The Least Talked About Burnout Cause that Threatens Youth Sports
In the back of my mind, there’s always this nagging thought about the burnout causes that could impact my kids most. It’s a fact that most kids who play youth sports won’t play high school sports, let alone college sports. Research shows that 70% of kids who participate in youth sports quit by the time their 13 years old.
The reality is that whether or not my two sons continue to play sports through high school and college is their choice. I know it’s important to realize that I can only do so much. However, I don’t want to be the dad who burns out his kid by not doing enough. So it’s important to me to make sure I do what I can do to prevent burnout. What’s more, I think it’s the responsibility of all parents of young athletes to do the same.
For the most part, I see the majority of parents and coaches doing this. However, I think there’s one factor in particular that parents and coaches can’t overlook any longer.
Don’t Overlook The Biggest Threat to Youth Sports
The burnout causes that parents and coaches tend to focus are the high profile causes. Burnout causes such as pressure, stress, lack of motivation, and overuse injuries are always part of the burnout conversation. But what about boredom? What about the fact that youth sports is just not as exciting as eSports?
eSports is now the mainstream term for competitive video gaming. There are not only professional leagues with professional players making decent salaries, more than 50 colleges have varsity eSports programs.
When it comes to making youth sports fun, the bar is rapidly moving as a result of eSports.
On one hand, playing a sport is mostly fun for kids when in the right environment. On the other hand, preparing to play can be very boring more often than not. Especially when preparing involves tedious, repetitive drilling. Now compare the effort to prepare to play a real sport with the effort to prepare to play a so called eSport. There is no comparison. Video games just have so many built-in advantages.
No longer can the burnout debate center around just what parents and coaches are doing to run kids away. It must also factor in what they are doing to keep kids excited to stay. There is real competition between real sports and eSports. As kids grow into teens and start making choices parents can’t influence, eSports are in a prime position to be the reason kids quit real sports.
At this point, parents can no longer tell kids they are wasting there time playing video games. Kids can earn real money playing video games by getting scholarships and going pro. If you believe in the virtue of athletics, exercise, and the character building classroom of youth sports, this is the existential threat you must worry about.