today this kid I was coaching was doing a lot of negative self talk and they were climbing well and doing a lot of things right and I was just pulling out all the stops, trying all the phrases I know, trying all the reframing techniques--doing everything I could to set-up a positive mindset. And, y'know, the thing about a kid being upset is that talking about mindset and self-talk isn't going to make them not be upset so there's not a lot of levers you can really pull. Especially in climbing where it's a sport about close misses and finding things that you can almost do but can't quite do. If you can't frame failure in a productive way then it's really hard to get anywhere. 

Anyway, I was doing my darndest and at the end the mom who had stayed to watch the practice came up to me and thanked me for speaking the way I did and basically said that how I acted was not the norm for youth sports and that meant a lot. Normally I find parents observing kind of stressful but hearing that made that effort worthwhile so that was great.