subject: Steps To Help Athletes Overcome Fear And Nervousness [print this page] It is not uncommon for youth athletes to have debilitating nerves and fear when playing. Players, who experience fear of failure, fear of injury and excessive nervousness are common sites in youth sports. Excessive nerves and fears inhibit peak performance and create frustrations for athletes, coaches and parents. There are many things that sport parents and coaches can do to assist athletes in overcoming these negative obstacles to success, with the most important thing being adult patience. Youth athletes need time to work through these fears and nerves. Parents and coaches who exhibit patience with these athletes allow them the time needed to conquer these "obstacles to peak performance."
The most common cause of fear and nervousness is a lack of self- confidence. Developing self-confidence in athletes takes time, good fundamentals and some amount of success. Sound fundamentals, followed by success, usually comes with much practice time. Practicing with youth athletes is the best way of helping kids gain confidence, which subsequently helps kids move beyond their paralyzing fears and nervousness. Using safer sports equipment for practice can rid players of some of their game fears.
Parents and coaches can try the following to help players overcome their nerves and fears.
1. Explain to players that nervousness and fear are common attributes of athletes, but that good concentration can help players perform despite their nerves.
2. Provide athletes with the know-how. Knowledge of how to do something can definitely help quell a players fear and nervousness. Having athletes work with a trained professional coach can help their confidence level immensely.
3. Creating game-like situations for players in practice as often as possible can help them feel more comfortable when they are in real games.
4. Along the same lines, putting youth athletes in situations where they have a good chance to succeed is a move in the right direction. Over challenging fearful athletes is not a good thing.
5. Point out something good about the players' performance or effort and encourage them to remember only that.
6. Never yell or show frustration with athletes who are nervous enough to begin with.
7. Try to keep players "in the moment" by having players focus on what is happening and not what might happen. Of course, this is easier said than done but can be achieved by giving players a positive thought to recall before play and asking them to repeat that thought before the play begins. An example is having a baseball hitter, who is too nervous to swing the bat, say "I know this next pitch will be down the middle and it will be my pitch to hit.".
8. Try not to bring up the players fears and nerves in front of others. Making a big issue of the athletes apparent fear and nerves by continually bringing it up, especially to others, will usually make the situation worse.
Finally, excessive parental pressure, real or imagined, can add to an athletes fear and nervousness. This is why great patience, time and understanding is necessary for players to get beyond these mental obstacles.
