Kimberly O'Brien The Quirky Kid Clinic Interview

Kimberly O'Brien The Quirky Kid Clinic Interview

While Australia's elite sportsmen are aiming for top form in the footy finals, young Australians are also striving to achieve their best: It's now the -business end' of the year, when kids take to the field in sports finals, school students knuckle down to study for final exams, and young performers prepare for end-of-year eisteddfods. But how to get the most out of high achievers without overdoing it?

A new resource from one of Australia's leading child psychology practices, The Quirky Kid Clinic helps young people perform at their best, while maintaining balance and perspective, and not getting burnt out.

-Power Up!' is a step-by-step program that enables schools and clubs to adopt the type of performance psychology used by elite athletes, performers and musicians. Young people striving to perform at high levels in sports, performance, music or academia (including end of year exams) can benefit from these techniques. They include goal setting, self-talk, imagery, arousal regulation, focus and competition planning.

Quirky Kid Clinic's principal child Psychologist, Kimberly O'Brien says: 'Knowing how to reach your performance peak is more effective than endless hours of coaching. Power Up! is about avoiding burn out and enjoying what you do best".

Power Up! will be distributed by the Australian Council of Educational Research. ACER's National Sales Manager Eirini Lamni says the program is an 'innovation in the way we approach high performing kids. By focusing on the path towards goals rather than just the end-point, young people are armed with useful, healthy strategies to perform at their best. It's a great resource."

Power Up! was launched on the 26th of September at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation, in partnership with Football United. Football United organises soccer matches, tournaments and camps, providing opportunities for young refugees, or kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to socialise, form networks, and to excel on the sports field.

Top 4 Tips for young performers:
1. Don't put all your eggs in one basket
Although you might feel like you should do nothing but train or practice it actually won't do you any favours in terms of your performance. You are much more than just your athletic talent or creative ability. Remember to develop yourself as a whole person and keep your studies, job, social life and family relationships as normal as possible.

2. Use setbacks as opportunities for learning
There is no doubt that reaching the elite or professional level as a teenager means that you have a lot of talent! You can make every experience count, even if your performance was dismal! Take note of your strengths and identify your weaknesses, then set about learning from your mistakes.

3. Don't buy into the hype!
Athletes and performers who achieve long-term success usually stay well grounded, keeping everything in perspective. Work with your coaches, teachers, agents, psychologist or media trainer to feel confident and in control in the public arena.

4. Look after yourself
You dedicate a significant amount of time and effort to train and practice to achieve success and reach your potential, however like everyone else, you can become ill or injured. Make sure your decisions are keeping your long-term future in mind as well as your present needs. Always consult with medical professionals when making decisions about coming back from illness or injury.

For more tips visit: http://childpsychologist.com.au/resources/young-athletesand-performers/
More information about Power Up! is available at http://quirkykid.com.au

Interview with Kimberly O'Brien

Question: What is The Quirky Kid Clinic?

Kimberly O'Brien: The Quirky Kid Clinic is a clinic for children aged 2 – 18 years and their families. We work from the child's perspective to address all sorts of issues which could be to do with home, school, separation anxiety, depression, family divorce or bullying. We go to schools and observe kids in the playground and the classroom and talk to teachers at case conferences to resolve any social or behavioural issues.


Question: What inspired the creation of The Quirky Kid Clinic?

Kimberly O'Brien: It was created about six years ago; I had been working in private practice as a child psychologist and I wanted to do more creative intervention and have more published programs to help kids on a massive scale rather than one-to-one. I found lots of kids have very common issues and I knew clinics would be a better way to address kids using an effective program. I wanted to create programs that were tailored to kids specifically including graphic design that would engage kids because usually the children we work with are quiet resistant to pen and paper or they have literacy issues. I wanted our programs to be different and very effective.


Question: What is the -Power Up!' program?

Kimberly O'Brien: The Power Up! program is a performance psychology program to help kids compete at their best. The program targets kids who have particular talents whether that is in drama, arts, music or sports.


Question: How do the clinics aid in getting the most out of high achievers without overdoing it?

Kimberly O'Brien: We conduct the Power Up! program in the school setting, quiet often with large groups, we also offer Power Up! as a clinic to smaller groups. We talk to the kids about goal setting and the importance of positive self-talk rather than negative for example on the soccer field, if they miss a goal some kids will have negative self-talk which can impact on the rest of their game. We also talk about imagery which is what professional athletes use before an important event or at the Olympics – they will imagine themselves on the field and write down all the details so they can imagine using the skills that they have as well as their emotions to control certain reactions to things.

There are six cores to the program: goal setting, self-talk, imagery, focus and intentional control, arousal regulation and performance planning.

Question: What is the importance of those six core themes?

Kimberly O'Brien: It is to help kids have more control over the way that they perform on the field or on the stage. Instead of hoping things go well and crossing their fingers this is about managing performance so they can always perform at their best.


Question: Why is it important that children adopt this performance psychology?

Kimberly O'Brien: Performance psychology gives children an extra advantage that many adults have and if kids learn these skills, at a younger age, then they're more likely to perform at their best through adolescence and onto adulthood as well. The skills are easy enough to adapt to child friendly activities.


Question: What techniques are involved in the program?

Kimberly O'Brien: It is as simple as talking about music that kids listen to and talking about how to use that music to cool down or to power up before a performance or event. With imagery we will look at a time when they performed at their best and then imagine what it was about that, which made it particularly good that time to boost confidence using past experience.

Another example is using a string and tying a little nut to create a weighted string and using it to spin around in a clock wise direction and an anti-clockwise direction like a figure eight – you can't see the kids moving their hands because they are imagining with their minds to move the weighted object in one direction but it's actually there hand moving very, very slightly but it looks to the kids as if it's the power of their mind that can move the object which shows that a very subtle change in your thinking that can really impact on your performance.


Question: What advice do you have for children embarking on their sporting finales?

Kimberly O'Brien: I think it's important that children talk to their coaches and their whole support network (parents) about what they can do to make it easier, for them, at the time of the event including not putting too much pressure on them and being aware of their diet as food impacts on a performance. Everyone has their own individual secret weapon before a performance or event and it's important to know and follow your own ritual to ensure that you perform at your best, every single time.


Question: How did the launch of the -Power Up!' program go?
Kimberly O'Brien: Very good! There was probably about sixty different nations in attendance we had attendees from Iraq, Eastern Europe and Sierra Leone, all were elite athletes who had practical examples to share such as times when they may have been given a penalty and were sent off and overreacted and how to manage that and how to manage conflict on the field.


Interview by Brooke Hunter