Teaching Young Athletes Anger Management: A Parent’s Guide to Sports Aggression

angry child 16 years old

Conversations with Kids: Teaching Young Athletes to Channel Their Competitive Fire 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 Question for your Kids Have …

Read more

How to Take Control of Your Emotions: Building Your Personal Playbook for Confidence and Calm

EP 296 Matt Young

How to Take Control of Your Emotions: Building Your Personal Playbook for Confidence and Calm Matt Young – Anxiety and Fear Coach Matt Young’s journey began as a professional footballer, where eight years in the game exposed him to the intensity, pressure, and emotional highs and lows of elite sport.  Over the past 15+ years, …

Read more

Managing Anger and Aggression in Young Athletes: A Coach’s Guide to Violence Prevention

Aggressive child 16 years old

Managing Anger and Aggression in Young Athletes A Coach’s Guide to Violence Prevention When a talented 21-year-old striker receives a provocative challenge during a crucial match, their response in that split-second can define not just the game’s outcome, but potentially their entire sporting career.  John H. Kerr’s compelling examination of anger-based aggression in sport, published …

Read more

How to Support Your Highly Sensitive Sporting Child Lessons from Aoife Durcan’s Book

Aoife Durcan Your Highly Sensitive Child

Book Review: Your Highly Sensitive Child – Dr Aoife Durcan Ideas for Sporting Parents Sport can be an emotional rollercoaster for children, the thrill of scoring, the sting of missing, the pressure of being watched.  Some youngsters however seem to experience all of this more intensely.  They might cry after a mistake, withdraw after criticism, …

Read more

Helping Young Athletes Take Emotional Control: Lessons for Parents and Coaches

Composure when goalkeeping

Why Emotional Control Matters in Youth Sport With Matt Young Every parent and coach wants to see their young child or athlete perform with confidence, enjoy their sport, and handle pressure well. Yet, as former professional footballer and anxiety coach Matt Young explains on the Demystifying Mental Toughness podcast, young people often struggle not because …

Read more

Taking Emotional Control: Lessons from Ex-Footballer and Anxiety Coach Matt Young

EP 295 Matt Young

How Emotional Control Builds Resilience and Freedom in Sport Matt Young – Anxiety and Fear Coach Matt Young spent eight years as a professional footballer, sharing the pitch with England internationals, playing under international coaches, and experiencing the highs and lows of elite sport.  Over the past 15+ years, he has deeply studied peak performance …

Read more

Attribution Training: A Game-Changer for Athletes Under Pressure

Breaking the Cycle of Choking Through Psychological Intervention

Attribution Training: A Game-Changer for Athletes Under Pressure Breaking the Cycle of Choking Through Psychological Intervention Every athlete knows the devastating feeling: the moment when pressure transforms peak performance into catastrophic failure. This phenomenon, known as “choking,” affects even the most skilled competitors, causing them to perform well below their normal standards precisely when it …

Read more