When the sport you love leads to burnout: Young athletes face mounting pressure
Researchers worry about early specialization and growing demands
Burnout is a growing concern in the sporting world, with mounting pressures on younger athletes to succeed. There is worry it's turning kids away from sports altogether and that it could have a lasting impact on their relationship with physical activity.
Taylor McAaulay, a clinical psychology PhD student at the University of New Brunswick, is researching the connection between physical activity and mental health. In particular, she is looking at the predictors of dropping out.
One of the big trends she's seeing right now is athlete burnout.
"Particularly kids who tend to specialize in one sport from a young age," she said, speaking of the athletes who quit a sport — one they previously loved — altogether.
"They tend to have a lot more stress and a lot more anxiety associated with their sport because they tend to be a bit over-involved."
McAulay calls it a double-edged sword because research shows children and teens who are involved in sports tend to have better mental health than those who aren't. But triggers, such as pressure from parents and coaches, can lead to performance anxiety.
"We also see some depression, particularly in terms of maybe not meeting those sorts of expectations that are sometimes placed on young athletes," she said.
"When it comes to more competitive athletes, sometimes we see high levels of stress where they have really intensive training schedules that maybe go year-round, with multiple practices or training sessions or games per week that place a lot of stress on these young athletes."
Young athletes need time to recover
Ken Seaman points to the physical challenges, as well, for athletes who specialize in one sport early. He teaches kinesiology at the University of New Brunswick and before that was a consultant involved in varsity sports.
Seaman said there's a push to train harder in pursuit of a competitive edge, but warns the sheer volume of training can lead to physical challenges.
"If we're taking athletes and they're just doing training on training, hours and hours a week, there are points where they're not getting enough recovery time," he said. "That's when you see those repetitive strain injuries."
Seaman points to the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, which recommends individuals not compete or train in a sport for more hours per week than their age. So an eight-year-old shouldn't be doing more than eight hours a week.
"So if you're working with a 12-year-old, we're looking at the idea that when you start to get [to] around 16 hours a week, there should be some form of monitoring to look for burnout, for overuse injuries, potential detriments to performance due to overtraining."
Focus on fun, life-long love of sport
To Seaman, young athletes should see sport as a way to be physically active and have fun, as opposed to focusing only on competition. He, too, is seeing burnout in kids at around the age of 11, which is also when competitive leagues take off. And that can have lasting effects.
"If we burn kids out … we're now starting to take away from people wanting to participate in these activities as they get older because they have a negative association or negative relationship to that physical activity."
Seaman suggests parents look closely at the motivation behind their child's sports to ensure they're in the right competition level and are devoting a reasonable amount of time. If the goal is a higher level of achievement, Seaman says there are things to consider.
"By really pushing this to get to the Olympics or to a professional contract, there is a pathway there but it's a fairly small number that actually end up making it to that level."
Cara Button works with Olympic and Paralympic athletes in Montreal. She's the national program manager for Canada's athlete well-being program, called Game Plan, which is now in its 10th year.
Part of her job is to focus on mental health among athletes and the transition in and out of sport. When she first started, she had to beg athletes to take advantage of the programs, and there was pushback from their coaches.
"And in fact, some really were against it because they viewed it as a distraction."
But Button says that societal views on mental health have thankfully shifted.
"We know from research and experience that those who have a balanced life and an identity outside of sport tend to do better and perform better."
That balance becomes even more crucial when athletes compete at the higher levels of sport.
"You have to love the training. You have to love the commitment. You have to love some of the sacrifices," she said.
"You're not going to go to university the same way your peers do and have that experience. You might do your classes and get your degree, but it won't be in four consecutive years. Things will look different."
Button also sees the rise in early burnout.
"The stakes seem so high for them at such a young age and then they self-eliminate."
Some sports, such as gymnastics and diving, require early specialization, but Button says most athletes benefit from playing multiple sports and there are "very few" reasons to specialize at a young age.
"They're still at a development stage in their body … and they become more susceptible to overuse injuries. And sometimes those are hard to get over."
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