Coach You Can Be (Helping Your Child Athlete With Their Mental Game)

Many times we "live and die" through our kid's athletic performance. We anguish over their failures, and rejoice over their successes. Of course we want our kids to do the best they can; that's why we encourage them to practice, and regularly take them to the skating rink, batting cage, soccer field, swimming pool, and basketball court. Helping our child athletes to become their best is steeped in our love for them, and in our own need for the pride that comes from seeing our children excel and succeed. Indeed, I feel these are the two main reasons why we encourage our child athletes to practice, and practice diligently. As the country's foremost sports and peak performance hypnotherapist, I want to tell you a factor critical to helping your child TRULY develop and reflect their fullest degree of performance potential. Rudimentary mental, emotional, and psychological coaching by you is as important to them excelling as is their physically practicing!

The challenge for so many parents I've spoken to is that they don't know key issues to address, (and how to address them). As such, following are three major factors to consider. I've presented them in a Q&A format. Read each, and then just "paint by the numbers". What are the most important things I can do to best help my child athlete, To be a great parent coach, I feel it essential that you help your child with the mental part of their game (in additional to the physical demands their sport poses). There are several factors here you can employ which will all have a direct and positive benefit upon your child's self image and performance. Engage them in genuine interest "chalk-talks". First, be as enthusiastic and excited as they are when you talk to them about their sport. Always show a keen - and genuine - interest about what they do, and how they do it.

Talk them up, build them up, and appropriately lavish them with enthused support (i.e., "I'm proud of what you're doing, and I want to help you become the best you can be!"). Engage them in specific conversations about their sport by asking them how they did in practice, and/or how they played in their game (assuming you did not attend). Comfortably and "matter of factly" get them to talk about their performance, including what good things they did, and what aspects they feel they can improve upon. Be a good listener here, and let them share - in their own words - their thoughts and feelings about this very important aspect of their lives. Be sure to emphasize this to a similar degree as you would their schoolwork, homework, and piano lessons. Genuinely encourage them to practice, work out, and train to get better (and allow them the time necessary to do this).

In so doing you'll be supportively moving them to take action to improve themselves. And this is an exceedingly beneficial affinity which will pay rich dividends -- throughout their childhood and adult lives. Reinforce, reward, and praise genuine positive efforts. I encourage you to do this for positive efforts where they genuinely exert themselves to demonstrate the fullest extent of their skill, and/or reflect decisive levels of hustle. And your praise/reward recognition can consist of hugs and kisses, preparing their favorite meal, letting them stay up later, or even just sharing with them how proud you are of what they've done. Encourage - and allow them - to watch their favorite teams and players. You can ask your own personally tailored questions as well. The key is, through your questions, helping them to move from just watching their favorite team/player for entertainment purposes, to helping them use what they see as a motivational/inspirational catalyst. I notice my kid continually gets nervous before games. Pre-game nervousness is an all too common occurrence with child players. To help them neutralize their pre-game fears, and move them in a positive mental/emotional direction, perform this easy process with them before they leave for their game. Have them sit comfortably, close their eyelids down, and take 3 deep breaths (inhaling through their nostrils, and exhaling slowly through their mouth). Go ahead and imagine what you would have done differently in your game situation. And what would your results have been then, Tell the person you see in the mirror who you are as a player." (Let them fully respond here.) Then say, "Now, tell who you see in the mirror what you know you'll do next game!

Measure the vertical and lateral vibration levels and the tracking. When all measurements for the run have been completed, land the aircraft and determine what adjustments are needed. When finished acquiring data, what do you do with all of the information, We have already established the two planes of main rotor vibrations found in the airframe—vertical and lateral. Next, we will discuss how these vibrations are corrected and how to interpret the data collected. As described earlier in this article, a lateral vibration is the unequal distribution of mass in the rotor "disk". Manufactures have provided several methods to correct for this. The most common corrections are to place weight on the main rotor hub at specific locations, and to "sweep" the main rotor blades. Sweeping the blades can be defined as moving the blade forward or aft of its angular position. When sweeping the blades, it is safer to sweep a blade aft, as sweeping a blade forward may cause the blade to be unstable. There are airframe types that utilize only main rotor weights, only blade sweeps, or a combination of both to correct for a lateral imbalance.