Building Confidence in Young Athletes

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Joe Bouffard, director of the Youth Football Coaches Association, about how his association teaches coaches to deal with anger in youth sports. He and mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn discuss how high expecations from parents and young athletes can lead to frustration and anger.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Paul Caccamo, the Harvard-educated

executive director of Up2Us, a national coalition of community sports

programs that teaches young athletes life lessons. He cites research about

the many benefits of taking part in youth sports. Mental game expert Dr.

Patrick Cohn provides commentary.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Stephen Balzac, a professor of psychology and former nationally ranked fencer who’s daughter is a fencer. Along with mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn, he discusses how to boost kids’ confidence by focusing on success. (12:30 minutes)

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews John Engh, COO of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS), about the confidence-building benefits of coaches’ communicating with young athletes outside of practice. Engh describes NAYS’ new ShapeStuff program, an online program that allows coaches to create skill-building exercises for their players to use between practices. Engh, host Lisa Cohn and mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn discuss how parents can best help young athletes take advantage of such programs.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Tamar Chansky, child psychologist and author of, “Freeing Your Child From Negative Thinking.” She discusses how to help sports kids be resilient and bounce back from disappointment. Mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary. (11:47 minutes)

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Debbie Mandel, a stress management expert who’s the author of “Addicted to Stress” about how parents can manage stress in youth sports and help kids feel confident in stressful situations. Mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary. (12 minutes)

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Tommy Weber, a former professional baseball player who has coached Division 1 players for 24 years and is now also coaching kids 7-18. Parents are too involved in their kids' sports experience, he says. He suggests parents provide a more "organic" experience for their kids. Mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary. (11 minutes)

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Jane, a sports mom and tennis pro, along with her Division 1 tennis player. He describes his drive to be perfect--and how it hurt his game in the past. With a little mental game help, he overcame this challenge, Jane says. She tells how. Mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary. 13:08.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Jim Thompson, founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance and a spokesman for Liberty Mutual's Responsible Sports program about Responsible Sports program tools parents and coaches can use to help kids learn life lessons from sports. For example, he suggests that teams develop rituals to help kids let go of mistakes and move forward. He also describes ways team mates can support each other emotionally. 21:52 minutes.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Scott Smith, an internationally ranked U.S. figure skater and the second alternate for the last Olympic games in Italy. He describes the mental game strategies he uses to return to skating after injuries. During the 2009 U.S. Figure Skating Championships a back injury the day of the event prevented him from competing. He shares his parents' role in helping him overcome adversity and succeed in figure skating.