Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Youth sports burnout is a hot topic among parents.  Part of the reason why is that parents are spending more money on youth sports than ever before. As a matter of fact, an article in USA Today reports some startling numbers from TD Ameritrade’s research on this topic.

Nearly 20% of U.S. families spend more than $12,000 a year, or $1,000 per month, on youth sports, per child…That’s in line with the median mortgage payment of $1,030 that Americans make monthly, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Youth sports is no longer money spent for recreation. Instead, youth sports is an investment.  But not any investment, it’s essentially a mortgage payment.

With this in mind, I believe many parents now see youth sports burnout the same as their retirement fund crashing. Obviously, this way of thinking is a big part of the problem.  Subsequently, I am going to use this premise as the starting point for examining youth sports burnout.

Youth Sports Burnout as a Result of Specialization

As parents try to manage their investment, their instincts drive them to focus their money so they can hit it big.  If they spread their money around to too many sports, parents believe their investment will grow slower.  So slow that it won’t pay off fast enough to cash in. (i.e college scholarship, Olympics, draft)

Unfortunately, this thinking backfires.  An article on youth sports burnout in the NY Times quotes Dr. Mininder S. Kocher a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital Boston.  Insight’s learned from him show exactly why this backfires.

Intense and repetitive training can lead to pediatric trauma and may require surgery to young shoulders, knees, elbows and wrists…

…children whose bodies are still growing and developing, excessive training in a single sport does not give them enough time to heal properly…

…children who grow up in the northern United States are more likely to become major league baseball players than kids from the South because they can’t play their sport year-round and are less likely to be injured.

The NY Times also quotes Dr. Charles A. Popkin, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center.  This is what Dr. Popkin had to say:

Children who specialize in one sport early in life were found to be the first to quit their sport and ended up having higher inactivity rates as an adult

When parents hire personal trainers and coaches, there’s an expectation of success that can create a pressure-cooker scenario and lead to burnout.

Youth Sports Burnout Due to Not Developing Intrinsic Motivation

The investment mentality by parents also drives them to push their kids hard to perform. These parents want their kids to succeed more than the kids want to succeed.  As a result, young athletes never get the chance to develop intrinsic motivation to succeed while playing youth sports.

Intrinsic motivation is the drive to complete an activity for only the satisfaction gained in doing the activity.  This satisfaction is the result of fun or mental stimulation.  In addition, this satisfaction comes in the absence of external pressure or reward. This definition is derived from a research report on the subject by the University of Rochester.

What’s more, Dr. Charles A. Popkin puts this in the context of youth sports stating:

If they lack an intrinsic drive, if they’re not having fun, they’ll likely become frustrated and quit.

If parents are pushing their kids hard to perform, when do kids get the space to develop their intrinsic motivation? At some point, parents have to let go.  This is usually at the start of the teen years or when kids start high school.  Research shows that 70% of kids who participate in youth sports quit by the time their 13 years old. I believe not developing intrinsic motivation is the reason why.

Three Suggestions to Avoid Youth Sports Burnout

In conclusion, viewing youth sports as a financial investment creates a deadly combination that leads to burnout. The drive to specialize coupled with the lack of developing intrinsic motivation is a killer combo.

If you are a parent using youth sports to cash in on college scholarships and other long term rewards reserved for the tiny few, the  I have three suggestions for you.

1. Stop viewing youth sports as a financial investment and instead view it as an investment in building your child’s character, health, and social skills. This type of investment is guaranteed to pay-off if you find the right environment and coaches to nurture your child.
2. Instead of investing so much money in competitions, transfer half of that money to invest in building your child’s intrinsic motivation.  The best way to do this is to help your child become a fan of the sport.  Take them to watch the pro’s and college athletes compete often and find role models for them to cheer on.
3. Cross-train as a family.  For example, use weekends to ride bikes, go on hikes, and participate in charity runs as a family.  By doing this, your child can still build athletic skills while not focusing the weekend on competing and training for a single sport.