High Standards Without Harm

How to challenge athletes, build resilience and drive performance without damaging confidence or wellbeing

Sport is meant to be challenging.

Athletes need to experience pressure, disappointment, difficult feedback, mistakes, uncertainty and moments where things feel hard. Learning to work through discomfort is part of developing confidence and resilience.

But there is also a point where challenge stops being helpful.

For coaches and parents, that line is not always easy to recognise.

When should we encourage an athlete to keep going?

When should we back off?

How do we give difficult feedback without damaging confidence?

How do we hold athletes accountable without relying on fear or punishment?

And how do we create environments where expectations are genuinely high, while athletes still feel safe enough to make mistakes, ask questions and speak up when something is not right?

High Standards Without Harm is a live online workshop exploring the psychology of challenge, resilience, confidence and psychological safety in sport.

The focus will be practical rather than overly theoretical, with real sporting scenarios, discussion and strategies that can be used in everyday coaching and parenting.

We will explore

• What psychological safety actually means in sport, and what it does not mean

• The difference between productive discomfort and harmful distress

• How pressure can influence confidence, motivation and performance

• Accountability versus punishment

• How to give clear and difficult feedback without creating fear

• What to do when an athlete becomes upset, frustrated, avoidant or loses confidence

• How to recognise when an athlete may need to be pushed, supported or understood differently

• Practical language coaches and parents can use in challenging moments

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is designed for:

• Coaches

• Parents of developing athletes

• Teachers and school sport staff

• Team managers and athlete support staff

• Anyone involved in helping young and developing athletes perform, learn and grow

You do not need a background in psychology to attend.

About the presenter

Lydia Black is a psychologist with extensive experience working across clinical and performance psychology.

She has worked with athletes, coaches and sporting organisations across community, pathway and high performance environments, and has delivered education on psychological safety, athlete wellbeing, resilience, body image, burnout and performance.

Her approach focuses on helping people understand the psychology behind behaviour, while keeping strategies practical and relevant to what actually happens in sport.

Format

This is a live 90 minute online workshop with opportunities for discussion, practical examples and questions.

The aim is not to make sport easier.

It is to help coaches, parents and support people become better at knowing when to challenge, when to support, and how to do both well.

Contact the host of High Standards Without Harm

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