Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

It’s hard to stop an athlete from training when there is always another big event or camp opportunity around the corner. Young athletes with aspirations to compete on the next level tend to undervalue rest and overvalue year-around training. As a parent of one of these athletes, it’s your job to make sure there is balance.

Without balance, overtraining will prevent a young athlete from reaching their goals. Moreover, overtraining is the most common form of burnout in sports. Luckily, unlike other forms of burnout, overtraining burnout is temporary. Once a coach or parent identifies it, changes to an athlete’s routine can quickly help them recover and get back to normal.

Here are the 12 indicators that an athlete is likely overtraining:

1. An unexplained drop in the athlete’s performance when training routines have not changed otherwise.
2. A noticeable change in the athlete’s memory.
3. The athlete repeatedly makes bad decisions around time management or practice habits.
4. A sudden loss of self-motivation or the athlete needs to be pushed more than normal.
5. The athlete begins to show no self-control in their diet, sleeping, or limiting guilty pleasures.
6. There has been no official “off-season” of 21 days or more over the last 12 months. You can designate a time as being an off-season when there are no competitions and no structured practices.
7. The athlete has not had a non-sport related fun weekend back-to-back weekends over the last 12 months.
8. All the athlete’s vacations over the last 12 months have had a competition or training component incorporated or wrapped around the experience.
9. Spirituality is part of your family culture, yet time for spiritual activities is regularly sacrificed for training and/or competition.
10. The only time the athlete gets to spend with friends outside of school is during practice, training, or at competitions
11. Injuries and/or sickness occurs so often that you suspect that the athlete may be faking.
12. The athlete is noticeably irritable, disobedient or it’s becoming difficult for you to manage mood swings. Even more so if this is happening specifically before, after, or during practice.