08/05/2023
Being aggressive in sports can lead to high reward. Often, young athletes have a problem understanding why or how be more aggressive.
🤔👟❓️
Here are a few tips to helping your athlete learn to be more aggressive:
1) Eliminate fear - young athletes fear failure, so they are prone to hesitate. Making mistakes is part of learning. If we focus too much on what went or could go wrong, we build hesitant, slow reacting athletes.
2) Positive reinforcement - as coaches and parents, we are quick to yell and point out what the athlete did incorrectly. As noted above, this type of communication can lead an athlete to play hesitant. Reward your child for what they did well. They most likely already understand what they did wrong. The best way to correct behavior is in practice.
3) Drills that require high effort - a lot of coaches get these wrong. Competition in coaching drills is great if the kids have the established behavior and confidence. In some cases, these drills only create more hesitancy and anxiety amongst athletes. There are tons of great drills that can be done with athletes that allow them personal success and growth without the fear of losing a race or drill.
4) A great coach - unfortunately, great coaches don't grow on trees. A great coach may serve well to one athlete but not another. This can be difficult to navigate. Saying that, young athletes need to learn to communicate with their coach. As parents, we need to give our kids the confidence to talk to the coaches about what they need to do to improve rather than quit or make excuses.
5) Improve skill development - confident athletes move faster and play without over-thinking. They are able to slow the game down and rise to the occasion. The stronger, the faster and more skilled your athlete becomes, the more they will make quick, aggressive decisions and actions.
💪🔑🏆
We look forward to seeing you at YPA!