Parent

Helping your child turn their season around from awful to awesome means you weather the storms of adversity with them. When a season isn’t going well, you have to guide your child through the problem. Here are some great questions to help you start the conversation and find solutions: WHY DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? […]

Do your young athletes start to doubt themselves and lose confidence when they are criticized or given feedback in sports? One soccer player puts it this way: “I’m often challenged mentally during practice if a teammate tells me how I can’t do a certain thing, such as properly marking my opponent. I end up questioning my ability […]

Adolescent eating habits are influenced by many factors every day, so how can we steer them toward healthy behaviors? Nutrition plays a significant role during adolescence due to the many factors. Rapid physical growth, hormonal fluctuations, and developmental changes taking place in the body are only a few. It’s our job to guide our teens […]

Team cohesion is essential to every sport, including individual sports. “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone – which is part of having a fixed mindset – discourages risk-taking and revision. People with a fixed mindset avoid challenging situations that might lead to failure because success depends upon protecting and promoting their set of […]

Dear Swim Mom, I feel like my 12-year-old daughter is ready to be moved up. She’s mature for her age and faster than the other kids in her group. She’ll be turning 13 in a couple months. I mentioned it to her coach after practice and I didn’t get much of an answer. I think […]

A sherpa is the guide for the mountain-climbing journey and their goal is to see that the climber reaches the top, or their peak. Are you a sherpa, snowplow or drone parent? I recently read an article, spurred by the recent college admission scandals, that examined these parenting styles. If you haven’t heard about them, catch […]

Certain behaviors, concepts and characteristics can help leaders as they seek to do their best for their communities

COVID-19 has sidelined thousands of youth sports teams, programs, schools and millions of young athletes.

Just as you can pick out your son or daughter’s voice in a crowded room, your child can recognize your voice from anywhere on the field or court.

“Anything we can do to give kids diversity in physical and physiological ways is a win,” says Steve Smith, PhD. Smith is a professor of clinical psychology at University of California, Santa Barbara and focuses on working with young athletes and parents,