Developing Mental Toughness: 12U Q and A

Q: How can I help my 12U player begin developing mental toughness as an athlete?

A: To excel in sports, athletes need more than just physical skills. They also need mental skills that will help them grow and succeed. And similarly to how they develop physical skills, their development of mental skills happens through consistent, deliberate practice.

Becoming a mentally tough athlete involves development of a whole package of mental skills, but essential among them, especially among top performers, is the ability to critically self-evaluate performance without a negative emotional attachment. Mentally tough performers can gauge their performance on a particular task and then use that evaluation to make self-improvement happen.

For the youth parent or coach, here's a simple exercise to begin developing this skill: regularly ask a player to evaluate his or her performance on a specific drill or task. Have the player rate their execution

Hey Parents, great practice this week and I'm looking forward to getting on the ice again next week. Especially early in our kids hockey development they experience many failures and letdowns. Whether its a missed pass, wide open net, turnover, or simply falling down while skating, hockey is full of mistakes. Every young player struggles at times with their on-ice confidence, talent, and/or playmaking ability. Below is a great article from Minnesota Hockey with the web address at the end. Its more goalie-centric but has some great tips for all players/ parents. See you next week and enjoy.

Dealing with Disappointment by Touchpoint Media

There’s a lot of responsibility that rests on a goaltender’s shoulders. So whenever they have a bad game, it can be especially disappointing for him/her.

“The kids can be their own worst critics,” former Gopher goaltender and current goalie coach Justin Johnson said. “But feeling like they let their teammates down and sometimes their parents down

Hey Parents, great practice this week and I'm looking forward to getting on the ice again next week. Especially early in our kids hockey development they experience many failures and letdowns. Whether its a missed pass, wide open net, turnover, or simply falling down while skating, hockey is full of mistakes. Every young player struggles at times with their on-ice confidence, talent, and/or playmaking ability. Below is a great article from Minnesota Hockey with the web address at the end. Its more goalie-centric but has some great tips for all players/ parents. See you next week and enjoy.

Dealing with Disappointment by Touchpoint Media

There’s a lot of responsibility that rests on a goaltender’s shoulders. So whenever they have a bad game, it can be especially disappointing for him/her.

“The kids can be their own worst critics,” former Gopher goaltender and current goalie coach Justin Johnson said. “But feeling like they let their teammates down and sometimes their parents down

The Car Ride Home: Leave it on the Ice by Susan Caminiti

The silence was deafening. Driving home after a loss has never been a pleasant trip with either of my hockey-playing sons, but this particular defeat was brutal. Nicholas’s team had made it to the division semi-finals and the next game had looked to be an easy victory. It was not—final score: 4-0—and my brooding son was proof of it.

He slammed his hockey bag into the trunk of the car, stomped around to the passenger side, and got in the back seat. All I could see in the rear-view mirror was his 13-year-old furrowed brow.

“So that was a tough game,” I offered.

Nothing from Nick. I tried another approach.

“Well, you skated well.”

Still nothing. My brain raced to find the exact right thing to say to snap my son out of his post-loss funk. It was achingly clear that my repertoire of comforting Mom words was falling short. What should I have done on that car ride home? Insist that he talk to me, or simply endure the silence?

Nearly

Hello Pee Wee White Parents, Coach Wolfe and I are looking forward to a great season!

In prep and during the course of the season, I will try to communicate various "stuff" via the team page posts here on Sports Ngin that I think would be helpful to players, parents, or anyone who loves the game. This will include articles of interest, trainings, team outings, all sorts of stuff for players and parents.

One of the things that I discovered while being a hockey parent and coach over the years is that our game is a little bit different. Hockey players are built a little different but then again so are we, their parents!

When my son began his travel hockey odyssey several years ago, a friend of mine passed on the article below from ESPN's John Buccigross entitled "My 13 Simple Rules for Hockey Parents Everywhere." Being a former President of the local chapter of the "Intense Hockey Parent Association," it taught me a lot then and I still give it a read once a season. Over the years