It will take some time to feel out the expectations of a new team, coach and teammates. Coaches can help expedite this process, but there are also things new athletes can do to make the transition easier.
Being the "new kid" is tough, especially when joining a youth sports team that has been together for several seasons.
Even just one new player can cause a big shift in team chemistry and roles. This sometimes creates a high-pressure, high-expectation situation in which:
Fortunately, how to deal with these new-team dynamics has been studied by sport psychologists, and their research shows several ways parents, coaches and athletes can help minimize the pressure and maximize performance.
In the article Coaching Strategies for Helping Adolescent Athletes Cope with Stress sports psychology researchers Jenelle N. Gilbert, PhD, Wade Gilbert, PhD, and educational researcher Cynthia Morawski, PhD share ways coaches and parents can ease high-expectation stress:
When offering critiques, make it about the athlete’s skills or technique and not them as an individual. You should also shift the athlete’s focus to what they have control over (form, strategy, etc.) and not to outside stressors they don’t (others’ expectations, the final score, etc.).
Establishing individual performance goals with each athlete in a one-on-one coach’s meeting can also help create a more focused environment on overall improvement. An additional benefit of this meeting is that it provides an opportunity for the coach to build a stronger relationship with each athlete.
As noted by Jenelle Gilbert, “When an athlete knows that the coach cares, the athlete is more likely to hear what the coach has to say and work toward getting better.”
Youth sport coaches should do everything they can to make a new athlete feel welcome and part of the team. This can be done any number of ways:
A major stressor for young athletes comes when they only identify themselves as athletes.
Before practices and games, coaches should take time to ask about their team’s lives outside of sport. This indirectly communicates that the next two hours aren’t the beginning and end of the coach’s regard for them.
It will take some time to feel out the expectations of a new team, coach and teammates. Coaches can help expedite this process, but there are also things new athletes can do to make the transition easier:
TrueSport® is a grassroots movement born and powered by the experience and values of USADA–the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The TrueSport® mission is simple and bold: to change the culture of youth sport by providing powerful educational tools to equip young athletes with the resources to build the life skills and core values for lasting success on and off the field.