Children
Working on the mental side of sports with children can feel scary but the younger they are when you help them understand their emotions, see their strengths and learn how to handle worries effectively then the easier they will find the sporting environment. The key is to make it fun:
To help them remember their strengths: A Mr or Little Miss Character of their super strength – KathrynLillianRose – Etsy UK
To help them understand which characteristics or traits are valuable in their sport: Top Trumps of their Sport to help you discuss strengths and characteristics that they have – toptrumps.com
To identify how they feel so they can learn specific coping mechanisms – Magnetic emotions – Magnetic Emotions – Open the Joy
To open up conversations about worries – Worry Monster – Large Worry Monster – Assorted Colours From 8.00 GBP | The Works
To help them focus on what might be possible for them: A craft set to make a Future Success Board
1893 Crafts Large Box Frame Bundle
To help them see their strengths, skills and how well they can handle setbacks – A star Jar – Plain Star Reward Jar – Craftly Ltd
Teenagers
Teens mainly drop out of sport because it takes up too much time, it starts to become all about outcomes rather than enjoyment and because pressure and expectations can suck the joy from the activities. These ideas all help a teen focus on reducing stress in sport and amping up their enjoyment.
Firstly, my book I Can: The Teenager Athlete’s Guide to Mental Fitness, was written with teens in mind and the issues that might hold them back in sport – I Can: The Teenage Athlete’s Guide to Mental Fitness : Perry, Josephine: Amazon.co.uk: Books
A phrase lots of my teenage athletes love is: Success leaves Clues. But if we don’t capture the clues we are stuffed. So a beautiful personalised diary can help them capture their training and how it makes them feel – Training journal – 2025 Daily Diary | Page a Day | Papier
Sport psychs and coaches will be able to teach athletes how to soothe their Threat System when it triggers with tools like Colourful Breathing or The Sip but it can be hard to keep going with it if you can’t see an immediate impact. Stress Dots make your stress visible. Sticking a dot on your hand means you can aim to make it change colour as your do your breathing exercise and actively recover from the moment of anxiety. Stress Dots – Stresswise. Biodot®: the original stress dot
Our threat system tends to trigger when our brain tries to predict an outcome (I might fail, embarrass myself, lose, let mum and dad down) and that outcome might then mean something bad about us (I am a failure, I am embarrassing, I let people down) because our identity is so wrapped up in the sport we do. To pull our brain back to the moment we are in and away from possible outcomes we can use the senses ladder where we look for 5 things we can see, 4 things we can touch (and describe what they feel like), 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. A cheat that works well for children is to give them a tin of mints to use to highlight all the senses – Cool Mints Tin By Rosie Made A Thing
A really cute idea for teens who like chocolate are personalised sweets that they can use to give their brain a bit of a sugar boost (brains are fuelled by glucose and when blood sugar levels drop the threat system becomes more fragile) and you can do this by getting a bag of M&Ms personalised with your teen’s mantra printed on it. Configurator – Design your own M&M’S! | M&M’S
Adults
Can’t not plug my own book here – but I think it is ok because it was written to highlight characteristics we know help us perform at a higher level and to profile some amazing people like Maxine Peake, Damian Hall, Dame Kelly Holmes, Emma Wiggs and Sara Pascoe who we can all learn from. The 10 Pillars of Success – The Ten Pillars of Success: Secret Strategies of High Achievers: Amazon.co.uk: Perry, Josephine: 9781838957735: Books
I recently listened to Miranda Hart’s new book and cannot recommend it enough for anyone struggling with fatigue or stress. It is just gentle and kind and helps you to see that acknowledging our current limitations doesn’t mean we have given up but that when we stop fighting them our threat system relaxes and we can handle life better. – I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You (Audio Download): Miranda Hart, Miranda Hart, Penguin Audio: Amazon.co.uk: Audible Books & Originals
More self-plugging but Sarah (Art of your success) and I created this box to help athletes have access to 14 tools that will make life easier and more successful in Sport. Sporting Brain Box – Sporting Brain Box – Art Of Your Success
In order to keep us safe (and not doing risky things) our brains are designed to remember the negatives about 5 times stronger than the positives. A nice way to counterbalance the negatives is to create an Achievement Board. Some elements that might help make it look great are:
Papermania 1m Ribbon 6pc Kraft Geometric
White Deep Box Frame: 20cm x 20cm From 4.00 GBP | The Works
Finally, giving yourself or someone else a confidence boost is always lovely. You can buy 10 Performance Postcards to set up a great event and to allow some good quality analysis afterwards. Performance Postcards – Performance in Mind
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