All throughout the year, but every August and September in particular, I receive many emails and phone calls from parents asking for mental help with their sons and daughters as they move into new schools, new coaching staffs, new living arrangements, new team mates, new coaching styles, new techniques, new playbooks, and many other new demands. For over 40 years, I have been very successful helping young people manage these pressures and in helping them regain their confidence. I have a unique insight into this process, because I saw this phenomenon "up close and personal" as a Division I Head Coach at two west-coast universities and then also as a mental game coach.
The key word is transition. All of the situations described here in transition require adaptation and change. That takes a lot of mental strength, and a lot of good old-fashioned problem-solving. The athlete is not only facing new challenges, but they are leaving behind former support structures and trusted support people that were always there for them. Now they can feel very alone. These are larger pressures for newer college athletes and they often become derailed in trying to figure out how to cope in the face of multiple new challenges, many of them happening all at once. This article lists 17 life transitions from the Holmes-Rahe Life Events Stress Scale, with a link to that test and 36 Transitions That Cause Stress In Sport. Word count is 1163.