May Blog - Athlete Mental Health
- Julia Redlinger
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Understanding Athlete Burnout
As parents, it can be difficult to discern the difference between your child having a tough practice and one who has stopped caring altogether; it can be even more difficult to know what to do about it.
I was able to speak with Tyler Slade, Business Development Director at Untapped, to talk about one of the most underlooked issues in youth sports today: athlete mental health. What he shared may change the way you think about your child’s behavior and how you can address it as a parent.
Why Athletes Burn Out
Burnout is the number one mental health challenge that Tyler and his co-workers see in young athletes, but surprisingly, it usually isn’t due to overtraining. Tyler described this problem comes down to a lack of healthy routines: not enough sleep, nutrition, and too much screen time. This lack of a structured routine in combination with the mounting pressure of school and sports tends to be the perfect storm for athlete burnout. Over time, that pressure presents itself as anxiety, depression, or your player displaying the overall impression that they don’t want to be there anymore.
The One Thing Well-Meaning Parents Get Wrong
A hard truth, but one that parents may need to acknowledge, is that one of the biggest contributors to poor athlete mental health is parents focusing too much on results. Of course it comes from a good place - you want your child to succeed and perform well. However, when winning becomes the only focus and the only option they are presented with, they start to tie their entire sense of self-worth to whether they won or lost any given game.
Tyler’s advice is to shift the focus from results to process. Start by talking about the effort they put in, the amount of preparation they did before the game, the mental approach they took on in the weeks leading up to the game. When athletes learn how to measure themselves by those things, rather than by whether or not they won, they are able to reflect on a tough performance and grow from it rather than beating themselves up over it.
What Coaches Can (and Can’t) Do
As much as parents play a role, coaches do as well. The best coaches create a culture where it’s okay to struggle and where failure is treated as a learning opportunity rather than something to be ashamed of. Coaches who know their players, and are able to create this environment, will also keep an eye out for shifts in mood or energy and aren’t afraid to start the conversation with the player.
That said, coaches aren’t therapists, and they shouldn’t try to be. Their job is to know what resources are available and how they can connect athletes and their families with the right professional support when it’s needed.
The Mind Affects the Game
As we are learning, poor mental health doesn’t just affect how athletes feel, but how they perform. When an athlete is struggling, their focus suffers and that can show up in their game. Tyler mentioned that kids dealing with anxiety or ADHD can become impulsive in high-pressure moments, which often leads to making snap decisions that they later regret.
One tool that Tyler mentioned may help is a routine reset. Something as simple as tapping a stick or repeating a positive phrase can interrupt the common spiral of negative thoughts and bring the athlete back to the present moment and allow them to positively focus on the game.
Next Steps
If your athlete is struggling, the first step is identifying what Tyler refers to as the “lead domino”. This is the one or two things that, if addressed, will positively affect the other aspects of the athlete’s life. For most kids, that starts with basic needs: are they sleeping well and for long enough? Are they spending too much time on their phone? Is their diet nourishing their body?
Once these lead dominos are identified and a foundation is created, everything else (such as performance, focus, confidence) tends to follow.
The good news is that the conversation around athlete mental health is finally opening up. When athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka started speaking publicly about their mental health, it gave young athletes, parents, and coaches the permission to do the same.
Untapped is a wonderful resource for your athlete and for supporting their mental health. They take the time to identify those lead dominos and find a routine that allows the athlete to find a balance between good physical and mental health. In doing so, they can catch early burnout or figure out next steps to heal from it.
Learn more about Untapped and what they can do for you by visiting their website:
This Month
May 1st: Registration for Summer Learn to Skate and JR Riders begins
May 4th: May the 4th be with You Skate, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
May 10th: Mother's Day Skate, 12:00 - 2:00 PM
May 23rd: Minecraft Skate, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
