Mental Training for Youth Players

Youth players have, if possible even more challenges to navigate than adult athletes. At the same time as the sports, there is also school to attend. Young people are at an important stage of development in their lives. Young athletes are often more accepting of authority than adults, and look more up to the adults in their lives. They are being influenced by their teachers, coaches, leaders in their clubs, teammates, classmates, and not least their parents.

Fortunately, most people do very well, but perhaps some of these conditions may resonate.

Inability to transfer training to competition

It is not uncommon for young athletes to have difficulties transferring their training to a competition situation.

Your child being too hard on himself when he fails

Everyone makes mistakes – and especially young talents. This is part of becoming more proficient and mastering new skills. Unfortunately, some athletes are very hard on themselves when they make mistakes. It can often have a major impact on their performance and may contribute to the overall result being even worse than the individual error can justify.

Lack of motivation

It can be a huge challenge for young athletes to juggle an everyday life with school, sports, friends, family and maybe even long transport times.

In the worst case it can lead to total career stop before the career have even really begun.

Lack of motivation is by far the biggest cause of dropout among young athletes.

Teasing

Some children an young athletes experience teasing. The source of the teasing can be teammates, opponents, coaches, or even other parents. It can even rise to the level of bullying. It may also be a harsh tone on the team or that the coach has a special jargon that someone may have a hard time dealing with.

No matter what form the teasing takes, it can be problematic for the person it affects and a problem that needs to be taken seriously.

In the world of sports, unfortunately, it is not always possible to talk it out with the bully or the source of the teasing. Here it is important to give the young athlete some tools to resist and not be negatively impacted.

Mental skills in connection with injuries and decreases in conditioning

All young people experience periods when there are injuries or dips in form that affect their results. The injuries can even cause unnecessary trauma that will hamper them when they are again in similar situations. Both injuries and decreases in fitness can start a negative spiral where motivation drops, and doubts about whether you can get back to your previous level begin to creep in. It can prolong the period of injury, leading to follow-on injuries if you are poorly rehabilitated. It can also lead to a decreased fitness that last longer and become greater than necessary.

Some young people have the mental skills needed to quickly cope with all the challenges of life and a sports career offers them. They are often easy to spot, because it is them you find at the top of the podium.

However, there is no reason to give up, mental skills can be learned and trained even with far less effort than what it is required for you to get in adequate physical shape.

If you or your child have any of the challenges mentioned call or write to hear how I can help.

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