Coaching for young athletes and their parents
Help your child develop in their sport and as a person.
I coach young athletes and the parents behind them, building the life skills that keep kids ahead of the competition, in sport and out of it.
Sport is meant to be good for kids. It doesn't always feel like it.
The pressure keeps building
Nerves before comps. Meltdowns after losses. Training that's started to feel like a job. And with Brisbane 2032 coming, it's only getting louder.
Nobody showed you how
Most of us were raised on "toughen up" or "go for a run". You know that won't help your child, but it's all you were given.
Everyone has an opinion
Coaches, other parents, the research, and an industry selling every service going. Very little of it is about your child.
What changes
Your child can handle pressure
Tools to manage nerves, reset after mistakes and stay focused when it counts.
Your relationship grows with them
You know what to say on the drive home, and how your role changes as they move through sport.
Sport stops being everything
Confidence that doesn't rise and fall with results, and a sense of self that survives injury, selection or moving on.
Why me
It's hard to give your child something you never got.
Most parents I meet know "just get on with it" doesn't work. They just weren't shown anything else. I'm a mental performance coach with an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology. My research was on athlete transitions: what happens when sport changes around you, and who you are when it does. I heard what helped and what didn't, and a lot of it started at home.
- MSc (Distinction) Sport & Exercise Psychology
- BSc (Hons) Social Psychology
- Ex-international athlete
“It was never one sport more of a focus over another. That balance, doing lots of things, was taught to me through the decisions my parents made and how they spoke to me about goals in different sports.”
How it works
- Step 1
Book a free call
15 minutes. Tell me about your child and what's going on.
- Step 2
Agree a plan
Coaching for your child, sessions for you, or both. Built around their age, stage and sport.
- Step 3
Back them with confidence
Your child builds skills that work in sport and out of it. You know how to help.
Raising an athlete vs raising a person
In 2025, 127,613 girls were registered in junior and youth club football in Australia. There’ll be 18 places in the Matildas squad at Brisbane 2032. Most young athletes won’t make it to the top, and the ones who do will still stop one day.
That’s not a reason to hold your child back. It’s a reason to make sure sport gives them more than results. When a child’s whole sense of who they are rests on one sport, losing it hurts far more than it should. Researchers call it identity foreclosure. Parents usually notice it as a child who doesn’t know what to do with themselves after an injury, a non-selection or a bad season.
The good news is that a lot of it comes down to small, everyday things parents do. Keeping their other interests alive. Helping them step in and out of being “the athlete”. Making sure at least one adult in their life sees them as more than their sport. And asking, at the big moments, “who else are you?”
It’s also about the two of you. What your child needs from you at 10 isn’t what they need at 16, or when they step away. Adjust as they go and your relationship grows with them, so you both look back on their sport as a success.
That’s what I help families do, alongside coaching the mental skills your child needs to compete well right now.
Ways to work together
For your child
1:1 mental performance coaching
Focus, confidence and emotional control, plus a life outside sport. In person in Sydney or online.
How coaching works →For you
Parent sessions
What to say, what not to say, and how to support your child without coaching them. 1:1 or small group.
How parent sessions work →For schools and clubs
Talks and workshops
"Raising an athlete vs raising a person", a talk for parent audiences, plus workshops for parents and coaches.
Talks for schools →Whatever happens with sport, they'll be fine.
Book a free 15-minute call. Tell me what's going on and we'll work out if I can help.