Overtraining in Young Athletes

This is an article to parents of young athletes about how bad overtraining is for children. Sports are supposed to be fun, not to be the best. Children aren’t top athletes! They want to have fun and make new friends. Give your child a pair of cleats and a soccer ball and they’ll be entertained for hours.

For most children, stepping their foot on to the field for the first time is a dream come true. Getting your first Nike cleats, shin guards with Christiano Ronaldo or Messi on them, making the team, picking the number you want to have on your back, right below your last name, practicing, competing against other teams, making friends along the way, etc. is something a child should try, it is really the best time of your life. Falling in love with a sport is easy, but you must have interest in the sport to fall in love with it.

There are many arguments for and against children competing in sports. Some of the arguments for, are that the children make new friends and lasting friendships, not only on their team, but also at competitions where they meet many other children from different teams, they become more self-disciplined, get better communication skills, learn to respect others, etc. Even though this may seem great, there are still many arguments against. Some are that they may develop depression and anxiety from not scoring a goal when they had the chance, showing up late to practice expecting a scold, thinking they’re not good enough for the team, etc. many of the young athletes no longer have time to be children, here I mean that practice is in most cases 4-5 days a week, Saturdays are spent to get ready for Sunday games and Sundays are spent traveling and playing matches. These intense training schedules often lead to injuries caused by overtraining and those injuries are often very hard to recover from and can become chronic.