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You are here: Home / Mental Coach Articles / How Sports Parents Hurt Athletes’ Confidence

How Sports Parents Hurt Athletes’ Confidence

February 14, 2017 By Patrick Cohn Leave a Comment

sport psychology certification

How Sport Parent Communication Can Affect Athletes

Last week, I worked on the skill of “proactive confidence” with one of my athletes…

Part of this lesson on confidence is to discuss what things can undermine confidence, which I call “confidence killers.”

I learned that out of six confidence killers for my athlete, his parents take part in two of them.

These confidence killers were:

  1. Parents making comparisons to other athletes who are doing better than him.
  2. Parents rehashing mistakes or missed opportunities after the game.

Why are these confidence killers?

First, when parents make comparisons to other athletes who are doing better, your athletes feel like they are not performing well enough.

They feel others athletes are doing better than them. And when parents compare their athletes to other athletes, they can feel like they are disappointing parents or parents are losing confidence in them.

Second, a more common mistake by parents is when they talk too much after games about missed chances, mistakes, or lack of scoring or production.

My athletes already know they made mistakes or did not have a good game. Then, parents add more insult by rehashing these mistakes after the game. In some cases, one parent and then another parent later.

You can see how parent communication can affect your athletes’ confidence greatly.

What’s the solution?

You have two options:

The first is to work with your athletes to better handle their parents’ behavior—to react better to what parents say or do.

The second option is work with parents directly to help them understand the impact of their communication on their athletes’ confidence, focus, motivation, and pressure.

I do both: I work with my athletes and their parents to overcome the some of these confidence killers. And you should too.

Keep in mind that sometimes athletes twist what parents say because they interpret what parents say with a negative lens…

I help parents in several ways.

I start with the my tools for parents:

  1. My pregame and postgame tips for sports parents.
  2. A copy of the session summary with their athletes.
  3. A 30-minute meeting to discuss how they can support their athletes’ mental game.
  4. An assessment to “grade” themselves on how well they support their athletes’ confidence and their communication style.

In the MGCP program, I recently added a chapter on how to work with sports parents and their young athletes. MGCP students get all these tools and much more.

You can read more about it here:

Working With Sports Parents

A better option is to enroll in MGCP certification course and get my entire system for mental coaching developed over the last 30 years of research and working with athletes of all ages.

In Chapter 16 of the MGCP program, you’ll learn about how to work with sports parents to improve their communication and better support their athletes’ mental game.

Please contact us to complete an application or learn more about the MGCP program.

If you have not completed the application, you can apply by either:

  1. Filling out the application online: Apply to Be an MGCP
  2. Downloading the application and submitting it, as soon as possible: Download the MGCP Application

Apply to Be a Mental Coach Today!

You can also start with the self-paced program and upgrade to the live course when ready.

Please contact me if you would like to enroll or submit your mental coach application online. You can call us at 888-742-7225.

Learn more about the Mental Game Coaching Certification Program

FYI: The course is not cheap, but can save you a lot of time in the long run when you apply my out-of-the-box mental coaching system and tools based on 25+ years of experience working with athletes.

Please call me if you have any questions at 888-742-7225.

NOTE: Now included in the MGCP Certification is two of our new programs for working with sports parents and young athletes, Working With Sports Parents and 10-Minute Pregame Prep. The Athlete’s Mental Edge Workbooks and AMAP Assessment System are also included.

Filed Under: Mental Coach Articles, Sports Psychology Certification Tagged With: Working with Sports Parents

MGCP - Sports Psychology Certification Course

  1. The MGCP 20-chapter workbook including exercises to teach you how to identify mental game challenges and obstacles that influence performance; develop mental skills individual and team members; and improve teamwork and communication.
  2. The Athlete's Mental Edge workbook system to help you stay organized and accelerate your athletes learning and progress with mental skills.
  3. 12+ Real-life video and audio case studies to accelerate your learning of mental game coaching.
  4. MGCP Summaries, outlines and flow charts to help you understand the over mental coaching process and the phases of mental coaching taught by Dr. Cohn.
  5. Examples of mental imagery programs (hockey, dog handling, and golf) including how to create imagery scripts and audio programs for your athletes.
  6. A series of sports psychology e-books on goal setting, confidence, focus, pregame and preshot routines.
  7. Use of Dr. Cohn’s Athlete’s Mental Aptitude Profile (AMAP) and several sport-specific versions to help you identify an athlete’s or team’s mental game strengths and weaknesses.
  8. Use of the Team Cohesion Aptitude Profile (TCAP) to assess team cohesion; and a sports parent’s profile to use with sports parents.
  9. Examples of pre-seminar questionnaires to use before you give a seminar to a group to help you identify mental game challenges and areas to teach.
  10. How to do team mental game assessments efficiently using an online assessment tool.
  11. Over 160 mental game coaching “handouts” or one-page summaries and worksheets you can use to help you stay organized during sessions and as summaries for your student or team.
  12. 18 real-life case studies focusing on a different challenge in sports psychology and Dr. Cohn’s solution to each. You understand the real-life issues with athletes and how to address their mental game barriers.

Apply for sports psychology certification today!

Resources for Mental Game Coaches

Please browse our programs for mental game coaches and sports psychology professionals below. With the purchase of each program, you can upgrade to the Self-Paced Course or the Full MGCP Certification Course. Contact us at Peak Performance Sports, LLC for more details: 888-742-7225

AMAP Assessment System

The AMAP System licenses to you our exclusive mental game assessment. You learn how how to easily identify your athletes’ mental game challenges, what mental game issues to look, and how to do a summary of the AMAP. The AMAP has several purposes beyond its use as an assessment tool.

BUY NOW

OR READ MORE

Mental Game Assessments

Athlete's Mental Edge Workbooks

The Athlete’s Mental Edge workbook system 2.0 is designed for both mental coaches and sports team coaches. And no matter if you are a 20-year mental coach veteran or just starting your career as a mental coach, you’ll love the simplicity of the workbooks, and your athletes will appreciate your organization.

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Workbooks for Mental Coaches

Mental Coaches' Playbook

The Mental Coach's Playbook is a tool for mental coaches to help them improve efficiency and success as a mental game coach working with sports parents and their young athletes. Learn the top issues for young athletes and their parents. Learn how to be more successful when working with young athletes. Digital Download Only.

BUY NOW

OR READ MORE

Working with Sports Parents

Improving Credibility for Mental Coaches

This program helps new and experienced mental coaches gain credibility in your field of expertise. In “Improving Credibility,” sports psychology professionals learn how to get organized with your business documents, how to harness social proof from athletes and coaches, and learn the top tactics to improve your credibility as a mental coach.

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Mental Coach Credibility Program

Call 888-742-7225 for More Information

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