“We spoke to sports psychologist Dr. Carlin Anderson, a Licensed Psychologist and certified consultant for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), who specializes in sport/performance psychology and counseling psychology. Dr. Anderson offered some useful tips for the adults closest to high-achieving youth to foster healthy self-esteem and life-skills to manage stress and anxiety.
Be Curious & Focus on the Process
Students are well-aware of their academic and athletic performance scores. They also know when they put in full, half or partial effort to achieve those results. Try to help your student athlete measure and evaluate them self based on the effort they put in, rather than the results they achieve. Take inventory of the tasks they did before the test or game to see if there is a pattern. What worked? What didn’t work? If your student feels like they gave their best EFFORT both in their preparation and performance, then as a parent, reinforce them for this and highlight it regardless of the outcome.”
Read more: Helping Student Athletes Manage Stress and Anxiety – Homeworks for Students