Sunday 6 December 2015

Playing Too Much


There are a lot of opportunities for many athletes now.  Summer teams, travelling teams, summer camps, spring clinics, personal training sessions, speed/agility/quickness sessions, provincial teams, and so on.  Every single one of these items can be very important for the development of your athlete. It is very important to learn which ones are the priority for your individual child.    The trouble is when the amount of training becomes too much for growing bodies.  Many young athletes are playing games all year round and are on a very high impact schedule which can be a crash course in overtraining and increased risk for potential injury not to mention premature athlete burn out.  

There are many athletes that are in this very same boat in that they are playing for their school team, a club team and sometimes are doing additional training either with a trainer or another group during the year.  The average athletes now plays for at least 2 or 3 teams every year.  If there is one coach involved in all of these teams they can help to guard against overtraining. However, if the athletes are dealing with many different coaches then parents are tasked with looking after the overall wellness of the athlete.  Players shouldn’t be tasked with doing this on their own because they are too emotionally invested and may lack the decision making abilities.  This can be a very challenging task for adults who: 
1) May not be former athletes or have limited interest/knowledge in sports
2) May not know the signs or symptoms to look for when it comes to overtraining or identify when an athlete is at risk
3) May have their decision making impacted by their interest in seeing their athlete succeed 
4) May be a source of anxiety for their athlete due to the undue pressure they are putting on them to succeed 
4) May not want to disappoint the athlete by turning down opportunities they view as very important 
5) May be interested in getting their child “exposure” to be seen by high profile coaches
6) May be worried about being the one to decide when to take it easy and let the athlete relax and recover

It seems there are young athletes that are playing the equivalent of an 80 game NBA schedule.  Plus, they continue to train all year round with no breaks or end in sight. It should be acknowledged that this level of activity is hard for a fully grown freak of nature professional athlete to endure (and they get an offseason) never mind a growing athlete that is also going through puberty.  These athletes also have the pressures of school assignments and tests, family obligations and requirements, playing other sports, hanging out with their friends, and tasked with also being a child or teenager as well as growing. 

It is completely understood that parents want the best for their kids (and coaches want the best for their athletes) but unfortunately this also entails having athletes not feel the pressure of taking on too much.   When the parent’s focus gets blurred by seeing only the opportunities but not the risks of overtraining it is dangerous.    This catapults the athlete into a tough position because now they are limited in terms of someone looking out for their best interest.  The adults in their life need to have the perspective to prevent overtraining in these circumstances.  Unfortunately, many times this is not the case and as an outside observer it can be very challenging to weigh in.      

No one wants to have their playing career cut short due to injuries especially due to over use injuries.  Even more so when they could have been prevented by resting or taking care of it with the help of healthcare professionals or sometimes even the use of common sense. Parents please keep in mind that higher level athletes are used to pushing through pain in order to achieve their personal best.  It is very rare that you will find an elite athlete that wants to just be lazy (with younger kids this may be harder to govern as they will have different reactions to injuries).  Athletes are more likely to resort to hiding injuries or not telling the full story so they can continue to play.  During the process it is important to learn to protect the athletes from themselves even if it means they get upset over your decision. 


It is also critical to prioritize and evaluate the most important opportunities.  One of the ways to evaluate is taking a look at the places the athlete is being fulfilled, growing and challenged.  There are so many potential opportunities so this is one way to narrow down the most valuable opportunities.  This is also one of the ways to cut out extraneous activities that take extra time and don’t give much in the way of progression.  There is only so much time in an athlete’s schedule so it’s important to maximize that time by using quality opportunities to feed them going forward.  

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