Very common at mite/squirt level. Usually a confidence/maturity issue. It may take a while for him/her to get comfortable and start 'not thinking' about it and just start playing. If the player is as you have described I wouldn't be too worried.

You could have the other issue, cocky, loud, outspoken, a-dog who thinks they are the next Gretzky and have zero talent and less hockey IQ.

I like where you are at.

Don't you dare try to ruin the reputation of this board with a well thought out, well articulated answer.

Take that crap somewhere else.

Sorry that kid's gonna get cut!

bahaha

Start by telling him to go have fun. Then when he gets in the car ask if he had fun. Limit your conversations to that..... I find most kids that cant perform in games have parents that spend too much time lecturing them about the game etc.... they are too worried about making a mistake.. have fun play hard get a slice of pizza.... talk about something else in the car.

I agree and that is great advice. I didn't need it for hockey, but it sure worked well for little league with the pressure to perform in the batters box. as soon as BB was fun enough like backyard whiffle ball, the hits got easier and easier as the confidence grew.

I get anxiety when I p...any advice?

Try standing up.

Just have fun

Performance anxiety is real and sometimes it doesn't go away. Kid on my son's high school team had every junior team begging for him to play and it turns out the kid had terrible anxiety and pretty much quit the game. The kid was smart, big, strong, great skater and you would never know he suffered from it by watching him play but it made the kid's life miserable. He even said he loved practice but hated games.

For some kids that's hard to do, especially when their parents have made them focus solely on hockey since they were 10, and have told their kid and everyone else that would listen since the kid was 6 that he's "on the track for DI." Unrealistic expectations that most kids can't live up to. Sad really, but the kids will have the last laugh. Recent studies have shown how a father's inability to perform in bed has a direct correlation to his kid's inability to performance on the ice. It's true. Pharmaceutical stocks go through the roof each December, which, be no mere coincidence, is the start of the High School and Prep Hockey seasons. It's the time of the year when fathers see their DI dreams and expectations, along with their blood flow, slowly start to fade away. Experts in Sports Psychology and Urology have taken to calling it "Castration by Unrealistic Expectation," and from what I hear, business is booming.

Why do they let mom's ^^ post on the board

Exactly...now when you are done working out honey, go make me my breakfast. And as we talked about, please only open your mouth for one, and only one reason....