7. Improve or balance motivation for optimal performance. It’s important to look at your level of motivation and just why you are motivated to play your sport. Some motivators are better in long-term than others. Athletes who are extrinsically motivated often play for wrong reasons, such as athlete who only participates in sports because of a parent. I work with athlete to help them adopt a healthy level of motivation and be motivated for right reasons.

8. Develop confidence post-injury. Some athletes find themselves fully prepared physically to get back into competition and practice, but mentally some scars remain. Injury can hurt confidence, generate doubt during competition, and cause a lack of focus. I help athletes mentally heal from injuries and deal with fear of re-injury.

9. To develop game-specific strategies and game plans. All great coaches employ game plans, race strategies, and course management skills to help athletes mentally prepare for competition. This is an area beyond developing basic mental skills in which a mental coach helps athletes and teams. This is very important in sports such as golf, racing, and many team sports.

10. To identify and enter “zone” more often. This incorporates everything I do in mental side of sports. The overall aim is to help athletes enter zone by developing foundational mental skills that can help athletes enter zone more frequently. It’s impossible to play in zone everyday, but you can set conditions for it to happen more often.

I will add that sport psychology may not be appropriate for every athlete. Not every person who plays a sport wants to “improve performance.” Sport psychology is probably not for recreation athletes who participate for social component of a sport or do not spend time working on technique or fitness to improve performance. Young athletes whose parents want them to see a sports psychologist are not good candidate either. It’s very important that athlete desires to improve his or her mental game without having motive to satisfy a parent. Similarly, an athlete who sees a mental game expert only to satisfy a coach is not going to fully benefit from mental training.

Sports Psychology does apply to a wide variety of serious athletes. Most of my students (junior, high school, college, and professional athletes) are highly committed to excellence and seeing how far they can go in sports. They love competition and testing themselves against best in their sport. They understand importance of a positive attitude and mental toughness. These athletes want every possible advantage they can get including mental edge over competition.

4.You are a role model for your child athlete. As such, you should model composure and poise on sidelines. When you are at competition, your child mimics your behavior as well as other role models. You become a role model in how you react to a close race or questionable behavior of a competitor. Stay calm, composed, and in control during games so your child superstar can mimic those positive behaviors.

5.Refrain from game-time coaching. During competition, it’s time to just let them play. All practice should be set aside because this is time that athletes need trust in training and react on court or field. “Just do it” as saying goes. Too much coaching (or over-coaching) can lead to mistakes and cautious performance (called paralysis by over analysis in my work). Save coaching for practice and use encouragement at game time instead.

6.Help you athlete to detach self-esteem from achievement. Too many athletes I work with attach self-worth to level of performance or outcomes. Help your child understand that they are a person FIRST who happens to be an athlete instead of an athlete who happens to be a person. Success or number of wins should not determine a person’s self-esteem.

7.Ask your child athlete right questions. Asking right questions after competition and games will tell your child what you think is important in sports. If you ask, “Did you win?” your child will think winning is important. If you ask, “Did you have fun?” he or she will assume having fun is important.

8.Pledge the: P.A.Y.S. Parent’s Code of Ethics. PAYS (Parents Association for Youth Sports) provides a parental handbook and code of ethics that adults must sign before each competitive season. This is a great tool to guide parents in their interaction with young athletes.