The importance of mental training to your female athlete’s career is undeniably important, but what if they don’t see its value? How can we help female athletes see the importance of mental training?

As moms, we see what’s going on with our athletes. We see her out there. We know what she might need at the moment from a different perspective. But knowing doesn’t mean your daughter is on the same page as you. 

Here’s a question we got from one of the moms in the Elite Competitor Program.

“My daughter would benefit from mental training and increasing her confidence. How do I approach her about this in a way that will help her see the value and want to do it?”

Today, we’re going to shed some light on these questions and share with you some easy tips to help your daughter see the value of mental training in her sport. 

Connect to Her Goals

As moms, we are aware of what is going on with our daughters. We notice her big goals and her will to play at the next level, level up, or simply enjoy her sports when it comes down to it. 

On the other hand, we can also notice the struggles that our female athletes face. We can notice when they’re overly nervous before a game, and how it’s affecting how they play. We can see how they perform well in practice but not so well in competitions.

It’s a struggle for the parents because although we know that building confidence through mental training might help, it’s hard to find the right words to say to get them to notice it.

So to help them notice its importance, connect mental game training to her goals. Maybe she’s told you what her goal in her sport is. Whatever those goals are, that’s an entry point for you to connect it to mental game training. 

Acknowledge their hard work and their goals. Then, you can explain to them what mental training is and how it works. You can tell them how mental training helps them overcome mistakes a lot faster and deal with nervousness and pressure during competitions. 

Show Her Examples and Inspirations

Another thing that you can do is show her examples of other athletes who are doing it. 

Your daughter must have an athlete she looks up to, you can research that person and pull out a video that talks about how she’s handling pressure and all the mental work. 

Every athlete at every high level deals with mistakes, pressure, nervousness, and not feeling good enough, but they have the skills to navigate those situations. They know how to get through them. 

Show them examples of athletes at these high levels who are using these mental skills. 

Ask Her Plans to Improve 

Ask what her complaints are and then proactively ask for her action plan. Acknowledging her feelings and the struggle she faces is a good entry point to introduce mental game training to her. 

Let her think about what’s not working and suggest something she hasn’t tried yet that might work. 

Help your daughter realize that the best athletes aren’t just training their bodies. To allow that physical work to pay off, we also have to put her in a position where she can perform to her potential and where she’s not being held back by her limiting beliefs about herself. She’s not being held back by perfectionism that being held back by these nerves, that she doesn’t know how to manage properly. 

Show Other Athlete’s Recommendations

Listen to interviews of other athletes who have been through the lead competitor programs. If you’re looking for a place to find athletes’ insights on mental training, check out our podcast episode number 56. That is a great episode for her to listen to, and to hear the perspective of other high-level athletes as well. These are athletes who are going on to play at the collegiate level and professional levels who have been through the program. And so it’s showing her that she’s not alone, and nothing is wrong with her. She just doesn’t have these skills yet. 

These athletes that have been part of our mental training program are not just training their bodies, they’re training their minds. 

Bottomline

We learn as we walk through this sports journey with our female athletes. If you notice that adding in more physical activities without having the right mental skills didn’t work, then maybe it’s time you introduce your daughter to mental game training. 

To seamlessly introduce mental game training you can:

• Connect the mental game’s relevance to her goals. 
• Show her examples of athletes who’ve been doing the mental work and help her feel inspired to work on her mental game too. 
• Ask her plans to improve and suggest mental training. 
• Listen to other athletes’ recommendations regarding the mental game

You don’t have to 100%convince your daughter to get started with mental training. Just take the steps that you can and it’s more than enough to help your female athlete gain the right mental skills to build self-confidence.

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Helpful Links:

• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms – How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do.

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