’ Self-Belief: A Coach’s Insight Read More »
“I Felt Like I Was Playing Like Someone Else”: Confidence in Young Athletes A basketball player I work with recently told me something that stuck with me. After a difficult tournament weekend in front of college coaches, he said: “I felt like I was playing like someone else.” Not because he forgot how to play.
Confidence in Young Athletes: 5 Ways to Be Themselves Read More »
When Every Performance Becomes a Verdict From the outside, it looked like burnout. Low energy. Frustration. A game he used to love… starting to feel heavy. But that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was how he was thinking. I was working with a college-bound high school athlete who had started to spiral. Not
Psychological Flexibility for Athletes: 3 Powerful Habits Read More »
Why Athletes Get Stuck at the Plate: The Mental Approach to Hitting From the outside, it looked like he was freezing up. Taking strikes. Falling behind. Pressing late in the count. But that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem started before he ever stepped in the box. It was his mental approach to hitting.
Mental Approach to Hitting: 3 Powerful Shifts at the Plate Read More »
Parental pressure in youth sports isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s a single look from the stands. Last week, one of the young athletes I work with said something that stuck with me. Not about his swing. Not about a tournament. About his dad. He said: “Sometimes my dad doesn’t even say anything. He just gives
Parental Pressure in Sports: 3 Simple Fixes for “The Eyes” Read More »
Not having fun playing baseball? Read on. A few weeks before, baseball had started to feel heavy. So heavy that it led to a panic attack. Every practice felt like an evaluation. Every swing felt like it had to prove something. All without any clarity about where he stood. He had come to college with
One Walk Doesn’t Define an Inning (Unless You Let It) Every athlete makes mistakes. The ones who thrive get good at recovering from mistakes under pressure. One college pitcher’s first appearance showed me exactly what that looks like. We talked about competing in a recent session. Not dominating. Not being perfect. Just competing. I’ve been
Recovering From Mistakes Under Pressure: 3 Powerful Lessons Read More »
When Trusting the Process in Sports Gets Hard: A College Baseball Transition Story “Find someone who knows what they’re talking about and cares about what they do.” That’s what the father of a college baseball player said to me on Thursday morning. The implication was that I check those boxes, which is humbling — especially
Trusting the Process in Sports: 3 Powerful Parent Lessons Read More »
The Part of Performance We NEVER See: Why Effort Over Results Matters for Young Athletes I went to a youth piano recital today. One of my best friends invited me to watch his two daughters, 12 and 8, perform. I left thinking about effort over results, and about how little of a young performer’s work
Effort Over Results: 3 Powerful Lessons From a Piano Recital Read More »
