How to Best Support your Athlete After a Game
We all want our kids to take sport to the highest of levels and reach their goals or full potential within the sport that they play. Whether that is playing in college, making it pro, or playing club, rec, or high school, one of the main questions we are asked as mentors is, “How do I best support my child?”
While the main answer is with POSITIVITY, there are many different components to just that. Everyone sees the game differently and we always want our own child to do their best and crush every game they play, but sometimes that is just not the case. Lets face it, kids know when they played a good game and they FOR SURE know when they played a not-so-great game. Sometimes allowing them to “Self-Assess” or even assessing the game with them when you are in the car ride home can be extremely beneficial (as long as they’re not hangry and you’re not heated).
Before any of the NEGATIVE thinking or talk has taken over the car ride home (which in most cases is the standard), it is extremely important and essential to their growth to find forms of POSITIVITY with how they performed. It is ok for athletes to be critical of themselves, but depending on how they do so will determine how confident they are for the next week of training/games.
As a former professional athlete, thinking about only the negative moments that I had in any past game would make me overly obsess about those “negatives” throughout the next week of training and take away from the positive consistencies I may have had in other moments of those games.
Try This Exercise with your Athlete:
The 3 POSITIVES / 2 BUILD-ONS exercise. Have your athlete write down 3 positive moments that he/she had within the game and then 2 build-ons to focus on within the next week of training.
The purpose is to help our athletes think of the positives first. This will help with confidence and the ability to overcome poor performances. The positives then serve as a reminder of what they can keep consistent throughout the week while the “build-ons” provide opportunities for growth.
EXAMPLE OF 3 POSITIVES/ 2 BUILD-ONS:
3 Positives:
Great defending 1v1
Scanned the whole entire game to create space/time for myself
Led by example
2 Build On’s
Communication on the field
Staying focused and responsible on corner’s defensively
Whether it is an effort to lift up their confidence or even provide criticism and feedback in a constructive way, positive support is the basis for success. Giving the right support, in the right way, allows the athlete to take this positive mentality and not only apply it in future trainings/games but also spread that attitude to others on their team. When the communication style is positive and tailored to the individual, you enable the player to reach their potential and it spreads to those around them. That is what support is all about!
