For young athletes, the mental game is often about confidence, focus, resilience and staying present under pressure. But eating issues can quietly consume that mental space, affecting an athlete's focus, confidence, identity and performance.

Eating-disorders dietitian Adee Levinstein said that athletes face constant messages about nutrition, exercise, body image and performance.

"There's just a lot of messages happening from all directions. So it can get really confusing," she said.

Athletes who want an edge may begin to hyperfocus on specific diets or nutrition rules. While some recommendations can improve performance, Levinstein cautioned that taking them to extremes can cause both physical and psychological harm.

About the guest: Adee Levinstein is national manager of strategic partnerships and virtual growth at EatingRecoveryCenter.com.

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Stress, comparisons and pressure can quietly undermine a child's love of sports unless parents learn to prepare for the emotional challenges that come with each stage of development, said Stephen Anderson, an athletic director, coach and founder of the Rising Athlete Project.

"I see parents reacting to things rather than proactively preparing for things," Anderson said.

Kids experience those challenges during key transitions such as moving to a middle school team or working with a new coach.

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For many sports parents, the challenge of parenting an elite athlete isn't simply getting their child to practice. It's figuring out how to support a young athlete's dreams without sacrificing academics, family life or emotional well-being.

Gosia Betancourt knows that balancing act firsthand.

Her 13-year-old son, Joshua, is already competing at the national level in diving. Recently, he won the USA Diving Western National Championships in his age division, outperforming older competitors by a significant margin. But behind the medals are years of disciplined training, difficult decisions, injuries and one important lesson: Success is about much more than talent. Along the way, his mom was a partner in his journey.

About the guest:

Gosia Betancourt, the mother of elite athlete Joshua, chose to educate her son through a private online high school,

Crimson Global Academy

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The skill of being a leader is partly innate, but is mostly trainable, according to leadership coach Jonathan Cave, author of The Tree and the Mountain: Dare to Become.

To hone their leadership skills, sports kids should identify their unique talents and build leadership skills based on them, he said.

"You don't have to become another person to be a leader. It's about amplifying who you are and becoming more of that. People will gravitate toward you," he said.

About Jonathan Cave:

Cave is an executive coach and founder and CEO of MyPhyLedership. Visit him at JonathanCave.com

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Many recruiting services, profile websites and showcase camps profit by keeping families engaged and spending money rather than helping athletes achieve meaningful recruiting outcomes, said Reid Meyer, co-founder of A2A Academy and a former college baseball player.

To be successfully recruited, athletes need to be proactive, directly contacting coaches and focusing on finding colleges that fit their academic, athletic, financial and personal goals, he said.

To create a championship mindset, players, coaches and parents must all embrace a positive mindset, said Bill Hoopes, a national championship coach and director of Florida Premier Girls Fastpitch.

"You have to have accountability on all ends," he said. "If the coach is not doing their job and they're struggling to relay positive information, positive skill development and positive coaching, then the kid's going to have a deficiency." If the player isn't committed to being a champion, there will be a deficiency. If parents are pressuring their kids, all this can create a "non-positive" mindset, he said.

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Happiness for sports kids is more about contentment and balance, rather than constant pleasure, according to Jerry Weichman, a licensed clinical psychologist who helps young athletes with mental health challenges affecting confidence, motivation and performance.

""Happiness is more of a chemical reaction from your brain that comes from good things that are happening. But good things don't continually happen," Weichman said. "So what I'm usually pushing with the expectation for the kids is contentment. There's some type of balance, an acknowledgment of the positives and the negatives."

Send your questions via voice memo or email to Weichman at [email protected]. He and his co-host will read it and answer it on the podcast.

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Too often, sports kids see their identity as being athletes, said Tiffany Yvonne, founder of Playmaker Solutions, where she helps young athletes build emotional intelligence and confidence.

When their identity is all about sports, they can quickly lose confidence if they make mistakes or lose games.

"When you know who you are beyond the sport, then a bad game doesn't affect your self-worth," she said.

To answer the question, "Who are you?" they should focus on what they love--beyond just sports.

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Confidence in young athletes is a trainable outcome rooted in self-awareness, disciplined consistency, targeted subconscious programming (visualization with emotion) and supportive adult influences. Sports kids should combine clear goals, intentional mental practice and persistent physical work to become resilient and high-performing, said Chris Harris, a mindset and elite performance expert.

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When sports kids experience concussions, they don't just affect kids' brains, they affect their bodies and even their families, said Robert Baric, a chiropractor and member of the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina.

A concussion can change kids' heart output, sleep and hormonal balance, for example. And it can affect the family, or, as Baric says, create a "traumatic family injury."Parents may have to take time off work to care for the child or teen who experienced the concussion. Other children in the family don't get as much attention while the parents are focused on helping heal the brain injury.

He describes the effect of concussions on young athletes' confidence and explains what parents should do when their young athletes have concussions.

About the guest

Robert Baric is CEO of MyConcussionDr

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