Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

A 2008 high school graduate and his high school baseball coach set up a charitable foundation (Courage for Life) to provide life encouraging sporting experiences for high school athletes.  Why?  This is the story of John Challis.  More...

Any driven young athlete has a powerful purpose to be an outstanding player whether it is for peer recognition or for personal satisfaction.  They set goals and dedicate themselves to working hard to attain those goals.  They drive forward and take responsibility for developing their skills and attitudes.  Behind that drive lays the most influential attitude for their success: confidence.  More...

Each person is unique based on our inherited biology and acquired experiences.  They give each player different perceptions from others involved with the same game in the same situation.  Although the players share a common purpose to win, the intensity with which it is felt varies between the individuals.  Different genes and different experiences yield different player attitudes in the same situation.  Our attitude is our state of mind as we approach and experience our lives.  More...

The post on dedication described the disciplining of muscle memory but there is another organ that needs to be disciplined, your brain.  Mental messages dictate the physical action and are key ingredient in determining your performance level.  A player cannot underestimate the impact of positive and negative thoughts because your physical performance is the outcome of your thought.    More...

When I was getting my MBA, I had a normative microeconomics professor spend a lecture on the individual self evaluation decision making process. The key take-away from that lecture was:  determine what you want, count the cost, and then pay those costs.  Determining what you want and counting the cost is about goal setting.  Paying the cost to achieve success is about long-term dedication to developing the knowledge and skills to be a high performer.   More...

In a previous post, I wrote about expectation and goal setting, now let us finish with aligning your goal setting and using your goals to block out others expectations.   Excellence is largely dependent upon knowing what should be accomplished, how it should be accomplished, and how much the player believes in their ability to accomplish what they desire.  Setting goals and controlling expectation is all about knowing what you want to accomplish, doing it, and getting positive reinforcements for your accomplishments.  In order for this positive feedback loop to be effective, your goals must be aligned with your personal goals, the team goals, and your long-term objectives.  More...

I could have started this series of post with goal setting, but the usual case is for a player to be overwhelmed by outside expectations and then realize they need to bring these external influences under control by setting their own goals.  Your goals should be used to establish your expectations, but unfortunately many times it is done the other way around.  Let me write a few words about establishing long-term and short-term goals and my next post will be about how this can be used to set your expectations.  More...

I have written a couple of posts pertaining to how coaches can develop their teams, so it is now time to spend a few posts discussing how players should approach their game.  The player’s mental approach to the game is many times difference between player mediocrity and greatness.  Unfortunately, coaches often neglect the mental side of the game and the players are left to deal with it themselves.  Let's start with the question of expectations.

How much does an athlete have to "prove" themselves and others?  More...

On Saturday April 26, 2008 in the Div 2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball finals between Western Oregon and Central Washington, Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace demonstrate an incredible act of sportsmanship after Sara Tucholsky hit a home run and is injured rounding first base.  What did Mallory and Liz do?  They carried the opponents outfielder around the bases, making sure Sara touched them all, for what eventually turned out to be the winning run.  Although Central Washington lost the game 4-2, Mallory and Liz act of kindness demonstrated sportsmanship that will be used as an example by parents and coaches for years to come.  More...

It is much easier to build you athlete's confidence when they are performing well, but unfortunately it is not easy to obtain successful results in sports.  As the coach, it is unrealistic for your players to expect you to be positive 7/24/365.  There are going to be times when you need to correct them after they make a mistake or are upset with them because of a lack of effort.  Many athletes admit that their coaches need to be hard on them at times to get their attention, which raises the question: How do you correct your athletes without them getting down on themselves?  This is the real trick of coaching - knowing how to preserve your athletes' confidence when you need to correct them.  More...