If you are a sports parent, coach, or any other person helping kids successfully participate in youth sports, you have probably witnessed firsthand the many fears kids can quickly develop from playing sports (Sport Success 360). The sports fears kids usually struggle with are experienced both physically (i.e. the experience of being tackled hard) and emotionally (i.e. the embarrassment of striking out). Sports fear can also develop in kids through vicarious learning, (by watching other kids get hurt from being tackled or laughed at after striking out). In order for kids to overcome their sport fears, they need to improve their mental toughness by learning more about why sports fears develop.
It’s actually quite natural for young athletes to develop some level of sports anxiety and fear, which is really not much different than the fears we experience as adults – even if it’s not on the playing field. While adults may not be afraid of getting tackled at the office, we do often stress over fears around failure. The reason I remind us of this point is so that we don’t misinterpret the fears we see in the eyes of our young athletes, as they are certainly not “wimps” for occasionally struggling with confidence development when faced with their biggest sport stressors.
One approach I like to use when talking to youth-level athletes about sports fears and phobias (more prolonged and intense fears) is to help them understand that the fear they experience is usually not as much physical as it is emotional. While serious injuries can happen in sports (and occasionally do), youth sport equipment today is the best it’s ever been, and rules are regularly being improved to protect kids from serious injuries in sports. Getting knocked down might hurt for a moment, but that pales in comparison to the days, weeks, and months of anxiety usually associated with awaiting the moment of the first knock-down!
When kids begin to normalize the risk associated with physical injury and pain, they can then begin to focus on their emotional, or irrational, fears. It is important at this point to help kids understand that their perceptions are often at the root of their fear, and that by looking at sport situations as challenges rather than threats they can quickly develop the confidence needed for sport success. While striking out might feel embarrassing, there is nothing to be worried about as it applies to physical safety. Furthermore, we all fail in life, and yes, many of us have even struck out before, too.
After establishing an understanding that emotional fear is different than physical fear, half the battle is won. From this point, it is important to normalize stress, adversity, and failure in life – and how it is important to develop coping skills to prepare for the next time any one of these things happens in the future. This is called stress inoculation, and in theory works in the same way as a flu shot.
Developing coping skills allows kids to take the biggest step in maximizing their athletic potential — the ability to turn the failure into a teachable moment and learn from the experience.
www.drstankovich.com
