How To Prevent Burnout In Youth Sports
Many young athletes experience burnout when playing too much sport but it can be easily prevented making them happier in the long run
“Prevention is always better than cure”
is the old saying.
And it’s true.
Although sport is a competitive lifestyle, youth is not. Instead, you could say it’s the opposite. Being young is about being free. Living for the moment and whetting your curiosity are attributes of growing up and something we all feel at that age. After all, it’s this period in life that allows us to grow and develop naturally so it’s bound to benefit us if we are left to just ‘be’.
But playing sport is an extension of that carefree way of youth. By momentarily exerting yourself through quickly overreaching for the last apple on the tree or snatching the last biscuit from the tin, young people communicate with each other about who is the best.
This eagerness to take what they feel is theirs is an innate drive for immediate success.
The journey to burnout:
The problem with burnout is that arises from opportunity.
Players and coaches see the opportunity that a driven young athlete can give their sport. The player is pumped up like a steam train running down the track. They don’t see another avenue and are intent on going as fast as they can because there are always lengths of the line ahead of them with no one else out in front.
That’s their buzz.
The coach can use the player as their colonel on the field. With this one player, they can justify their own existence as a successful coach. By lodging this single player in a pivotal position, they can build a team around them.
But burnout is never far out in front. Like the train on the track, if the fuel runs out the engine barely chugs over.
Burnout:
Burnout arises from a young athlete’s chronic stress. The enjoyment of participants evaporates as quickly as the smoke from the burnt fuel in their engine.
Soon after the athlete admits to themselves that they need to stop where they are. Psychologically and physically they’re done. But as they are so young and they’ve never felt this level of strain, it seems to them like a permanent end.
To the young athlete, once burnout arises their power evaporates, like a puff of smoke in the breeze.
Burnout is the young athlete reaching the end of the train tracks. Although there may be a demand to keep moving they’re unable to. Going that little bit more is too much for them. At this stage, they may be showing a varying degree of psychological responses to their experience. Far from the powerful train on the track, they may just withdraw their interest from the sport without too much, if any, hesitation.
To glide is not to burn:
Parents and coaches need to remember though that a young athlete is not a steam train. For a train is a man-made thing. Although they are quite attractive to many people, they are an invention. They have tough mechanical parts and heavy durable outer shells that can withstand the battering of seasonal weathers and changing speeds or long journeys. They can run an unlimited amount of trips and guarantee a person that they’ll be on time and drop off according to plan. But they are not natural.
A youth is grown from nature. Each one is unique. Before being an athlete they are a young person. Some are attractive, others are not. This attraction is merely subjective. There is no fit and proper rule as to what attraction is, and nor should there be. A young person is only as tough as what they face. They have not been pre-programmed to experience things before they do. For sure, they meet each day with an abundance of energy but they do not understand how to use their energy economically. This is where experience comes in, but that’s a voice for another day.
Youth is meant to glide and experience things as they move.
It’s from this experience that learning comes. That’s when a young person begins to ponder on their future.
As they feel the high soar of youth reaching its plateau they formulate a starting plan for the beginning of their adulthood.
The gentle solution to youth sports burnout:
The solution to the problem of burnout for a young athlete must come before the athlete reaches that stage of hanging at the end of their track. By expecting a burned-out young athlete to make a clear and coherent decision on their sporting ambitions it is already too late. At this stage, their minds are wandering to another part of their development.
Rather, responsible planning by parents and coaches alike is best before a young person takes hold of the bucket of coal and heaps it into their engine. Adults need to realize that their young person who is athletic will always be a better athlete when they are a fully mature adult if they are allowed to reach that point uninterrupted by burnout.
Dominating at youth sport is impressive, but it is only a developmental performance.
As each young person develops at a different rate it’s not a fair reflection of their overall talent being executed in the adult competition.
For the fastest steam locomotive train can go in the region of 150 miles per hour but the Golden Eagle can surpass that by traveling closer to 200 miles per hour.
If I was the spectator I know I`d pay to watch the one that brings me gold, even if it is just gliding over the finish line.
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