Webinar Recap: “Empowering Youth Athletes: Building Resilience and Mental Health”

This webinar from Positive Coaching Alliance and Momentum Labs, focuses on resilience and mental health in youth athletes. Panelists include Abigail Eiler, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, Brett Haskell, licensed high-performance psychologist and certified mental performance coach, and cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman.

Key Themes and Discussions:

Challenges in Youth Sports:

  • Common issues include a victim mindset, social media pressures, identity tied to performance metrics, and limited access to culturally responsive mental health services.
  • Panelists advocate a return to developmental basics, emphasizing personal growth, agency, and emotional regulation over performance outcomes.

Resilience and Grit:

  • Strategies include creating team cultures focused on growth, clear expectations, peer support, and viewing setbacks as learning opportunities.
  • Activities like resilience and mistake circles encourage open dialogue and problem-solving.

Growth Mindset & Language Use:

  • Coaches are urged to use empowering language and highlight examples of growth over performance. Tools like mindfulness and curiosity help athletes embrace failure as a pathway to improvement.

Practical Tools for Challenges:

  • Grounding exercises and “the flush” help athletes reset during failures. Techniques like identifying character strengths (e.g., humor, creativity) support resilience.

Coaching Neurodiverse Athletes:

  • Strategies include tailoring tasks to strengths (e.g., repetitive drills for autistic athletes) and fostering inclusivity while addressing motivation and focus challenges.

Trauma and Athlete Support:

  • Trauma impacts behavior and performance. Culturally responsive, consistent coaching and trust-building help mitigate these effects.

Systemic Barriers:

  • Panelists propose addressing barriers like lack of access and high costs through advocacy, fundraising, and educating coaches on handling marginalized populations’ needs.

Toxic Positivity:

  • True gratitude involves meaning-making from challenges, contrasting with dismissive positivity. Tools like the “3-2-1” technique encourage focus and goal-setting.

Parent Involvement:

  • Collaborative “parent huddles” align goals and set expectations between parents, coaches, and athletes, fostering a supportive environment.

Check out this “Ask PCA” resource from Brett Haskell & Abigail Eiler in response to a parent’s question about tools for discouraged athletes.