Are you a sports mom looking for ways to build up your daughter on her sports journey? Do you want to see her grow in confidence and level up in her sport, but you’re not quite sure how, or where to start?

Today, we’re sharing the most commonly overlooked part of your daughter’s sports journey by parents. We’re diving deep into the details of this aspect of her sports journey, and sharing more about why she needs this in order for her to play to her potential.

Don’t Play The Waiting Game

No matter what sport she plays, your athlete will face highs and lows throughout her sports journey. It’s inevitable that your daughter will face things like feeling pressure, missed expectations, nervousness, trying new skills, lack of belief in herself, making mistakes, and the list could go on. These are all normal aspects of being an athlete.

For that reason, we don’t have to play the waiting game. We don’t have to “wait” to see if she will experience these things on her sports journey. In reality, she’s almost guaranteed to face these challenges. After all, that’s one of the reasons why we encourage her to be in athletics, isn’t it?

So, when it comes to training the mental side of her game, we can expect that she’ll benefit from it. We don’t have to “wait and see” if she can get through the highs and lows without mental training. Instead, we can help prepare her for what we know is coming. The real question is, will she be able to navigate these challenges or not? If we don’t give her the skills to face these challenges, the answer is likely going to be no. She won’t know how to navigate these things.

The Most Overlooked Part Of Her Sports Journey

The most overlooked aspect of your daughter’s sports journey is YOU! Yes, YOUR involvement, as her mom, is a major part of her sports journey, whether you realize it or not.

Did you know that you have the most influence on your daughter’s confidence and her overall mental game? It’s true, you can make or break her confidence and her experience in her sport.

As her mom, we often see our athlete daughter as the “doer” in the sports situation – she’s the one going to practices, she’s training, and she’s competing. Because she’s the one “doing” most things, we can be guilty of believing that it’s only up to her to work on the mental aspect of her game. Sure, we’re typically providing support through things like transportation – driving her to and from practice and games. We also feed her, coordinate her schedule, and pay for things, too. Yes, these are all very important aspects of supporting her on her sports journey. Without these things, she might not be playing her sport! But what if I told you that your role actually goes far beyond those things?

In reality, we have a huge impact on the mental side of her game. And as her mom, you have the opportunity to train yourself, too! Your daughter’s confidence has more to do with you than you might think.

The more work you do to train yourself mentally as her mom, the more you’re able to provide a solid model of confidence for your daughter. As her mom, you’re the most influential person in her life, especially in terms of confidence.

I challenge you to take inventory of a few things. What are you saying to your daughter before, during, and after games? Do you feel like you know what to say, or do you find yourself feeling uncertain? How do you handle disappointments? When your daughter doesn’t get what she wants and she’s disappointed, how do you navigate that with her? How do you help her handle the pressures of her sport? What about things like anxiety, team drama, jealous players, and coach issues?

All of these elements of her sports journey are where you actually have a major influence.

Pulling Back The Curtain

When we started the Elite Competitor Program, we set out to help athletes train the mental side of their game. The more we got into it, the more we realized that one aspect was lacking. It became so obvious that we couldn’t ignore it. We quickly realized that the missing piece of the puzzle was the influence of the parents, and specifically, the influence of the mother/daughter relationship. When we realized that a mom’s confidence profoundly impacted her daughter’s confidence, we did a major pivot.

That’s when we added in a whole half of the program that now exists for the moms, dads, and caretakers of athletes navigating a sports journey. Here’s one thing we know for certain, the mentally challenging aspects of your daughter’s sports journey that she’s experiencing, the anxiety, negative self-talk, nervousness – these things are all normal. They might be new to her, but they’re not new in general.

Although your daughter has probably had several coaches in her sports career so far, you likely haven’t had any guidance in the area of supporting your daughter. She’s had coaches training the physical side of her game, but neither of you have had training on the mental side of her game.

That’s why we do things differently through the Elite Competitor Program. It isn’t your fault that you haven’t been trained in this area! There hasn’t been a playbook on how to do this, until now.

The magic of the program happens when moms, dads, and caretakers invest in working on their own confidence, what they’re saying, and how they’re providing support throughout their daughter’s sports journey. When athletes feel supported, heard, and seen, they start to build confidence and let the pressure go. They start to see that they can go out and play, have fun, breathe, all while deep down knowing that their parents are there to support them.

More than anything, you want her to believe in herself, stand up for herself, trust herself, and face challenges head on while coming out stronger on the other side. All of these things start with you!

For Those Of You Who Are Competitive…

If you’re competitive in nature like we are, then you’ll appreciate this last part.

Athletes with parents who know what to say and how to support them actually give their athletes a competitive advantage in their sport. Athletes with parents who know how to support them both mentally and physically help their athlete play to the full potential! But athletes who have the opposite, parents who don’t know what to say and who only critique them, that athlete isn’t going to play to their potential.

When you invest in the mental training aspect of your daughter’s game, you give your daughter a competitive advantage. It takes work on your end, but it is so worth it! 

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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode.
• 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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