Mental Game Challenges Young Athletes Face

Mental game challenges and mental blocks are ways of thinking that keep your athlete from performing their best.

These challenges are one of the main reasons your child may be playing better in practices than games.

When they're faced with such challenges, it's tough for you as the parent to see, but even tougher for them to deal with.

No one wants to play with a mind full of fear or worry, for example.

Which is why it's crucial to help your child overcome any mental game challenge they may be facing...but not just overcome them, prepare for them as well.

That's where mental toughness comes into play.

By building the six mental skills that make a mentally tough athlete, your child will be able to manage any challenge they're currently facing, while also being more equipped to handle any challenge that may present itself in the future.

Because the truth is, every athlete deals with doubt, fear, worry, and all of the other challenges outlined below at some point or another.

So it's not a question of if, as much as it's a question of how. 

How will your child respond when they are faced with a mental game challenge?

To better understand mental game challenges, let's take a look at each one in a little more detail.

Sports Performance Anxiety

Anxiety in sports is characterized by extreme worries about what may or may not happen.

Typically, however, the anxiety will be focused on what the athlete doesn't want to have happen. For example, being worried about making mistakes.

Cause of Sports Performance Anxiety

Thinking is the foundation of anxiety. When a young athlete is anxious, we can trace the cause back to the thoughts they're having in the moment.

A great example of this is a young swimmer I worked with. 

He was extremely anxious before races because all he could think about was not wanting to increase his time.

The more he thought about what his time would be, the more anxious he became.

This is known as outcome-oriented thinking. It occurs when the athlete thinks too much about the future and is the main cause of anxiety in sports.

How Anxiety Holds Your Child Back

When a young athlete plays with anxiety, you may notice them playing it safe, avoiding the ball, and appearing incredibly tense and stiff.

Avoiding the ball happens a lot in soccer and basketball, because the young athlete doesn’t want to make mistakes, so they hold themselves back.

And since anxiety creates tension, it will be more likely your child is playing stiff and not relaxed and fluid.  

Fear of Making a Mistake

The fear of making a mistake is pretty much what it sounds like...the athlete is afraid of messing up.

However, it is typically not the mistake itself they are afraid of. It is the perceived consequences of the mistake.

For example, a basketball player I worked with played with a lot of fear. This fear was felt mostly on the offensive side. As we talked, it became clear that he was afraid of what other people would think of him if he messed up.

It wasn't the turnover or missed shot he was afraid of, but what would happen as a result of the turnover or missed shot that was really on his mind.

Cause of the Fear of Mistakes

Just as with sports performance anxiety, the fear of mistakes involves what a young athlete is thinking about in the moment.

If they are thinking about the consequences of a mistake, fear will increase.

But there's also the very real fact of past negative experiences.

Let's say your child makes a mistake in a big moment. They feel embarrassed, and maybe they even get yelled at by the coach. This can quickly imprint in their mind the need to fear mistakes.

How Fear Holds Your Child Back

When a young athlete plays with fear, it may look like they're holding themselves back.

I've had many athletes tell me it feels like they're playing with their foot on the brake when playing with fear.

You may also notice them not being as aggressive, passing up shots, and generally playing it safe.

All of this holds the child back and keeps them from playing as freely and confidently as they can.

Losing Composure

Losing composure refers to any time the young athlete has their emotions get the best of them. 

Two of the most common occurrences of this are following a mistake and after a bad call.

Cause of Loss of Composure

The first place we want to look when trying to figure out what is causing a young athlete to lose composure is how they're approaching games in the first place.

When an athlete approaches games with the goal of being perfect, this can be a trigger for losing composure.

High expectations and perfectionism lead the young athlete to focus on the result of the game and put extreme importance on every little mistake they make.

One mistake means they weren't good enough and can easily cause them to lose their composure.

How Loss of Composure Holds Your Child Back

There are many ways losing composure during games will hold your young athlete back.

For one, losing composure keeps them from learning as much as they could from the mistake.

It will also increase their chances of losing playing time, since coaches don't want to have players melting down after mistakes.

Losing composure will also have a negative impact on your child's enjoyment of their sport as well.

All in all, when their emotions get the best of them, this will hold your young athlete back from having as much fun as they can and becoming the best player they can be.

Poor Focus

Poor focus happens when your child has a tough time controlling their attention during practices and games.

We hear the term losing focus a lot in sports. But I like to say that the young athlete hasn't lost their focus...they're just focused on the wrong thing.

Even if it's for a split second, they are always focused on something. With poor focus, it's just that they have a tough time controlling this attention.

Cause of Poor Focus

Distractions are the number one cause of poor focus.

They are like a bright flashing light drawing your child's attention away from what they need to be focused on.

When we dig a little deeper, though, we come to the true cause of poor focus: trouble managing thinking.

Focus in sports is directly linked to what the athlete is thinking about. When focus isn't strong, thinking is all over the place. Going from one thing to another without much control.

How Poor Focus Holds Your Child Back

Peak performance happens when the athlete is fully present and focused on what they're doing. So right there we see a major drawback of poor focus...it will lead to underperforming.

Poor focus will also make it tough for your child to move on from mistakes. If they can't stop thinking about the mistake and they keep focusing on it, that will only increase the chances of losing their composure.

Poor focus will also make it difficult for them to improve. Because to improve, they need to be fully focused during practice.

Perfectionism

Feeling like you need to be perfect every single game, play, and possession is the essence of perfectionism.

When a young athlete struggles with perfectionism, they will focus more on not wanting to make mistakes than wanting to succeed.

Mistakes become something to avoid, since they indicate the young athlete was not perfect.

Cause of Perfectionism

There are many reasons why a young athlete may develop perfectionism. But they all stem from an underlying desire to be great.

Which, by the way, is a fantastic desire for all young athletes to have!

However, perfectionism rarely, if ever, actually leads an athlete to be great when it remains a mental game challenge.

Perfectionism can also be formed by overly critical behavior and negative consequences stemming from mistakes. Since mistakes then become something to avoid at all costs.

How perfectionism Holds Your Child Back

I've worked with many young athletes, and a common word they all use when describing their best games is freely. They were out there playing freely and without fear.

Playing freely cannot happen if the child is weighed down by perfectionism.

Perfectionism causes them to play tense and on edge, since they are afraid of making any mistake.

We also see perfectionism hold young athletes back because it increases their chances of losing their composure. 

In fact, as I mentioned earlier, a main cause of losing composure is the perfection a young athlete demands in the first place.

Negative Self-Talk

Self-talk is the way your child talks to themselves and the way they think.

Self-talk in sports is broken down into two categories: direct and indirect self-talk.

Direct self-talk involves the thoughts they have directly relating to themselves. A few examples of negative direct self-talk include:

• I suck.
• I'm terrible.
• I can't believe I missed that.

Indirect self-talk involves the thoughts they have about the environment around them. A few examples of negative indirect self-talk include:

• That team looks really good.
• Why is coach playing her instead of me?
• That was an awful call.

Cause of Negative Self-Talk

We all have certain patterns of thinking. They are called natural thought-patterns.

These patterns form over time through the words we use and the words we hear others use.

Now, it's very tough to identify the seed that initially started a negative thought-pattern. And honestly, it's not that important. 

What is important is knowing that the repetition of negative thoughts are what form negative thought-patterns.

How Negative Self-Talk Holds Your Child Back

The way your child talks to themselves plays a huge role in how they feel.

Negative self-talk will tear down their confidence, hurt their focus, cause them to lose their composure, and even lose their love for the game.

Building a strong foundation of positive self-talk is crucial to your child's success.

Final Thoughts

The mental game challenges outlined above will keep your young athlete from being mentally tough.

But they don't have to hold them back!

Whether your child is currently dealing with any of these challenges, or you simply want them to be mentally prepared for whenever any of these challenges come their way, The Mentally Tough Kid will help.

Click the button below to learn more about The Mentally Tough Kid course and give your child the support they need to become the best athlete they can be!

Thank you for reading, and I wish you and your child the best of success in all that you do.