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.

(2) Team goals are more important than individual ones. Individual players are able to sacrifice their trophies and personal goals and adopt team goals. Having a shared goal is only way to develop team unity and have teamwork.

(3) Elevated expectations or self-confidence. Any championship team has belief that they are ready, willing, and able to win big one. If a team has doubts about it’s overall ability level, then team will fall short of winning championship. If you think your team can get to playoffs, but not win big game, then team will realize this shortfall.

(4) No excuses to lose. I tell athletes I work with that if you show up to play with excuses to lose, then you might as well not show up to play. If you think your team does not play well under lights, against a particular team, or when conditions are not optimal, then you have excuses to lose. Championship teams don’t have built-in excuses to lose—they expect to win and will settle for nothing less.