SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

Football World Cup 2014, 8 th June 2014, semi-final Germany 7 – Brazil 1 What a match! As a sports psychologist, who's worked with footballers at different levels, I really enjoyed the match. Here's what I saw: 0-0  The beginning. For Brazil there was such hope. When they had possession of the ball, the crowd cheered, and most of the stadium was a sea of Brazilian yellow and green. For Germany, they played equally well as Brazil, but the crowd was not willing them to do well or win. 1-0 Germany scored, Brazil looked surprised, their supporters looked surprised, the pressure increased for Brazil.  The Germans gained momentum after the first goal and looked more in control. 2-0    When Germany scored the second goal, the Brazilian players and fans looked shocked. How could this be happening? Is this really happening? What do we do? For Germany, their momentum and confidence grew. 3-0    After the 3 rd German goal, the Germans played w...

Sport offers so much to children psychologically: an opportunity to test themselves, to learn rules, to cooperate with others, to accept defeat, to celebrate success (hopefully), to cope with setbacks and much more. The Sports Parent who takes their child to practice, watches them play and then has to deal with whatever mood their child is in afterwards has a tough job to do. You face many dilemmas including: How much should you encourage your child to do the sport? When is your encouragement too much, at risk of being perceived as coercion or pushing them into it? How do you help your child cope with mistakes and bad performances? With other children, coaches, officials who show unfairness? Or cope with other parents who take a very different approach from you regarding how sport should be played by kids? What makes your job as the Sports Parent all the more difficult is the fact that you really care about your child. You don’t want them to be upset. You don’t want sport to hu...