Raising Confident Athletes Winning in the Long Run By Cory Bank Ph. D. by Cory Bank
I appreciate you taking the time to read this article hope that in some small way that it assists your children in meeting their athletic fitness goals. Several of the athletes that I have worked with in my clinical practice at abingtonpsychology. com start out by communicating to me their athletic goals. Many of the athletes are highly motivated to succeed diligent with their efforts passionate about the pursuit of their goals. Furthermore they often have a strong support system from their parents. One of my primary responsibilities as a sports psychologist is to make sure that each athlete is training intelligently in order to ensure success while simultaneously enjoying the process. Parents often ask how they can assist in helping their child achieve their goals in a safe enjoyable effective manner. The following are four common crucial areas italicized underlined with a key ingredient bold faced in each. By learning more about these areas ingredients it should provide additional strategies that parents may utilize in assisting their children with their respective sports with relation to increasing their confidence creating more enjoyment success.
The first area is paying attention your child's physical training. Specifically this involves avoiding the trap that many children who play organized sports have fallen into known as overtraining. It can be described as feeling burned out from training & or competing feeling sluggish decrease in athletic performance a higher resting heart rate. It is important to remember that as the athletic season wears on that one is more prone to this due to the cumulative effect form many hours of training. In my clinical practice I worked with one female swimmer who was swimming for school a club team practiced two hours a day for six days a week. She did this pretty much all year long for four years. Due to this grueling workout schedule she tore her rotator cuff had to have surgery. She rushed her recovery tore it again the colleges that were scouting her withdrew their interest in her. By the time I began working with her she was very frustrated depressed. If she had not over trained she very likely would not have been injured. One useful way to avoid overtraining is to either use a heart rate monitor or to go by perceived exertion to train in the correct training zones. The majority of training days should be on the easier side aerobic ranges with the minority of training days at a very hard effort anaerobic ranges . This has been found to be highly beneficial for the novice through the professional ranks in both individual team sports.
The second area that can greatly contribute to a successful enjoyable athletic season for your child is to implement a bit of psychological training. One area that is crucial to pay attention to is called cognitive scripting. This is basically a branch of cognitive psychology that states that the way we think about our situations will largely determine whether that situation will have a positive or negative outcome. Although this was first used for treating patients with clinical depression in the field of psychology it now also widely used with athletes to remove negative thinking patterns. Let's take an example where a runner estimates that her first mile time for a 5K race should be six minutes but actually takes seven. She might ask herself "How come I ran so slow how am I ever going to make up all that time " This will probably lead to a negative outcome in which she will feel doubt increased stress increased body tension ultimately a slower time because of this. However what if she asks herself "How can I make up a bit of time in the next few minutes enjoy the race as much as possible " This will most likely lead to a more favorable outcome because she is already assuming that she will enjoy the race is focused on only the next few minutes compared to the entire race in terms of making up some time. When we feel we have more control power over a situation we tend to feel more confident respond more favorably. Practice with your child by asking effective questions to increase their sense of control confidence power. If you are looking to enhance athletic performance don't forget to pay attention to that important free piece of equipment above your eyes between your ears
The third area relates to nutritional training. Specifically re hydrating eating within a half an hour after training sessions practices races. This becomes even more important as one's training racing increases in intensity & or duration. If your child does not re hydrate eat within half an hour after training racing their decreasing their chances for maximum recovery. Having something as simple as a sports drink with sodium potassium electrolytes plus something solid such as a banana will help allow your child's body to absorb improve from their training.
The fourth area has more to do with regards to competing. This examines paying attention to your child's preferences to ecological variables. Most of your children at least through high school will not get paid for competing in athletics. Therefore they are not obligated by prize money sponsors to enter certain events that they might not like. If you are looking to maximize your child's performance confidence enjoyment in athletics it pertinent to find a goodness of fit between your child's personality characteristics the environment of the types of different sports. For example if your child prefers competing in a team environment then they would probably prefer basketball over golf. Does your child like short events such as a four hundred meter race or do they prefer entering running the mile Does your child like more aggressive sports such as football boxing Knowing your child's answers to these questions will help them more accurately select fitness activities that will maximize their confidence performance enjoyment
Dr. Bank specializes in individual therapy with children adolescents adults including sports psychology adjustment issues relationship issues school issues stress management. Dr. Bank is also a peak performance coach. Dr. Bank seeks to focus on each person's strengths needs in order to assist each individual to reach their fullest potential. He is also an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Montgomery County Community College serves as an Adjunct Professor at Rosemont College in the Graduate Program of Education. Dr. Bank has completed the Ironman USA Triathlon multiple marathons. He has also been featured on NBC CN8 WIP USA Today.
Cory Bank Ph. D. is the founder of the Abington Center for Therapy Sports Psychology. abingtonpsychology. com Raising Confident Athletes Winning in the Long Run By Cory Bank Ph. D.
