‘The amount of pressure we are putting on kids at such a young age has turned me off from the activities that once were my only outlet. I never wanted to be the next Olympic champion, I just wanted to play.”
“The trauma I have from my coaches and organization is something I will never recover from…”
“I feel bad for my parents, who wasted thousands of dollars on a false dream that was sold to them by money-hungry clubs….I feel bad for friends of mine who have suffered hip replacement, knee surgeries, bad backs and broken dreams due to hyper fixation on sports.”
“The damage is done well before college…I started playing competitive soccer at 6, club by 11, and was burnt out physically and mentally by 16. Everyone around me had this attitude that you have to be the best, but its simply not sustainable for most kids”
The quotes above are from real kids describing their personal experience in youth sports during these current times. Do they sound like they had a good experience? Do you think if adults were more responsible these kids may have had an entirely different, positive experience? Are we really listening to what kids want, or what research says about pushing kids too hard? Or do we simply not care?
More, more, more….
I see kids at my office almost every day, and while not every kid has a tough time in youth sports, the quotes above reflect how many of them feel about their personal experience. What starts out as fun can quickly turn into an intense job, one that seems to never have any days off. Kids show us through their lacking interest, frequent injuries, and requests to take a break, yet we keep pushing…the next practice, the next ID camp, the next personal trainer. We watch kids younger and younger deal with torn ACL’s and concussions, yet we keep pushing them to be their best! Research studies also consistently tell us kids are not only experiencing more serious injuries today, but that sport burnout impacts their mental health — still, we keep pushing them.
For what??
Why does a 10 year old kid need to be on a travel team and devote his entire summer to the sport?
Why do we assume they want to be all-state, when all they really want to do is play on a team and share this great time in their lives with their teammates/friends?
Why do we keep chasing the latest new shiny thing — a skill coach, new technology, or premier camp?
When are we going to start listening to kids, paying attention to research, and accepting that serious injuries have become all too common with young kids playing sports?
Remember, only about 5% of high school student athletes will move on to play college sports, and that number includes D2 and D3 athletes, walk-ons, and partial scholarships (meaning most are not on a “full-ride”). But is it really about a scholarship, or parent ego?
For coaches, it is important to understand why kids play sports (to have fun!), the value of development and playing time, and the many benefits kids experience from sports well beyond wins and losses (i.e. social experiences, physical development, emotional development, and life skills). In too many cases today we see coaches chasing a dream, one that many kids on the team could care less about.
Final thoughts
While many kids today do have a good youth sport experience, far too many others experience over-training, serious injuries, burnout, and other mental health concerns. In fact, kids tell us all the time that we push too hard, as do surgeons who regularly operate on kids, and mental health professionals who help kids deal with the related anxiety, burnout, and depression. All the information is there, and none of it is telling us to go harder, yet it seems like that’s the direction far too many adults are pushing right now.
drstankovich.com
