"Welcome to Confident, Calm, and Clutch Car Ride Conversations! I’m your host, Valerie Alston, here to help parents and young athletes spark meaningful dialogue about mental toughness, resilience, and confidence. Whether you’re heading to practice, a game, or just running errands, this podcast is your go-to for building stronger relationships and lifelong skills—one car ride at a time. Let’s dive in!"

Topic Intro

Understanding Your Why in Sports

In this episode of we discuss the importance of understanding the motivations behind why children play sports. Valerie shares her personal experiences and emphasizes the significance of parents recognizing their child's unique reasons for participating in sports. The episode includes questions to spark meaningful conversations between parents and young athletes, aimed at fostering stronger relationships and helping children enjoy and benefit from their sporting activities.

Insights

Motivation changes and evolved over time. Being aligned as parent, coach and athlete helps manage expectations and the overall experience of playing.

Discussion questions

1. Kids: Why do you think your parent has encouraged you to play sports? Parent: what’s the real answer
2. Athlete: Why do you play sports, and what do you enjoy most about it? Parents if you played sports what did you love most? what do you love about watching your kid play the current sport that they're playing?
3. What do you think you can accomplish through sports, and how can I help?
4. Together: Are there any changes we could make to your sports experience to make it more enjoyable or meaningful?

"Thanks for joining me on Confident, Calm, and Clutch Car Ride Conversations! If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a moment. Share it with other parents or coaches who could use a little extra inspiration on the go.

And don’t forget to join my newsletter at www.confidentcalmclutch.com/newsletter for exclusive tips, tools, and updates or buy my book Confident, Calm and Clutch: How to build confidence and mental toughness for young athletes using sports psychology on Amazon. Together, we can help young athletes thrive in sports, school, and life. See you next time!"