MENTAL TOUGHNESS TIPS“Success is most often achieved by those who

don’t know that failure is inevitable.” –Coco Chanel

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” –Robert F. Kennedy

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” –Winston Churchill

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they

gave up.” –Thomas A. Edison

Take a look at our Mental Toughness Academy. Your athletes can develop the skills to block out distractions and overcome poor performance during competition. In our 8 Module Course we incorporate guided visualizations and other training techniques to teach athletes how to master their thoughts and emotions while playing at their peak level.

See how the Mental Toughness Academy can help your athletes by visiting our website!

MENTAL TOUGHNESS ACADEMY

ISSUE 27 • MARCH 2015

THIS ISSUE

A MESSAGE FROM SPORTSBRAIN PAGE 1

MENTAL TOUGHNESS PAGE 1

BASELINE CONCUSSION TESTING INFORMATION PAGE 2

HOW TO MAKE A SMOOTHIE PAGE 2

HOW TO BUILD A TRULY SUPER SALAD PAGE 2

NOURISHING YOUR CHILDREN’S CREATIVITY PAGE 3

DATES OF INTEREST PAGE 3

HELICOPTERS AND SNOWPLOWS PAGE 4

A MESSAGE FROM SPORTSBRAINClimatologists say that we enjoy talking about the weather so much—well, because—temperatures vary so much season to season. We can talk about the past, think about the future, dream about our next holiday, chuckle about how cold or hot it was six months ago, and watch the movement of time.

Spring is around the corner. Depending where you and your family reside, you may be able to join me shortly in saying goodbye to our collection of snow boots (be they water-proof, water-resistant or commuter boots, meaning they leak in puddles, a lot!), hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, heavy coats, short days and frigid temperatures.

In this issue of our newsletter, we have chosen to discuss parents. From one angle, how to spot a helicopter parent and how we need to let our children make choices and develop independence. From the other angle, we also need to remember that they are kids, and childhood should be fun. Children need the freedom to develop their creativity and we need to allow them the time, space and resources to do so. Rounding out this newsletter are two charts with some fresh ideas for salads and smoothies. If your household is anything like mine, I’ve served one too many soups, stews or apple crisps over this cold winter—and my family is craving some more colorful, bright meals. Thank goodness our stores are beginning to stock some new fresh fruits and vegetables; blueberries, dragon fruit and asparagus and they will all be gobbled up before the apples, oranges and healthy salads.

Awareness of TBI (Tramautic Brain Injury) continues to increase. Beyond sports injuries, common causes of TBI include:• Falls–children and seniors are especially prone to

these injuries• Impact–being struck by or against an object or person• Motor Vehicle Traffic Incidents• Physical Assaults • Child or Elderly Abuse

You are able to learn more with the following resources:1. Parents: www.cdc.gov/headsup/parents 2. Youth Sports: www.cdc.gov/headsup/youthsports 3. High School Sports: www.cdc.gov/headsup/highschoolsports 4. Schools (School Nurses, Teachers, Counselors and School Professionals):www.cdc.gov/headsup/schools/nurses.htmlwww.cdc.gov/headsup/schools/teachers.html 5. Health Care Professionals: www.cdc.gov/headsup/providers 6. Older Adults: www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/seniors.html

Knowledge is power. Make a commitment to learn more about concussions—the signs, the consequences, return to play/learn/work best practices.

Open up the lines of communications with your child’s coach, with their teacher, with their camp counselors, with their caregivers, with your community.

My favorite quote this month comes from Plato. He was both a philosopher and mathematician in Classical Greece.

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

Be safe, be strong. Dream about the longer days and warmer nights, just around the corner.

Barb Wiseberg EditorBarb.Wiseberg@SportsBrain.com

QUOTE

“Character consis ts of what you do on the th i rd and four th t r ies.”

– James A. Michener

MARCHBrain Injury Awareness Month

MARCH 4, 2014Purim (holiday begins at sundown)

MARCH 8, 2015International Women’s DayDaylight savings begins

MARCH 17, 2015St. Patrick’s Day

MARCH 20, 2015First Day of Spring

MARCH 29, 2015Palm Sunday

MARCH 30, 2015National Doctors’ Day

DATES OF INTEREST

BASELINE CONCUSSION TESTING INFORMATION

SportsBrain conducts regularly scheduled baseline concussion testing throughout Chicago; Madison, WI; and Chester, NJ.

Please see our website at www.SportsBrain.com for specific dates and times.

SportsBrain offers Neurocognitive, Eye Tracking, Balance and Reaction Time Testing as part of a comprehensive Baseline Concussion testing model. We provide these services for individual athletes, youth sports organizations, schools, park districts, colleges and professional teams. We have multiple testing locations or we can arrange to conduct testing at your facility for your specific group of athletes. With a variety of cost-effective and hassle free options to keep your athletes safe, SportsBrain fights concussions. Email testing@sportsbrain.com for more information.

NOURISHING YOUR CHILDREN’S CREATIVITYImagine that today is a snow day or a holiday of some sort—schools are shut, and many offices and business are closed. Time to catch up on laundry, household tasks and the latest series on Netflix.

But, what are the kids going to do all day long???

It is easy to give children electronic tablets or access to a variety of apps, and just assume that this will keep them busy or entertained. However, why not put away these devices for most of the day and make a committed effort to engage in a variety of creative activities and games with your children? The possibilities are endless!

Dr. Joanne Foster is an occasional contributor to our newsletter. The following post originally appeared on the site “Creativity Post”, with the title “Young Children and Game-Playing: Ten Suggestions for Parents and Care-Givers”.

Kids lead very busy lives. There are so many books to read, places to go, people to see, things to do, and games to play.

Games help to fuel children’s creativity–and vice versa.

Here are ten suggestions for parents, babysitters, camp counsellors, and other care-givers to consider when thinking about games for young children:

1. Keep it safe. Children should feel comfortable within their environment. A safe and properly supervised setting is necessary for free-spirited play, and also allows adults to step back a bit and let children work things out for themselves—and then feel a sense of accomplishment.

2. Encourage both independent play as well as interaction. Sometimes kids like to be on their own. However, connecting with others can lead to wonderful opportunities for learning and discovery, help children develop relationships, and give them a chance to practice important skills like sharing, listening, and taking turns.

3. Make it fun. Don’t be fussy. Get creative! Involve the senses. Let play be unstructured, and if possible take the activity outdoors so everyone gets some fresh air.

4. Boredom is okay. It lets children figure out what they want to do next, and what interests them. Don’t feel you have to fill a child’s every waking moment with activities.

5. Keep a bin with lots of stuff handy. Arts and crafts supplies, dress up clothes, boxes, blocks, books, and whatever else might capture children’s imaginations and enable them to create their own games.

6. Give children time and space. Don’t pressure children into adhering to time frames that short-circuit their game-playing. When it’s time to wrap things up reassure them that they can still continue whatever they’re doing another time.

7. Respect children’s preferences. If they’re not interested in a particular game, set it aside. Don’t force kids to play a certain game just because you like it. Perhaps it will be more appealing another day. Talk together about other options.

8. Make it developmentally appropriate. That is, not too simple as to be a drag, and not too complicated as to be overly challenging or to cause consternation. However, it’s okay if kids confront setbacks along the way because that’s how they learn resilience. Even the simplest board games are designed to show children that they can recoup if they hit a snag or move in the wrong direction.

9. It’s not about winning. It’s about the pleasure of participating in something that is enjoyable, and potentially a learning experience.

10. Cultivate curiosity. Harness spontaneity, including seizing the moment and trying something different or innovative, and let children take the lead and show what they’d like to do. For example, it may be something technological (fine in moderation) or something totally silly, or cerebral, or artsy, or low-key, or somewhat rough-and-tumble.

Above all, be supportive—of children’s choices, interests, abilities, and creative impulses

If you are interesting in learning more about infusing creativity into your children’s environment, please visit www.creativitypost.com. The site includes posts by many seasoned columnists including another post from Dr. Foster’s entitled “Why Should Creativity Matter to Kids? What’s the Big Deal?”.

For more information see Beyond Intelligence: Secrets for Raising Happily Productive Kids by Dona Matthews, PhD and Joanne Foster, EdD (House of Anansi, 2014) and visit www.beyondintelligence.net.

Also visit Joanne Foster, EdD on Facebook—Not Now Maybe Later: Helping Children Overcome Procrastination.

Thanks to Creativity Post for first posting this blog entry. The Creativity Post is a non-profit web platform committed to sharing the very best content on creativity, in all of its forms. www.creativitypost.com

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” –Mary Anne Radmacher

ABOUT JOANNE

“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the

same time, give ourselves permission to excel.”

–Eloise Ristad

QUOTE

Joanne Foster is a parent, teacher, consultant,

researcher, and education specialist. Dr. Foster teaches

educational psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies

in Education at the University of Toronto and has over 30

years of experience working in the field of gifted education.

She writes extensively about high-level development, and

presents on a wide range of topics at conferences and

learning venues across North America.

She is the co-author (with Dona Matthews) of the award

winning book Being Smart about Gifted Education

(2009, Great Potential Press), and Beyond Intelligence:

Secrets for Raising Happily Productive Kids (2014,

Anansi Press). Her latest book is Not Now, Maybe Later:

Helping Children Overcome Procrastination (2015, Great

Potential Press).

For additional information, visit www.brainpowerinitiative.com

ISSUE 27 • MARCH 2015

BRAINWARE

We are a national organization concentrating on the implementation of comprehensive baseline concussion testing and concussion management programs for youth, high school, college, and professional sports organizations. SportsBrain also provides cognitive, mental toughness, and leadership development training to maximize mental performance both on and off the field. At SportsBrain, we fight concussions by offering flexible

schedules with multiple locations to make baseline concussion testing more accessible.

500 Lake Cook Road, Ste 350, Deerfield, IL 60015 • T: 855-32-BRAIN (322-7246) • F: 888-253-5997 www.SportsBrain.com @Sports_Brain

HELICOPTERS AND SNOWPLOWSAt first glance, these two words seem out of place in our newsletter. However, both are words that have entered our vocabulary to describe a certain type of parent.

Flashback—40 years ago:For better or worse, we didn’t have scheduled playdates, electronic devices or a playroom full of toys. There were only a few shows on television that we enjoyed so we watched those same episodes again and again. We carved out places to play in our homes, in our backyards and at the park. Fast food was an occasional treat. Our parents went out to dinner to nice restaurants—adults only, we were hardly ever included.

Families did not move around a lot and many of us were surrounded by neighbors, relatives, siblings and in the background, our parents. Discipline was strict and punishments were adhered to.

Fast forward to the 21st Century:A recent study, conducted by researchers from the University of Mary Washington and published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, concludes that “helicopter parenting” can lead our children to depression and an overall dissatisfaction with life.

A “helicopter parent”, like any parent, comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and attributes. We must remember that life today is not the same as it was in 1970, due to a variety of familial, societal and financial evolutions (or setbacks, depending on your perspective).

There is no test to define this new breed of parents. However, there does seem to be a general consensus that some parents are “too involved” and other parents understand the importance of letting our children grow, develop and make mistakes, as they learn to navigate our complicated world and make their own decisions.

As an informal test, does this often sound like you or your spouse/partner?

Do you.1. Text your child during the school day several times?2. Think they are too busy for household chores, since

schoolwork and team sports are “so competitive”?3. Get too involved in their school projects, instead of

proofing a final draft of their work?4. Complete some of their homework yourself, so that they

are able to concentrate on some of their core subjects?5. Micromanage their evenings and weekends,

ensuring they are always busy, active and involved?

6. Drive them to the bus stop, or wait at the bus stop to pick them up, avoiding walking home a few blocks?

7. Confuse love with gifts. Does any child truly need an endless stream of gifts from caring parents and relatives throughout the year?

8. Subscribe to the germ squad? We don’t live in a bubble and kids get dirty, clothes get ripped and stains don’t always come out, despite our best efforts. It is so ironic that preschool teachers need to remind parents to dress their children for play, not in fashionable outfits.

9. Hand pick their friendships? In a perfect world, our children would develop friendships with our friend’s children, so we could have a two-generation playdate. But life doesn’t work that way. Some friendships are everlasting, some are temporary and some don’t get off the ground at all. Children need to learn to test out different relationships and understand that they will develop a variety of friendships through their lives, some close, some casual, and some that fizzle.

10. Lack spontaneity?

In late 2014, our home lost power for almost a week, right before Christmas. It was inconvenient, frustrating and taught us to better prepared for the future. But it was also a lot of fun. Frozen pizzas on the barbeque, board games, cuddling up together to sleep. We couldn’t plan any of this, and some of our carefully laid out plans were scrapped.

We are all guilty of wanting what is best for our kids. BUT, we often do need to step back and watch them fail.

My 14 year old son has been working on his science fair project for over a month with a friend. It is due tomorrow morning and I still don’t know what they are presenting. I do know that these boys realized they missed one part of the project, and had to scramble to get it done over the weekend. They developed a timeline, arranged where the work was going to get done, went to bed late one night, got up at 6:30 am the next morning to complete it, and they are putting the final touches on the project this evening. The parents are able to see their displays tomorrow night, after their presentations, after they have received their mark, for one hour.

I hope their presentation goes well. If not, their presentation next year will be better. I hope.

Mental performance is a big determining factor of success in competition. Help your athletes improve their mental abilities by going through our BrainWare program which develops their cognitive skills. This program has a proven track record of success and the skills developed along the way will benefit the athletes academically, personally and professionally.

See how the BrainWare program can help your athletes by visiting our website.