As a Responsible Coach, you use the “ELM Tree of Mastery,” where ELM stands for Effort, Learning and Mistakes. That way, you are teaching players how to master their sport, so they feel in control of what they can control, rather than nervously fixating on scoreboard results that they can’t control.

But they still sometimes get nervous. What is a Responsible Coach to do? Try these techniques.

Nervous is Normal and Pressure Is a Privilege
In the live, group workshops PCA presents for coaches throughout the U.S., one of the scenarios we ask coaches to consider is how to help their players mentally prepare for a big game against a strong opponent. Often, coaches want to tell players, “Don’t be nervous,” but that rarely works.

If anything, it confirms in athletes’ minds that their nervousness will be a pitfall. That may make them even more nervous and create a greater likelihood of a self-fulfilling prophecy, wherein players get so nervous about failing that they are more likely to do so.

Instead, you can tell players that "nervous is normal." As Mark Twain is credited with saying, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” And, you can remind players that, according to the title of Billie Jean King’s book, “Pressure is a Privilege.”

Continue reading and see how to use the three B’s


In an effort to benefit millions of youth athletes, parents and coaches, this article is among a series created exclusively for partners in the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports ProgramTM (ResponsibleSports.com) powered by Positive Coaching Alliance (http://www.positivecoach.org).