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Mental Health + Skateboarding
Our approach to mental health is unique and disruptive. We believe it is exactly what youth need in todays current society.
Educating youth about healthy mental habits is critical to the Carry On approach. Each class includes 10-15 minutes to teach mental protocols for performance and healthy living. Youth learn to apply mental skills in context as they meet the natural resistance from committing to skateboard challenges.
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We Have Reason to Be Concerned
In 2021 Dr. Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon general issued a public advisory called Protecting Youth Mental Health. In that advisory he expresses concern over the “[unprecedented] challenges today’s generation of young people face…and the [devastating] effect these challenges have had on their mental health.”
Self-efficacy is a belief in one’s own ability to perform a task or succeed in a given situation. Self-efficacy theory was pioneered by psychologist Albert Bandura and is important pillar of our Theory of Change. In his seminal publication on the subject, Bandura explains:
“Those who persist in subjectively threatening activities that are in fact relatively safe will gain corrective experiences that reinforce their sense of self-efficacy... Efficacy expectations determine how much effort people will expend and how long they will persist in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences.”
We propose that action sports (like skateboarding) provide an ideal context in which youth can be guided through controlled exposure to stress in a safe and engaging way. The outcomes described by Bandura are what we would term “resilience.” The ultimate goal of our program is to equip youth with attributes of resilience needed to thrive in the midst of adversity.
Six pillars of mental resilience
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Educate -> Exposure -> Reflect -> Progress
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Helping youth develop resilience is not merely an academic matter of teaching facts. It includes application and practice of specific skills, accumulation of past successful experiences, and the formation of positive beliefs and perceptions about adversity. In his seminal publication called Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change, psychologist Albert Bandura asserts:
On the one hand, the mechanisms by which human behavior is acquired and regulated are increasingly formulated in terms of cognitive processes. On the other hand, it is performance-based procedures that are proving to be most powerful for effecting psychological change. As a consequence, successful performance is replacing symbolically based experiences as the principle vehicle of change.
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The Performance/resilience
exposure context
Carry on skateboard programs
Fulfillment of Needs
At the Carry On facility coaches and directors strive to make sure the environment is emotionally safe and supportive. Youth are able to develop relationships with “significant adult” mentors and peers with shared interests and feel a sense of belonging and significance. Training activities fulfill the need for exercise and highlight the importance of proper nutrition, hydration, and adequate rest on mental and physical performance.
Competence
Various aspects of our skateboarding program have been designed with the purpose of helping youth participants develop competence in the sport. First, our skateboarding skills curriculum is broken down into six ability levels each with specific “peak goals.” Peak goals are subdivided into smaller “step goals” to help participants progress. As they move up in the program they have opportunities to collaborate with coaches to set individual goals. Secondly, our facility has features that scale from small/mellow/beginner to large/steep/advanced to facilitate confidence building and skill development.
Positive Beliefs and Self-Perceptions
To make sure these exposure experiences realize their maximum potential for growth, coaches use breaks from training to help youth “unpack” and process. Sometimes this happens right in the middle of a drill or exercise when a teachable moment arises. We ask questions about what students are thinking and feeling as they face new challenges, debrief with them when they are discouraged, and reinforce self-beliefs after a breakthrough. We use specific phrases like “obstacles our opportunities” and “failure is feedback” to help shape their perceptions about discomfort and challenge.
Concrete Mental Skills
Each skateboard training session includes a 10-15 breakout training on a particular mental skill from one six resilience/performance domains: community, purposeful practice, mindset, confidence, goal-setting, and focus. These six domains create a consistent framework for all participants while depth and rigor of mental skills training is differentiated according to age and experience level. The Mental Skills Curriculum was developed within the field of Sport and Performance Psychology.
Self-Efficacy/Confidence
One of the main reasons for skateboarding as an effective stress exposure context goes back to Bandura’s requirement that exposure experiences are “subjectively threatening activities [but] in fact relatively safe.”
What separates Carry On from just a sport experience is the education which informs the participant of mental progression. When students learn to recognize thought patterns and have a language for confidence a greater impact is made.
