Janis B. Meredith's Blog: JBM Thinks Sportsparenting, page 23

Here are 5 Types of Manipulation That Happen in Youth Sports–and in LIFE

Let’s be honest. We are all guilty of manipulation in one way or another. Parents do it. Kids do it. Coaches do it. It’s very difficult to stop doing and, in fact, it almost seems like manipulation is a default mechanism in many relationships. But healthy relationships cannot be driven by manipulation. Any community or...

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3 Steps to Stopping Ref Abuse in Youth Sports

What is the solution to stopping ref abuse? It is a very real problem. Listen to these facts: In a detailed survey of over 17,000 referees conducted last year by the National Association of Sports Officials, 87% of respondents said that they had suffered from verbal abuse in their role as officials and 13% responded that they had...

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4 Types of Athletes Who Struggle to Succeed

Every youth athlete will struggle to succeed; some seasons being harder than others. When I say success, I’m not talking about winning the championship or making the all-star team. Rather, the success I’m referring to is the success of accomplishment, of effort, of finding victory even in the hard times, of a positive and persistent...

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How to Handle a Young Athlete’s Mood Swings

One of the most frustrating things that parents deal with is mood swings in kids. I hate the feeling that I must walk on eggshells around one of them because they’re in a bad mood or that I must consistently give them space because they just don’t feel like talking.  How many of you have...

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3 Tips for Handling Your Sports Parenting Emotions

The pressure and heat of competition bring out the best and the worst in athletes and parents. I’ve been amazed to see parents who always seem so calm, go berzerk at their child’s games. Kids are not the only ones who need to work on handling their emotions!   It’s easy for me to sit...

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The Game When My Son Struck out 3 Times, and What I Learned

There are moments in a sports parent’s life that are embedded in your heart and memory so deeply that they will always move you when you think of them. One of those moments for me was when my 4th-grade son–who is now 28–struck out three times in a playoff little league game. As the game...

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You Might be Embarrassing Your Child if….

Are you unintentionally embarrassing your child? Any sports parent who uses humiliation or embarrassment to try to motivate an athlete is barking up the wrong tree. In an article by Dr. Chris Stankovich, founder of Advanced Human Performance Systems, an athletic counseling and human performance enhancement center, he states that humiliating your child is not the...

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5 Dilemmas That Keep Sports Parents Up at Night

Parents worry. That’s just what they do. Kids give them plenty of fuel for that, and in the youth sports world, it is no different. I hate to admit this, but there were nights when I would lie awake, worrying about something my child was facing in sports. I would think through every possible solution,...

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3 College Recruiting Myths Sports Parents Should Know

When it comes to your child and their–or YOUR–dreams of a full-ride athletic scholarship to play in college, it may be time for a reality check. Coach Renee Lopez, a college recruiting expert for high school student-athletes, has some harsh realities for parents and athletes looking to play at the college level. In her article Common Misconceptions...

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Are You THAT Pushy Sports Parent?

No mom or dad that I know really wants to be known as a PUSHY sports parent. But at the same time, parents sometimes let their “encouragement” turn into pushiness, without realizing it or even wanting it. Sometimes parental pushiness is blatant; you see it come out as parents coach their kids from the sidelines,...

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