As parents, it is crucial to help kids excel and do whatever they choose to do, but what happens when they’re pushed too hard? The term burnout in sports refers to when athletes become so overworked that they begin to feel more like a job than something they love. For many travel teams (especially in warmer climates), softball can be a year-round sport that leaves little time away from the game. This constant push to play the sport can negatively affect the long-term goals an athlete may have. When an athlete finds a sport they love, they’ll most likely want to play it more often. This can be a great thing, but too much of the same thing gets old for many people, including kids/teens. Children’s mental health needs to have downtime from a sport and letting young athletes do fun kids stuff like an amusement park or a weekend vacation. Burnout can also be eliminated by keeping the sport enjoyable.

Kids feel pressure very strongly when it’s from a parent and when playing the sport becomes more like a job with a demanding boss, it can cause children to quit no matter how much they may love it. Don’t get us wrong, we understand that the greatest athletes put a lot of overtime hours into the sport, but that drive has to come from the athletes themselves. Parents should support the athlete in their goals and allow them to accept failure and grow instead of expecting their best performance every time they play. Finally, find them a coach that you trust to keep them loving the game as much as when they started.

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