Building Confidence in Young Athletes

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Jim Thompson, spokesman for Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports and founder of The Positive Coaching Alliance about his experience using mental game techniques while coaching high school girls' basketball. He guided his team through both group and individualized visualizations, which increased his players' confidence. Mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Avi Stopper, founder and president of CaptainU, a website designed to teach high school athletes and their parents how to successfully negotiate the college recruiting process. It's critical to interact positively with college coaches on and off the field, he says.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Dr. Cory Bank, an athlete-turned-psychologist whose practice focuses on sports psychology. He explains how to identify anxiety in young athletes and how to deal with it. It's important for parents to look past their own athletic hopes for their children and observe their kids objectively in order to identify anxiety.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Robert Gotlin, director of orthopedic and sports rehab for Beth Israel Medical Center's Continuing Center for Health and Healing, and author of the book, "Dr. Rob's Guide to Raising Fit Kids." He discusses how coaches, parents and peers impose on kids conflicting expectations. This reduces kids' ability to enjoy sports. They're more likely to have fun during free play, under little pressure, he says. He also addresses ways to help kids get over mental injuries caused after a traumatic physical sports injury.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Jason Kelly, founder of the Redding Vipers Baseball Club, about how kids can both work hard and have fun at the same time. Put kids in a position to learn by asking them questions and getting them to understand what their bodies are doing, he says.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Mike Popovec, president and CEO of Recruit U, a company that helps high school athletes market themselves to colleges. He discusses the intense pressure many aspiring college athletes feel in order to impress recruiters on the one day they show up to the game. High school athletes can make opportunities for themselves by taking an active role in their recruitment by calling coaches, seeking out scholarships, and appealing to colleges by expanding their resume to include interests outside their sport, he says.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Tom Farrey, ESPN reporter and author of the book "Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children." Farrey based his book on visits to youth sports teams around the country. He talks about how far parents will go to create child athlete entertainers. He offers solutions to the problems created by today's win at all cost mentality.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews John Woods, a partner with Speed To Win, about parents' role in performance training. He argues that parents often don't understand the difference between fitness and performance training and that the benefits of performance training last a lifetime in kids' muscle memory.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Tommy Weber, a former pro baseball

player who has coached Div. 1 teams for 22 years, about the value of

unstructured play: how it enhances creativity and passion for the game--and

how this affects sports kids' mental game.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio Interviews Stephen Raghoobarsingh, Author of the new book, "The New Game Plan: Using Sports to Raise Healthy, Happy, and Successful Kids." He discusses how the "winning it at all costs" mindset in sports often leads to negative character traits off the playing field. We need to change our perception of success and use sports as a vehicle to develop character traits that can be beneficial and rewarding in all aspects of life, he says. Mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary.