Youth Sports | Peak Performance Sports News

With tryouts and auditions for summer sports and dance teams coming up, parents should beware of the possibility of bullies trying to psych out their young athletes and hurt their performance, says Patrick Cohn, Ph.D., a sports psychology expert and co-founder of the popular Ultimate Sports Parent and Kids’ Sports Psychology websites (Youth Sports Psychology and Kids’ Sports Psychology )

Cohn and his sister, award-winning parenting writer Lisa Cohn, just released “Helping Young Athletes Stay Confident and Mentally Tough in the Face of Bullies,” a program that uses sports psychology strategies to help kids remain confident and unshaken when bullies–both coaches and kids–try to psych them out, intimidate them, harass them or tease them in sports.

“While we were preparing this program, sports parents and coaches
wrote us with painful, angry and sometimes frightening stories about kids getting bullied in sports by their peers and their coaches,” says Dr. Cohn. “Our research showed that bullying is rampant in sports, is common among both boys and girls, and can cause kids to lose confidence, perform poorly and drop out.”

Bullies target all kinds of athletes, Dr. Cohn says. They focus on kids who are smaller and less physically talented. They also target gifted athletes because the bullies are jealous and want to force talented kids out of competition. What’s more, when kids are competing for a ladder position on a team, competition can be fierce and bullying is common.

“Helping Young Athletes Stay Confident and Mentally Tough in the Face of Bullies,” consists of an e-book for parents and coaches, a workbook for young athletes, and a series of audio interviews with bullying experts, coaches and sports parents. At the heart of the program are sports psychology strategies for helping young athletes stay focused, composed, and perform well when bullies target them.

The program explains:

Why kids and coaches bully in sports
How bullying hurts kids’ sports performance and confidence
How sports kids can stay focused when bullies strike
How sports kids can re-focus when distracted by bullies
How young athletes can create a “confidence resume” and use it to ward off bullies
How young athletes can deal with friends who are bullies
How kids can get bullies’ negativity out of their heads and focus on more positive things
What parents and coaches need to do to fight the bullying epidemic in sports

“Parents really need to be on the lookout for bullies during summer tryouts,” says Dr. Cohn. “They’ll be out there insulting, harassing, teasing, intimidating and trying to ensure your kids don’t make the team. They’ll also cause lots of trouble on recreational teams.”

Dr. Patrick Cohn is a sports psychology expert and sports parent. He has worked with some of the top athletes in the world–including PGA tour winners and NASCAR winners–on techniques to improve confidence, focus, and composure in sports. He has interviewed many top athletes in the world, including Thurman Thomas, Michelle Akers, Ernie Els, Mario Andretti, and Helen Alfredsson to uncover the strategies, techniques and skills that keep these professional athletes at the pinnacle of performance. Dr. Cohn has a Ph.D. in education from the University of Virginia.

Lisa Cohn is an award-winning parenting writer and author whose stories have appeared in Mothering, the Christian Science Monitor, Parenting and other publications. She’s the host of Ultimate Sports Parent Radio, a podcast with about 70,000 subscribers, She’s been quoted about parenting by the New York Times, Associated Press and Time Magazine. Lisa is a mom and stepmom to five young athletes and a former youth sports coach. Lisa played three sports as a student at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Ct.

For more information, visit: “Helping Young Athletes Stay Confident and Mentally Tough in the Face of Bullies”

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