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When Young Athletes Doubt Their Skills When Criticized

By Patrick Cohn, The Ultimate Sports Parent, 10/14/19, 6:00PM PDT

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Here are three ways to help strengthen kids’ confidence, especially when they’re feeling self-doubt.

Do your young athletes start to doubt themselves and lose confidence when they are criticized or given feedback in sports?

One soccer player puts it this way:

“I’m often challenged mentally during practice if a teammate tells me how I can’t do a certain thing, such as properly marking my opponent. I end up questioning my ability to do so, therefore affecting my performance negatively.”

Self-doubt, which this athlete describes well, is one of the biggest mental game challenges in youth sports.