Youth sports and the need to succeed

Design by Paola De La Iglesia and Natalia Taraboulos

Somewhere between winning and losing, student-athletes are forgetting why they started youth sports in the first place.

Pressure from parents, coaches, or even themselves, along with the stress of balancing sports with schoolwork, can make student-athletes tired and unmotivated. 

We think youth sports are starting to harm young athletes more than they are helping them. Years ago, they were fun and taught us lessons we could take with us off the field, but these days, sometimes we feel like giving up. And we aren’t the only ones. According to Sports Leadership, 70% of kids quit organized sports by age 13.

One reason for this is burnout. According to psychiatry.org, “recent cultural changes in youth sports, including overtraining, early sport specialization, and increased parental pressure are contributing to burnout and pushing student athletes out of sports.” Youth sports used to be a positive space for learning and fun, but over the last couple of years, it feels like performing well and being the best are all that matters. We have experienced this ourselves. 

“Sometimes I feel pressure to perform well, especially when someone important, like a parent or coach is watching. I get in my head a little,” said Alessa Arguello ‘30.

The need to succeed can affect student athletes even more when parents, coaches, or someone special is eagerly waiting for them to win. But it can also come from inside. In a recent poll of 70 Carrollton junior high students, over 85% said that their own expectations pressure them the most.

According to kidsportspsychology.com,  self-inflicted pressure happens because people are too focused on results. We agree with this. When there’s a big game or race, we often find ourselves worried or stressed about the outcome instead of having fun and enjoying time with our friends. 

One of the reasons sports are so stressful is that some kids are expected to specialize early in a single sport rather than playing multiple sports for fun. This is often because parents want their children to earn scholarships for sports. 

Another reason sports are so stressful and cause so much pressure is because of all the work we have to juggle. According to our survey, 74% of Carrollton junior high respondents “almost always” or “sometimes” feel overwhelmed by balancing sports and school. We relate because we’re constantly making up work outside of class. School feels harder now since we miss classes for games and races, and the assignments pile up so quickly that we end up doing homework in the car on the way to school and taking makeup tests whenever we don’t have practice. 

All of this pressure to keep up with schoolwork and to do well in sports makes us lose sight of what really matters and what being successful really means. 

“Success isn’t always about winning, it’s about playing better than I did the last time and seeing my hard work pay off. I played my best game ever, and we still lost, but I knew I had improved and that felt like a success to me,” said Arguello.

To help kids enjoy sports and avoid burnout, coaches and parents can focus on how much effort their athletes are putting in instead of how well they do, and let them explore multiple sports instead of just one. If youth sports are going to be a positive space for kids to learn and grow, we need to remember that learning important life lessons and having fun are what really matter.