Apr 24, 2019 / Sports Medicine
Stress Management For Young Athletes
Exercise, team play and goal-setting are all benefits of participating in youth sports. However, young athletes face a variety of stressors that other students do not face.
Some of these are:
Here are some tips to help an athlete stay on top of his or her mental game:
Some of these are:
- Anxiety about athletic performance can become a distraction in daily life
- Fatigue from early, late and long training hours can affect school performance
- External pressure to perform well makes it difficult to focus
Here are some tips to help an athlete stay on top of his or her mental game:
- Adopt some pre-game centering techniques to clear your mind of distracting or negative thoughts (i.e. deep breathing, performance visualization).
- Use positive self-talk and realistic evaluation when things don’t go the way you hoped (i.e. highlighting what went well and what could be improved).
- Reflect on losses or negative performance with a focus on opportunities for improvement
- Encourage teammates with positive talk