a note to sports parents

After one too many frustrating client stories this week (AND being a sports mom myself) I couldn’t help myself...

A short note to sports parents:

Stop yelling at your kids. 

Stop yelling at other people’s kids.

Stop yelling at the refs/umps.

Seriously. It’s not helping.

Even if you think the information you’re yelling is helpful. It's not.

It’s a problem. 

You are not the coach.

AND it actually makes things worse for your athlete. 

It’s confusing. 

It’s distracting.

It’s often embarrassing (which seriously impacts your kid’s confidence)

If you want your athlete to do well, you don’t want them thinking about you or what you’re saying when they’re competing.

In fact, you don’t want them thinking about anything. 

You want them IN the experience of what they are doing. 

Focused on just playing/running/swimming/dribbling/swinging/flipping/etc.

You want them to allow their body and their training to take over and execute.

This CANNOT happen if you are barking at them.

Sometimes as parents it is REALLY HARD to just watch your kids play sports. I totally get it. We have all sorts of feelings/opinions about what is happening or what we want to happen.

I know for me, I’m not a yeller, but I certainly navigate my own internal dialogue and stress response when I watch my son play. 

From wanting him to do well, to wanting him to have success so he feels confident, to wanting to him to get playing time so he feels like he is contributing, to hoping he’ll be able to let it go if he makes a mistake, or shake it off if someone makes a dumb comment, etc, my mind and heart race when he plays.

But I don’t share ANY of this with my son. This is my work.

For the yellers, this is your work: It’s time to STOP. 

If you struggle with being a sports parent and are looking for some support I invite you to reach out. I offer consultation sessions for parents who want to work on this aspect of parenting, and want to be able to stay calm, rooted and present during highly charged moments.

From knowing what to say if your athlete is navigating confidence issues in their sport, to being able to support them after a rough game, to learning tools and strategies to stay calm on the sidelines, I’ve got you covered.

Send me a message and let’s connect OR if you know of someone who could benefit from chatting with me I would so appreciate you passing on my information. I would love to be a support!