Conversations with Kids: When School and Sport Collide
For parents and guardians where we give you prompts so that you can have more meaningful conversations with your children to help them build key characteristics such as mental toughness, resilience, confidence, creativity, focus and so on.
A Questions for Your Kids
“When schoolwork, exams, and sport all feel important at the same time, what usually happens inside your head?”
Directions for Parents
For many kids and young athletes, exam periods create a perfect storm. Revision deadlines, expectations at school, and training or competition schedules collide. Some children and teenagers rush through revision in a panic. Others avoid it completely, freeze, or feel overwhelmed, even when they care deeply about doing well.
These reactions aren’t a lack of ability. They’re often default responses to pressure.
Improves:
- Emotional Control
Helping young people manage emotions like anxiety, frustration, or fear of failure.
- Decision-Making
Supports them understanding why revision matters and how to follow through without burning out.
Further Directions for Parents
When teenagers understand how they respond under pressure, they’re better able to pause, reset, and make clearer decisions in the exam hall, in sport and at home.
During exam periods, parents can unintentionally increase pressure. Instead:
- Acknowledge how demanding it is to juggle school and sport
- Separate effort from outcomes, praise preparation, not just grades
- Help your child plan small, realistic revision blocks
- Encourage rest, sleep, and training as part of performance, not distractions
Ideas for Kids
- Notice your usual response to exam stress: rush, freeze, or avoid
- Use short routines before revision (breathing, planning one task)
- Break revision into 20–30 minute blocks with clear goals
- Ask: “What’s one thing I can control in the next 10 minutes?”
These habits can reduce overwhelm and build confidence over time.
Helpful Resources
Some Final Thoughts for Parents
Busy academic schedules, exams, and sport will always come with pressure especially during the teenage years. What matters most is not removing that pressure but helping kids and young people understand how they respond to it.
When I talk about Mental toughness it’s clear that it isn’t about pushing harder, doing more, or coping silently. It’s about awareness, balance, and knowing when to act, pause, or ask for support. When kids and young athletes learn that pressure doesn’t mean something is “wrong”, they stop fighting their emotions and start working with them.
As parents, your calm presence, curiosity, and reassurance are powerful. You don’t need all the answers. Simply creating space for reflection, flexibility, and recovery can make a lasting difference not just in education or sport, but in how your child approaches challenges for years to come.
If you would like to share your experiences as a sports parent or get insights regarding kids sport psychology, you may also wish to join David in The Sport Psychology Hub.
You can also join our online community – THE SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY HUB – for regular Sports Psychology tips, podcasts, motivation and support.
Best Wishes
David Charlton
Global Sports Psychologist who is located near Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK and willing to travel Internationally. David also uses online video conferencing software (Zoom, Facetime, WhatsApp) on a regular basis and has clients who he has supported in the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia and New Zealand.
Managing Director – Inspiring Sporting Excellence and Founder of The Sports Psychology Hub. With over 15 years experience supporting athletes, coaches, parents and teams to achieve their goals, quickly.
