Socially Supporting Your High Performance Athlete

A Guide for Parents of Competitive or High Performance Athletes

Author

Fortitude 365
February 23, 2024

Hi Everyone, thanks for checking out this week’s newsletter. Below you'll find:

  • Performance Concept of the week

    • Socially Supporting Your High Performance Athlete: A Guide for Parents of Competitive or High Performance Athletes

  • Action plan

  • Resource of the week

  • Things to Explore

  • Got Questions?

Performance Concept of the Week

Socially Supporting Your High Performance Athlete: A Guide for Parents of Competitive or High Performance Athletes 

As a parent of high-performing or competitive athlete, you play a crucial role in supporting your athlete’s journey in sports. Beyond technical and tactical training, coaches also provide various forms of social support, which have been shown to have significant benefits for athletes, but athletes need more than just the social support from their coach. The perception of most athletes is they do not have enough social support from their coach. In some cases this may be true, but most athletes perceive this because their coach wears many hats having to push athletes out of their comfort zone. This includes constructive feedback and criticism and especially in team sports determining playing time.

In this article, we'll explore the six types of social support that you can use to support your competitive or high performance athlete.

The Benefits of Social Support:

Before delving into the types of social support, it's essential to understand the numerous benefits it brings to athletes. Social support has several benefits for young athletes and here is what the research says:

  • Reduced Burnout: When athletes feel supported, they are less likely to experience burnout symptoms (DeFreese and Smith, 2014).

  • Enhanced Performance: Emotional encouragement and understanding positively impact performance and overall athlete wellness (Rees & Freeman, 2010).

  • Smooth Transition: As your athlete progresses to higher competition each year, social support will be one of the most important aspects you can provide (Adams et al., 2015).

  • Positive Self-Talk: Encourages their self-belief and positive inner dialogue Zourbanos et al., 2011).

  • Anxiety Reduction: Your presence and reassurance can alleviate anxiety from the stress and pressure of competitive and high performance sports (Fogaca 2021).

  • Sporting Development: Your consistent support contributes to their overall growth on and off the field of play (Berg & Warner, 2019).

The Six Types of Social Support:

1️⃣ Listening Support - Sometimes, your child just needs someone to listen without judgment. Be that attentive ear.

2️⃣ Emotional Support - Show empathy and understanding when they face challenges. Let them know you care.

3️⃣ Emotional Challenge - Gently challenge their perceptions. Help them evaluate their attitudes and feelings.

4️⃣ Reality Confirmation Support - Discuss shared experiences with teammates. Validate their views.

5️⃣ Task Appreciation Support - Acknowledge their hard work and effort, especially after training sessions and games.

6️⃣ Task Challenge Support - Encourage critical thinking about training activities. Help them grow by ensuring their autonomy in the process.

Summary:

Your unwavering support shapes your athlete’s athletic experience. Be their biggest fan, their confidante, and their anchor. Remember by the time your athlete is playing at a competitive or high performance level, your job is to parent and support your athlete!

Action Plan

This week’s action plan includes evaluating your social support towards your athlete. Ask yourself the following three questions:

  1. Which of the 6 types of support do you do well?

    • Keep doing these ones!

  2. Which do you need to do a better job of?

    • How are you going to add this into your support?

Resource of the Week

This week’s resource includes downloading our social support infographic below. Use it to develop a more robust social support of your competitive high performance athlete.

Things to Explore

Got Questions?

Do you have a question, or want to know more about a topic. Let our team of experts help you. Ask your question here by clicking the button below. We will post answers to questions within future newsletters.

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