Empower the Youth Sports Brain to Build Resilience

If a youth sports coach wants to motivate and support his or her players to reach peak performance and remember their experience positively, it can be a game changer to know more about how the brain processes the sports experience.

Most coaches already realize that the physical aspects of sports are healthy for the developing brains and bodies of children. The physical activity and relationship building while playing sports can heal and protect a child from the impact of stress and even, trauma.

Emotional Dysregulation and Sports Performance

Coaches and athletes can benefit tremendously by understanding the sometimes challenging relationship between an athlete’s emotions and sports decision-making. By understanding what’s happening in the brain when training and competing in sports, coaches and athletes can empower the brain to get “into the zone” of “flow state” and then reach peak performance.

Brain researchers have done lots of studies on how the brain functions when under different levels of stress. At stressful times, parts of the brain become dysregulated. Based on an athlete’s prior experiences in life as well as in sports, he or she will react differently when challenged while training or competing. The sports brain will associate the stress level of the sports experience with how it interprets stress in other non-sports situations.

Predictable Moderate Stress Builds Resilience

The usually moderate levels of stress while playing sports can help build resilience in children. The predictability of training and practice can help the athlete’s ability to handle the unpredictability of competition. The different ways a coach motivates and communicates with his or her players can reduce or increase the stress on the athlete’s brain. The way sports parents and other adults communicate with athletes will also impact stress levels.

(Here’s the #1 SportsBrain regulation super tool needed to reach peak performance)

An athlete can develop effective brain tools to be able to regulate their stressed brains. Whether the stress is during the sports experience, or in another part of the athlete’s life, brain regulation tools learned in sports can then be transferred to life situations as well.

Yes, Sports is Life!

If athletes can learn vital brain regulation tools to be able to think more clearly through stressful situations while playing sports, their brains will be better prepared and equipped to handle stressful situations in life, outside of sports.

Coaches (and parents) play an integral part in the development of the sports brain. A young athlete’s developing brain needs positive nurturing and support from adults and teammates. Once the moderate stress levels of sports are intensified by the additional stress from coaches and parents, the youth sports brain may react in unexpected or perhaps even seemingly unmanageable ways.

Lower Brain Regulation First

When an athlete faces an adverse or stressful situation while playing sports, most times his or her brain will default to processing in the lower subconscious emotional or reactionary brain areas, rather than the clear thinking and problem solving area in the upper brain. This lower brain processing may alter the athlete’s behavior or performance. Without processing what’s next in the clear thinking part of the brain, the emotional flooding will also impact decision-making.

Athletes can learn how to disrupt and take control of the brain’s natural stress response, and maintain clear thinking and focused decision-making, even in the face of adversity or stress. It’s this sports brain regulation tool set that will transfer to other stressful situations in life outside of sports. By empowering the brain to understand and then react to stress differently, athletes will be able to maintain calm in response to different kinds of challenge.

Brain research indicates that the regulation needed at the time of stress should be focused on the lower brain areas first. Sensory regulation tools and focused positive self talk is what the lower subconscious brain areas need when stressed, and athletes will be empowered once they learn sports brain tools to remain calm during the stress of training or competition.

Healthy Communication for the Sports Brain

What’s not helpful to a stressed athlete’s sports brain is a lot of reasoning or questioning from coaches or other adults (especially at a high volume with fear and/or shame included!). Initial responses from coaches like, “What were you thinking?” or “That’s not what we worked on in practice,” are not lower brain-regulation strategies and will tend to exacerbate the stress, which will then impact performance. That’s not what the sports brain needs to refocus and make better decisions moving forward. If a coach or other adult needs to react, it’s better to help regulate the sports brain by saying something neutral or encouraging, such as “Stay focused” or “There’s lots of time left.”

Once empowered to understand the sports brain and its reaction to challenges and stress, athletes will remain calmer and more emotionally intelligent while playing sports. By sharpening this sports brain regulation skill set, the athlete will be more resilient to handle other life challenges as well. By viewing and handling sports stress more effectively, athletes will have more fun while playing and their experiences will imprint more positive sports brain memories. Youth sports coaches can play a big part in that.

— — -

Marty Wolner is a certified mentor trainer and trauma and stress educator for Lakeside Global Institute in Philadelphia, PA, providing trauma and stress awareness for sports organizations and teams, business professionals, continuing education for early childhood educators, professional development for K-12 educators, social workers, clinicians and college courses focusing on trauma and stress.

Are you a youth sports team coach who needs more information on how there are amazing ways to coach your team that can heal the brains of your players, and help them reach peak performance? Join our coaching team for #SportsBrainCoach tips and strategies!