Parenting Through The Tough Times

One of the hardest things we have to do as parents is let our kids go through hard times. We want to rush to their aid and intervene where we think it’s helpful. Unfortunately, we are doing more harm than good. The only way for anyone (including our kids) to truly learn to master anything is to experience it for themselves.

Limiting Youth Sport Specialization

Many youth athletes are diligently dedicated to playing the sports they love. At first glance, this seems like a good thing, but many youth athletes and sport families are unknowingly jeopardizing the child’s health and safety by specializing in one sport too early and year-round.

More than a Film Project

Where Our Children Play: The Challenge of Youth Sports is a documentary film in development about the need to change the culture of youth sports by bringing the focus back to the kids. Kids are overwhelmed by the pressure of pleasing their parents or performing for their coaches. Too often they stop playing for themselves.

NWSL Stars on Crafting and Competing with Confidence

In the 2020 national championship game, it was Santa Clara’s Turnbow who struck with a dazzling goal in the waning minutes to even the score at 1–1 against Florida State; and then amid the swirling pressure of penalty kicks to decide the title, she stepped up and delivered again to help her team grab the title.

When the D-1 Offer Turns Sour

Here at MVP Parent, we encounter examples every day of how crucial family support is to the success of student athletes. Helping them achieve personal goals within their sports of choice is, of course, a priority, but also providing the essential building blocks of personal growth, balance, and values that will serve them well later in life, whether that life includes the continuing pursuit of athletic achievement or not.

Choosing Confidence

What if having confidence was a choice and you could always choose it? While it doesn’t always feel like it, confidence is ultimately a choice. It often seems like confidence is out of our hands. I’ve lost my confidence. I just don’t have it. I wasn’t feeling it today. It can appear as if confidence is a thing that happens to us or that we magically find on a good day.

Life Happens in a New York Minute

As I sit here writing this Publisher Memo, I am reflecting heavily on the past 6 months. This has been a whirlwind and it has forced me to take a step back and evaluate a lot about my life. Yes, things change, and we have to adapt to those changes. But who knew there would be so many and they would come so fast?

Word Power

When the University of Notre Dame football team takes the field on Saturday afternoons many players have black-inked words or phrases scribbled on their gloves, wristbands, tape, and shoes.  “Sharpie markers have become a staple in our locker room,” says Dr. Amber Selking, the renowned mental performance consultant for the Fighting Irish and author of Winning the Mental Game. Players use the markers to compose power statements that Selking recommends for helping them stay focused, calm, and confident in the heat of the action.