Giving feedback to young athletes and other youth can backfire if not delivered wisely.

"Wise feedback" is a method of offering critique to young people with research-proven effectiveness.

"Compliment sandwiches," a popular form of delivering criticism, is often ineffective with young people.

Critique is often communicated to young athletes and other performers in a manner that is ignored, meaningless, or even offensive for the person on the receiving end. While the intent for delivering the information is well intended, the efforts will fall flat if ineffectively given.

Wise feedback is a concept introduced in a 2014 research study conducted by psychologist David Yeager, Geoffrey Cohen, et al. with the purpose of assisting coaches, instructors, parents, etc., to improve the quality of their work with young people.

My experience has demonstrated that wise feedback is effective for delivering critique to people of any age, not just the young.

The objective, herein, is to assist readers to improve their communication with young people.

Coaches yelling at an athlete when they make a mistake or giving them silent (not so quiet) dirty looks. Parents yelling at their kids after a mistake is made at a sporting event. Instructors berating their young musicians for hitting the wrong note.

All that will likely distract the person on the receiving end by the thoughts and emotions that will show up within them when spoken to with an angry, disrespectful tone and body language. That internal experience can distract and lead to more mistakes, not to mention a damaged relationship between mentor and mentee.

“There’s a very thin line between correcting a guy and disrespecting the guy in the process of........

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