All Level 9 and 10 parents are welcome on Thursday evening, May 18th at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid during the National Qualifier to attend Parenting A Competitive Athlete presented by Dr. Gloria Balague.
Parenting a good competitor is like parenting a gifted musician or an academically advanced child: Not easy! Parents naturally want to protect their children from disappointments, but often the most important learning is in how to respond to these disappointments. In this session we will talk about the role of parents in making sure the sport experience of their child is positive and how they can help make sure their gymnast learns to trust herself, be more responsible and a good teammate, while still wanting to be the best.
Dr. Gloria Balague is a native of Barcelona, Spain. She is a Clinical Associate Professor Emerita in Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has worked extensively with USA Track & Field, USA Gymnastics and USA Field Hockey. She was at the1992 and 1996 Olympics as sport psychologist. She is now the sport psychologist for the Chicago Bears and for the USA Rhythmic Gymnastics program. 8 years ago she joined Don Hellison in starting the TPSR Alliance (tpsr-alliance.org) a group aiming at using sport and physical activity as a tool to promote personal and social responsibility in youth. Gloria has joined the USA Gymnastics Rhythmic Program staff to work with National Team athletes and coaches.
She is Past-President of Division 47 (Sport and Exercise Psychology) of the APA, and also of Division 12 (Sport Psychology) of the International Association of Applied Psychology, and last year received the Outstanding Professional Practice Award from the Association of Applied Sport Psychology.