Building Confidence In Young Athletes1

Failure is built into youth baseball, says Nova Newcomer, executive director of Friends of Baseball in Portland. She provides tips for helping young athletes let go of their fear of failure.

Chris Trieste, a veteran educator with extensive experience in coaching, teaching, and administration gives parents tips about how to protect sports kids from predators and bullies in light of the USA Gymnastics Team scandal.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Ted Theocheung, CEO of the Specialized Foundation, about recent studies that show how exercise boosts brain function, attention and concentration in kids with ADHD--and everyone else. The foundation has partnered with Stanford University to fund research to better understand the effects of exercise on brain function and cognition in children with ADHD. During the interview, the experts stress that exercise helps all kids with brain function and concentration.

Dr. Kate Lund, a psychologist, performance coach and author of "Bounce -- Help Your Child Build Resilience and Thrive in School, Sports and Life," explains the importance of resilience in kids' lives and gives tips for building resilience.

Jamy Bechler, a former college basketball coach and author of “The Leadership Playbook: Be Your Team’s Most Valuable Leader,” provides advice about how to build strong leaders in sports. And they don't have to be team captains!

Girls drop out of sports at a rate that's six times higher than boys, research shows. In this podcast, Lisa Cohn, host of Ultimate Sports Parent Radio, interviews Samantha Salvia, a World Champion Ultimate Frisbee player who leads Positive Coaching Alliance workshops for coaches, athletes, and sports parents in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Benjamin Dudley, sports dad, coach and executive director for the Portland Chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance. They address why girls are dropping out and how the trend can be reversed.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews former NBA player Bob Bigalow, author of "Just Let the Kids Play," and "Youth Sports: Still Failing Our Kids," about the challenges in youth sports today. He and mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn discuss how parents can help kids feel happy and confident in youth sports, rather than being over-involved.

Often, sports kids lose confidence if they don’t do well during pregame warmups. This is especially true of perfectionists, who want to get everything just right all the time. In this interview with mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn, parents learn that sports kids don’t need to win pregame warmups—and how to deal with perfectionists who think they do need to win them.

In this Ultimate Sports Radio podcast episode, mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn discusses how the pregame jitters can help kids focus better and boost their energy just before a game. However, sometimes those butterflies and sweaty palms are more than just jitters; they2019re actually performance anxiety.Visit www.Ultimatesportsparent.com and stay tuned for our new 10-Minute Pregame Prep program

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Bob Jordan, a youth sports coach of 35 years who in the 1960s asked the mothers of his football players to learn how to play the sport. What did they learn? Learn more about Jordan and his books for moms by listening!

Sports kids need to walk away from games with renewed confidence—or at least with their confidence intact. In the third of our series of podcasts about post-game tips for sports parents, that’s the idea we want parents and coaches to embrace.

In the second of our "Post-Game Tips for Sports Parents" audios, Dr. Patrick Cohn, mental game expert, gives sports parents tips about how to communicate with kids after a game. A few tips: Don't dwell on their mistakes and look for learning opportunities.

In this Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interview, mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn identifies some of the challenges sports parents face after a game. This is first in a series of post-game tips with Lisa Cohn and Patrick Cohn.

What can sports kids learn from underdog Roberta Vinci beating Serena Williams in the US Open semi-finals? A lot. In this podcast, mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn identifies the mental game issues--especially expectations and perfectionism--that came into play during the semi-finals.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Jason Kreidman, founder of Dudes to Dads, which provides advice and support to new fathers. He is also a former high school and college athlete who spent most of his waking hours as a child immersed in youth sports, an experience that was both positive and negative. He gives tips for new sports dads.

In this Ultimate Sports Parent Radio episode, Brian Brunkow, author of "Zero Offseason: Divorce & Sports Parenting" gives divorced parents tips about sports parenting. The bottom line: Keep your kids' best interests in mind.

In a Yahoo! Parenting article, we (Lisa and Patrick Cohn), identified six common sports parent sins. In this podcast, we discuss those sins, often committed by well-meaning sports parents. You can read the article here: https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/6-surprising-sports-parent-sins-12225094020 2.html

How can coaches build trust in young athletes and why is trust so important? Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Thom Schauerman, varsity soccer coach and middle school volleyball coach at The Shipley School. Coaches can't impart life lessons in sports kids unless they have first earned kids' trust, he says. He shares innovative ideas for building a tight-knit team and trust.

Megan Bartlett, Chief Program Officer for Up2Us, talks about how her program uses sports to integrate behavioral development into youth sports. The training teaches youth coaches how to build life skills.

Too often, kids look for praise from others to boost their confidence. In this interview with mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn, he speaks directly to young athletes about how they should be responsible for their own confidence.