Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

Player confidence at all levels of play, from youth recreational to the professional athlete, is fragile.  Handle with care!  The challenge with building confidence is that it is such a fragile construct.  An athlete might be confident one minute and then a play or two later have their confidence shattered.  It is not uncommon for an athlete's confidence to fluctuate throughout the course of a season.  Every player goes through a slump and needs to rebuild their self belief.

Competitive sports is more about failure than success.  On average, soccer and hockey players miss 90% of their shot attempts.  Baseball and softball's best hitters are out 65 to 70% of the time.  Basketball player miss half of their shot attempts.  Quarterbacks do not complete 40% of their pass attempts.  All of this natural failure tends to erode an athlete's confidence.   How a player deals with the built-in failure of the game eventually determines how successful they will be.

The key is not eliminating all doubts and fear, but having the player muster up enough confidence to perform despite the doubts and distractions.  More...

I have recently been re-reading a book on the Seven Secrets of Successfully Coaching by Jeff Janssen and Greg Dale. Jeff and Greg interviewed successful coaches and their players at the professional and collegiate level that lead to seven key tenants to building a long lasting organization that can compete in the top ranks year after year with different players.

It All Starts at the Top

"The purpose of this book is to provide you with the answers to intriguing and important leadership questions. ... the core of what successful coaching is all about - getting athletes and teams to consistently perform to their full potential. ... Your leadership is the key component in deciding whether your team will perform to its potential or fall short. ... Yet without your ability to attract, motivate, develop, discipline, produce, and keep good athletes, your team had little chance of being successful."  More...

As a youth tournament team coach, I get exposed to many one line pearls of wisdom and short articles.  The article below titled "Hold the Rope" I believe articulates a good perspective of team work.   Which player(s) on your team would be asked to hold the rope? More...

Over the past seven years of coaching, I do not believe I have seen anything more devastating to a team or player's ability than lack of belief in one's ability.  Individuals can move mountains and a player can carry a team through a tough game, if they believe they can do it.  Teams that are the bottom of the standings can competitively play the top ranked team, if they believe. It is mind or physical matter.   When a team is playing in an age or grade appropriate league or tournament, the difference between two teams is much less the physical difference than the mental difference.  Competitive sports is 10% physical and 90% mental.  More...