Coaching youth soccer for fifteen years gave me some of the best memories of my life. Moments I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, there’s another side of competitive youth soccer you don’t want to cross into. Soccer burnout is real and really sad.
Soccer burnout is real and really sad:
Young athletes are not professionals or robots. We’re talking about 6-9 year olds. When the competitive juices are flowing, you can get lost in the spirit of competition. I’ve been guilty of it where you are asking an awful lot out of a young athlete to perform at a certain level all the time. We as coaches and parents have to temper our expectations.
I’ve coached A LOT of kids and there have been a handful that are simply outstanding. You watch them and they are doing things that haven’t been taught. It’s all just natural to them. It’s a gift for sure and I appreciate it more and more as I get older.
They win you a lot of games by scoring goals at will. They make the team and coaches look good. Well, soon enough other teams and coaches want a piece of that and will ask these kids (parents) to guest play with them. When parents have a hard time saying no, the amount of games and miles on their feet start to add up over a calendar year. Before you know it, these kids are playing four of five games in a weekend EVERY WEEKEND. These kids barely get to do any of the fun stuff that kids need to do like go to birthday parties, sporting events, sleep overs, movie nights, etc.
By the time these kids turn 11, they are WORN OUT. They can be susceptible to injuries that linger before they start to hit puberty. Once injuries start to add into the equation, now a kid is either A. not playing or B. playing through the pain which can cause even more injuries down the road.
Last but not least, some of these kids have played in so many games at an early age that the passion to play can start to dwindle. Playing is supposed to be fun and getting overworked is not fun. When games start to really matter, they just don’t really want to do it anymore and give the sport up.
Parents – if you have a kid that is being asked by multiple coaches to guest play with them, please consider the “work load” they might be in for. If you say yes to guest playing, be sure to give them equal time off so they can enjoy being a kid. Don’t burn them out!
