Tips for Coaches

When your athletes make an error or mistake it can make your emotions can run high. Your reaction to a mistake may be to reprimand the player, but athletes’ needs to know that you still have confidence in them after a mistake. Do not attempt to coach the athlete under the umbrella of anger or
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All young athletes experience doubt from time to time, especially after they make a mistake or perform poorly. Athletes need to understand that when they doubt their abilities, their confidence suffers. Once your athletes start to experience doubt, it can run wild in their minds. As coaches you
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Many athletes expect too much of themselves and easily lose confidence when they don’t perform up to their expectations. Often, sports kids harbor unrealistic or even irrational beliefs that hurt their confidence. For example, some athletes expect to make no mistakes or go 4-for-4 at-bat in a
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It is important for teams to prepare their mental game skills for competition. That means warming up their minds by working on their focus and confidence. Athletes can do this by using a pregame or pre-competition warm-up routine to boost their confidence and focus. Athletes at every level use
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As coaches you have a unique perspective on how your athletes talk to themselves. You also know your athletes well enough to help them develop confident self-talk. You should suggest a few ideas, such as, “You work hard. You’re really fit. You’ve got a lot of talent. You’re a great communicator on
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Many athletes have trouble trusting their skills in competition because they are still in a practice mindset, rather than a performance mindset. They worked hard during training, attended practices, and worked with coaches but are unable to apply what they learned in practice to
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With practice, your athletes can build their confidence and mental game skills. First, you want to look at how they think. Identify the thought processes that hurt their confidence. Second, you want to teach them how to think and feel differently. Athletes can learn how to remain confident after
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Communication is the ability to share meaningful information with others through verbal and non-verbal language. Communication from you, the coach, to the athlete is more than just sending a one-way message. As a coach, you have to be a good listener, you need to accurately understand your students,
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