Many kids from a young age begin seeking out what their sport is. They may try tennis, basketball, and hundred’s of others but then they finally start the one that feels like it was meant for them. Now they dedicate every waking moment to it, they wake up and practice, after school they practice, their whole world begins to revolve around the sport they truly love. They fall in love with the drive, determination, and pride it brings them. They find a sort of identity in it. But then in what felt like a hole that they tripped into they became less and less motivated. They suddenly dread practice, hate playing, and wish they never wasted those countless hours on the field or court they used to value so much. All of this can contribute to one idea: sports burnout every athlete’s worst fear.
To most athlete’s a coach is someone who truly is there to see you exceed what you think you are capable of, push you to your absolute potential. For so many others it is the person that made them lose absolutely everything they ever wanted. Student-Athlete Kathleen Moist says “ I have played basketball from a young age and I always thought that I would play for as long as I could. That all changed when I gained a new coach that made me lose confidence and overlooked me in most aspects. I didn’t want to continue being on the court which caused me to make an upsetting decision but I ultimately decided that I couldn’t see basketball in my future anymore.” Like her, so many athletes experience a coach that doesn’t instill the confidence needed to be successful in their sports and it causes the love to die out.
Another big fear is injury. To work so hard and it all ends due to one moment. Lmhs soccer player Rhiana Rodriguez says “ when I tore my ACL during a soccer game I felt my world crashing down and I couldn’t do anything to change it. I found a purpose from soccer and suddenly it was taken away along with all the hard work I put in”. An injury is such a hard thing to go through especially when it keeps you from reaching a potential you use to obtain so easily.
Parents play a big role in sport burnout as well. Many parents want to push their children to see them succeed to where they know they can, but when is it too much? Endless practices and pushing your body to the absolute limit has its downsides like stealing all your time and burning your drive out. Jayden Mery says that he always has appreciated all his parents have pushed him to be however he says it gets to be too much sometimes. The high expectation, low social time, and the idea that he has to be perfect all the time. It caused him to lose the love he had for tennis and now he says he rarely plays but when he does he has the lingering idea that he needs to be perfect or he didn’t do a good job.
None of these athletes are alone in their experiences. It is so important to bring awareness to this difficult side of sports because so many are scared to admit that they truly don’t want to be in their own sport anymore.
