7 Strategies to Help Your Athlete Be More Confident
In this helpful article for youth sports parents, Dr. Patrick J. Cohn, a leading youth sports psychology expert, discusses 7 steps parents can take to help their child perform with more confidence. Read more
Trying Out for a Select Team - The Parent Quiz
If Your Kid Can Make the Team, Can You? Given the importance of team chemistry, many select and travel teams are starting to evaluate parents as well as the players when making their decisions for limited team spots. Parents who have demonstrated inappropriate behavior or who have caused problems for coaches or staff often put their kids at a disadvantage. Parents who don’t have the right perceptions of select sports can also cause problems for teams. Here is a quick questionnaire that teams can use to evaluate the parents of select or travel players. Read more
How to Make Tryouts Less Stressful
Below is a special article by Keith Andresen who has been involved with USA Hockey and coaching youth hockey for the past ten years. In this article, Keith discusses travel team tryouts and how parents can keep this process in perspective and make it less stressful for the family. Read more
Discover 7 Ways to Help Build Confidence in Your Child
Early on, children learn how sports-oriented the culture is around them. As the headlines frequently tell us, some parents, and even star professional athletes, seem never to have learned the fundamentals of good sportsmanship. Read more
Do You Know Why Kids Quit Youth Sports?
Too Many Kids Quit Sports - According to a Michigan State University study, over 70% of kids quit sports by age 13. For professional sports, that is the equivalent of losing one potential Michael Jordan or Mike Modano a week. In addition, there is no way of knowing the impact on the talent pool of business leaders and other professions where continued sports participation helps develop critical life skills. Read more
How Can Parents Make Youth Sports More Positive?
Sports can be a fun and engaging way for children and youth to learn some important lessons about life. Studies suggest that participation in sports can be very beneficial, fostering responsible social behaviors, greater academic success, and an appreciation of personal health and fitness. Participating on a team also can give children or youth an important sense of belonging. Read more
Do You Make These Mistakes During The Ride Home?
The youngsters are a captive audience in the back seat on the way home, but they deserve to ride in peace without being unwilling victims of their parents’ “station wagon syndrome.” Read more
4 Ways to Empower Your Hockey Player
When it comes to sports, we as parents can fall into the trap of thinking that it is our job to talk and our children’s job to listen. We need to remember it is also our job to listen and to create space for our children to talk. Here are some suggestions for talking sports with your kids. Read more
5 Ways to Help Manage Your Child’s Development
Just as children bring home homework that is beyond what a parent can help with, so young athletes often progress beyond the abilities of a parent. If the problem is not addressed, young players’ frustration at their own lack of progress may increase until the solution is to quit sports altogether. Fortunately, like in school, there are a variety of experts to help with almost every aspect of physical skill and strategy development. Read more
6 Ways Parents Can Improve Youth Hockey
Below are 6 steps that youth sports parents can implement to help improve the game: Read more
