Your Mind: Jumping In, Dropping Out, Why Players Leave The Game
March 9, 2007
Featured Article With Colleen M. Hacker, Ph.D. Sport Psychology Consultant, US Women’s National Soccer Team Professor, Pacific Lutheran University. Provided by Gayle Bryan of Fair Game Magazine.
How many times have parents or coaches heard these words, “I want to quit, it’s just not fun anymore?” Parents, coaches, and sport leaders are increasingly interested in both the causes of and prevention for burnout resulting from the physical and psychological demands of soccer participation. The good news is that youth soccer actually has one of the highest participation rates of any team sport for athletes ages six to 17 in the United States.
It’s one of the few sports, in fact, still enjoying growth rates among participants. The bad news is that while athletes are drawn to competitive soccer from all ages, levels and abilities, many are also dropping out.
Making matters more troublesome, athletes are most likely dropping out just when their talent, work and effort over time are beginning to pay off. Sport participation peaks between 11- and 13-years-old and then consistently declines to the age of 18. Of every 10 players who begin a season, three to four will drop out by the start of the next season (Petlichkoff, 1996). Recent trends indicate that as many as 35 percent of teens and pre-teens involved in organized sport will drop out each year (some drop out of sports altogether and some simply change sports).
To understand why youth players quit, it is helpful to first examine why they start playing in the first place.
Reasons kids play
• To have fun (the #1 reason)
• To experience success (do something they’ll be good at)
• To be with friends (or make new ones)
• To experience the excitement of competition
• To learn and improve their skills
• To be active and become fit
• To be part of a team
Soccer players come in all shapes, sizes and ability levels. Soccer requires minimal equipment, is fast paced and allows for active participation by a relatively large number of players. Because of its popularity, opportunities for practice, games, camps and other competitive experiences abound. Athletes are starting to train at younger and younger ages, however, and coupled with the increasing pressures and expectations frequently placed on youngsters in year-round programs, burnout is a growing concern. Burn out is a complex phenomenon with multiple causes and numerous personal and environmental explanations.
In essence, burnout represents an athlete’s inability to meet extensive training, performance and competitive demands. Ironically, the positive benefit of soccer, experienced by millions of players nationwide is also accompanied by ever-increasing rates at which athletes are leaving the sport. It is common for players to talk about the “stress of competition”, the “pressure of tryouts” or the “stress of playing at a high level”. Athletes experience competitive stress when the demands of the situation exceed the player’s ability (actual or perceived). Over time, competitors are likely to experience both physical and psychological effects and respond by either continuing to play or dropping out. Players at higher risk of dropping out are more likely to view failure or negative evaluation from significant others (parents, coaches, teammates) as emotionally threatening. These players worry more about losing, about not playing well, and about negative evaluations from others. On the other hand, athletes prone to feel less stress and anxiety placed in the exact same competitive environment do not view the experience as threatening or worrisome.
Stress is not necessarily bad for athletes; in fact, appropriate levels of stress are necessary for growth, improvement and motivation. However, for a variety of reasons, athletes are sometimes no longer able to adjust to competitive demands. Burnout does not occur quickly. It is a consequence of prolonged periods of staleness, overtraining, and demands that exceed ones actual or perceived capabilities.
There are several terms often and inappropriately used interchangeably with the term burnout. Burnout is more of a long-term result of emotional and physical exhaustion while overtraining refers to training loads that are too intense and prolonged. Staleness is a symptom of overtraining or burnout and is usually evidenced by a sustained and unexplained drop in performance. A performance slump may result from staleness and is described as an uncharacteristic and relatively short-term decrease in performance.
(Henschen, 2005).
Burnout is a growing concern in youth sports and is thought to occur when players lose interest as a result of specializing in a specific sport at a very early age, after training for long hours, under intense pressure, over several years.
(Weinberg & Gould, 2007).
Burnout does not happen overnight, it takes time to develop. Typically a person goes through a series of stages that ultimately lead to emotional and physical exhaustion. Experts (Smith, 1986; Gould & Petlichkoff, 1988; and Weiss, 1993) indicate that conflicts of interest and interest in other activities are the reasons most often given for sport withdrawal.
Research indicates that burnout is the reason why 80 to 90 percent of children drop out of organized sports by age 15. Smith (1986), however, argued the burnout is only one reason (of many) that results in drop-out. He suggests that burnout is a response to chronic stress in which a player withdraws from soccer physically, psychologically or emotionally because he or she feels that it is no longer possible to meet the demands of the sport.
Still, others (Coakley, 1990) contend athletes often feel that they are viewed by others only in terms of their soccer talent (a soccer prodigy), while others feel that coaches and parents control and restrict their lives (because of soccer) which can also lead to sport withdrawal.
Depending on the athlete, there are a variety of causes that can lead to burnout and result in a player’s decision to leave the sport. Burnout prone athletes often feel excessive pressure to perform perfectly and often over-train in an attempt to meet those unhealthy and unrealistic demands.
Age and developmental factors also play a role. Coaches should not forget that young athletes are at risk just as much as older, more experienced athletes. Experts suggest that younger than age ten, moving from one sport to another is both common and desirable.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 2000 advocating that youth players not specialize in a sport until age 12 or 13 when they’re more emotionally and physically mature. Young athletes should be encouraged to play several sports. Both team and league rules should be constituted to encourage that practice. Players should have opportunities to participate at levels consistent with their abilities and interests. In soccer that means not every athlete should play ODP nor should there be excessive pressure to “play up”.
Athletes should play soccer because they love the game not to please parents, to get an athletic scholarship or to help their coach win a title. And finally, communities, clubs and schools should strive to provide a wide range of soccer opportunities from recreation to elite levels with each guided by qualified, competent coaches.
Advice for players
• Play for your own reasons (not to make others happy or to fulfill someone else’s expectations)
• Balance soccer and other aspects of your life (school, family, friends, hobbies, etc.)
• Keep soccer fun!
• Take time to relax, recover and re-charge.
Advice for parents
• Monitor your behavior (verbal and non-verbal messages) for an appropriate level of interest, involvement and “pushing”.
• Emphasize fun, participation, and skill improvement rather than winning and losing. Most athletes want to play a sport because they love the game.
• Emphasize that players strive to improve their skills and work hard rather than compare themselves to others. De-emphasize outcome in favor of effort and personal improvement.
• Never be punitive or rejecting if the athlete tries but does not succeed.
• After a loss or failure, show that you understand how disappointed they are and encourage them to continue trying.
• Communicate love, empathy, support and acceptance regardless of success or failure.
• Allow sport participants to play an active role in decision-making and emphasize personal responsibility and control.
• Lessen your involvement; meaning, let the coaches coach and the players play.
• Focus on the positive aspects of performance. Catch your child being good!
Advice for coaches
• Provide opportunities of skill development for all athletes (not just the starters or top players)
• Keep soccer fun (athletes’ number one motive for participation).
• Communicate openly and honestly and seek input from athletes.
• Foster a motivational climate geared toward mastery and a task orientation (Nicholls, 1984) where success is based on maximum effort, skill development, learning new skills, demonstrating competence and a self-referenced standard of comparison (doing better than you’ve done before, achieving a personal best). Minimize an ego or outcome oriented climate in which athletes demonstrate competence and success by beating or comparing themselves to others.
• Players on teams which foster a mastery orientation to soccer are likely to enjoy the experience more, have higher confidence in their ability, a more positive attitude toward sport and believe that effort and ability together lead to success (Treasure & Roberts, 1998).
• Stress the importance of self-control, personal autonomy and choice.
• Utilize a positive rather than a negative coaching approach (DiCicco & Hacker, 2002).
• Provide sincere, realistic expectations, frequent rewards and encouraging verbal and non-verbal behavior.
• Reward effort not just outcome.
• Have a constructive approach to mistakes (teaching oriented rather than punitive).
• Provide shorter practices with a consistent use of optimal challenges, innovation and variety.
• Keep everyone active, eliminate elimination games and decrease the time that players are waiting in lines for their turn.
• Provide for the social and friendship needs of athletes by scheduling social events outside of practice and providing “free time” before practice starts for athletes to mingle and socialize.
• Emphasize the importance of rest and recovery.
• Know the difference between overload and overtraining.
• Be sure to clarify roles and expectations for each player regarding their positional responsibilities and team standards and expectations. Ambiguity can be further reduced by announcing the starting line-up early, providing clarity regarding practice and travel schedules and giving consistent, performance-based feedback.
• Provide consistent non-verbal messages to athletes.
• Avoid tying an athlete’s performance to social or personal approval (e.g., a parent or coach acting as though they love or value the player more or less depending on their soccer performance or game outcome).
• Employ a consistent pre-game demeanor and warm up (rather then trying to give an emotional pep talk before the “big game”).
• Work with administrators and parents to ensure positive, supportive and appropriate sideline behavior by all spectators.
Advice for coaches, administrators and parents to prevent burnout
• Identify “at risk” youth (see the list of personal and situational variables).
• Teach cognitive behavioral skills and stress management techniques (relaxation and breath control, self-talk, thought stepping, and rational thinking, to name a few).
• Encourage players to be involved in more than one sport (if they show interest) and encourage youngsters to develop balanced lives. Adults need to view soccer as only one part of athletes’ lives and should actively encourage players to develop non-sport (or beyond one sport) identity.
• Keep travel time down.
• Do not overuse “playing up” (younger athletes competing against older athletes).
• Increase athlete decision-making opportunities. Players should have some input into training, team rules and competition.
• Use positive reinforcement instead of criticism.
• Set goals that are difficult but realistic.
• Strive for appropriate and balanced expectations from significant others (decrease parental and coaching pressure).
• Help athletes refrain from self-imposed expectations for “perfect performance” and de-emphasize the win-at-all-cost mentality.
• Encourage cross training (a variety of sports, sport types and levels) and provide for an off-season with time for unstructured physical activity (without coaches or adults present) and rest.
• Realize that it’s not only athletes who experience burnout but also coaches, trainers, administrators and officials. Monitor yourself for signs and symptoms of burnout and intervene early. (Gould, Tuffey, Udry, & Loehr, 1996; Weinberg & Gould, 2007)
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