Confidence is a word we use every day. We often forget what the true meaning is behind the word. Confidence is defined as “the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust”. Building the confidence of a child helps them feel safe and comfortable trying new things. Athletics is a great way to help improve the overall confidence of your child. When they have a chance to train and master a skill they get the opportunity to trust themselves and believe in their abilities outside of training.

Sports are one of the best ways to help build a child’s confidence. Through the use of training a child builds stamina, skills, and strength creating visible improvements that lead to confidence in other areas of their lives.

A child with positive self-confidence is likely to make friends, feel proud of themselves, try new things, and believe in their abilities on and off the field.

To build confidence a child needs to feel safe, loved, and accepted to create an environment that breeds confidence. The best way to create this environment is to let a child try, allow them to have fun, and tell them how proud you are of them.

Here are 4 ways your child can start building better confidence through sports.

Get Used to Failure

When your child practices they need to practice how to win and how to lose. Don’t make a mistake a negative experience. Allow room for mistakes and praise your child on their ability to solve problems outside of their control.

Start off Easy

Start every training session and game with easy tasks you know they can win. Simple drills help them warm up their body. They also remind a young athlete that they can do the skill they are practicing. Small wins produce endorphins to help boost them to a larger win.

Focus on Individual Contribution

Don’t allow your child to compare themselves to other athletes when there is a negative undertone. This doesn’t mean they can’t study athletes who outperform them. It simply means don’t let them compare their skills to others without a training aspect involved. Simply comparing athletes doesn’t account for how much each person has practised or their natural abilities.

It steams back to the idea that a child needs to understand that is out of their control. The best way to bring them back is to focus on what they can control.

Practice

Maintain a solid practice routine. Practice every aspect of the sport. Our facility focuses on four main areas speed, agility, strength, and biomechanics. Each area allows your child to feel confident in their overall abilities.

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How You Can Help as a Parent

A large amount of your child’s confidence comes from their environment. If you want to help your child build their confidence on the track they need to have support off the track.

Here are a few ways you can support your child off the field.

• Support your child through new activities and allow them to explore their likes and dislikes
• Show them a task, then let them try it on their own without your assistance even if they make a mistake
• Be a good role model and put honest effort into your everyday tasks
• Avoid harsh criticism of your child and towards yourself
• Focus on their strengths

Giving Your Child Praise

Praise works differently for each child. You know your child best and it’s important to understand how your child likes to receive praise.

In general, praise can be a good motivator however, too much praise can cause a negative reaction.

Praise the efforts of your child but don’t overpraise. If you praise them when it hasn’t been earned it means your child can’t trust future praise.

That doesn’t mean you can’t say you are proud of them it just means don’t say “great game you played your best” when it’s clear they didn’t put their full effort in.

Avoid praising results or qualities. It’s better to focus on effort, progress, and attitude. This will create better self-esteem and lead to long-term confidence.

Located in Carrollton Texas Run Speed Performance is a youth athlete training facility. We focus on all skill levels. We give every athlete the chance to train like a professional. Our program focuses on speed, agility, strength, and biometrics for all sports. Started by Jonathan Johnson an Olympic track star we help athletes reach their full potential by building confidence in their training regiment.

If you are looking for training programs for your child check out our classes and camps. We have new programs starting every month.