Rewind several months. Elena Delle Donne was the nation's top women's basketball player, prepping for the upcoming season at national power UConn, seemingly the world at her feet. Fast forward to now - Elena has quit the UConn team, resigned her scholarship, enrolled at Delaware, and walked onto the volleyball team, a sport she played for the first time last year.
Why? In a word, burnout. Elena personally admitted she was burned out and fed up with basketball at 18. Perhaps the Delaware volleyball coach, Bonnie Kelly, said it best: "Adults need to pay attention. It’s a problem in youth sports. These kids are burned out. From 12 to 18, I bet Elena can count on her hands the amount of weekends she didn’t have anything to do related to sport. She’s missed the opportunity to be a kid.”
An all-comsuming focus from a young age on athletics, to the detriment of other activities, can lead to burnout among youth athletes. Outside pressures, including those from parents and coaches, can cause burnout - as can internal pressures from self-driven athletes.
In Elena's case, perhaps it's interesting to note that she received her first college scholarship offer in the seventh grade.
Read the whole New York Times article here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment