The Parent Playbook: 10 Mental Skills That Help Teen Athletes Win and Grow

As I reminisce to days long past, i remember visiting my elderly German/Hungarian grandparents during a holiday when I was a child, and my younger brother and I could not touch the highly polished furniture or sit on the couch with the adults in the living room. This is because our “sticky fingers” might make a mark. While being secluded from the adults on the front enclosed sunporch on the second floor of their rental, we sat under a hand-carved German-made clock that announced the hour and half-hour while the dancing children dressed in “Swiss Alps” attire emerged with the sound of the cuckoo, cuckoo!

When we were children, anyone older seemed “old.” By the time we looked at our grandparents, aging often appeared synonymous with decline. frailty, and loss. But neuroscience is now telling a very different story—one that could completely change how you experience the rest of your life.

Growing up in New York City as a Catholic girl in Far Rockaway, Queens, I never heard the word “Islamophobia,” that is, until the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, when it became common vernacular. Twenty-five years later, how is islamophobia defined today? It is the fear, hatred, or prejudice directed at Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim, often manifesting as racism, discrimination, and violence, which stereotypes all Muslims as a uniform, threatening group. It is often fueled by media coverage and politics, such as it is currently during the Iranian-Israeli-US War in the Middle East.

Recently, my doctor told me something that stopped me cold. He said I would never bring my blood sugar down without insulin—and that it would only get worse with age. In general, I would say I am a goal-oriented and self-reliant person and have been since I was five years old when I declared to my parents: “Leave me alone, I’ll do it myself!” But for a day or two after this demoralization in the doctor’s office, I cried a lot and lacked belief in myself to improve my well-being, especially after being told that this refusal to follow orders would increase my risk of vison loss and amputation down the road, or worse.

On Sunday, February 22, the 2026 Olympics ended with Team USA setting a team record for the most gold medals in a single Winter Games. Their success was capped off with both the women’s and men’s hockey teams winning gold in thrilling overtime victories.

As a reader of the Washington Post, I was saddened by the news of February 5, 2026 that one-third of its staff was eliminated, including its sports section, several foreign bureaus, and its books coverage in a widespread purge that struck harsh blow to journalism and to its legendary brand. Martin Baron, the Post’s first editor under its current owner, Jeff Bezos, called this action “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”