Well-Rounded vs Super Pointy

What can we learn from student-athlete's athletic priorities?

Oct 14, 2022

Are today’s student-athletes at risk for athletic burnout and what can you learn from them?

I’m a middle school cross country and track coach, so I see first hand the number of student-athletes who are on 1-3 teams outside of their school team. These kids have to decide between which practice they’ll attend, which game or meet they can’t go to, and on top of that, when they’re going to do their homework and be a kid.

In a way, I totally get being balanced as an athlete - trying different sports makes athletes special and have skills that transfer between sports. I think trying a variety of sports throughout the year is very beneficial to both the individual athletes and their teammates. I am not at all saying to specialize and only do one sport from now until eternity. What’s getting to me is seeing my kids walking around like zombies skipping half our practices because they have “other practices”.

I think it’s best that kids - and us adults - learn how to manage all the things we want to do and prioritize them.

Should we be trying to be everywhere, be on and connected all the time?

If kids are running themselves ragged, it’s probably safe to say that the parents are too. Can we find a happy medium between doing next to nothing and always being on?

Here’s my takeaway on what you can learn from a young athlete so you can make your running that much better:

More is NOT better. Be picky about what you decide to focus on. Want to run a marathon this fall? AMAZING. But maybe you don’t also try and run races while you’re supposed to be putting in quality volume. You can’t run all the races and do all the fun things without putting in some work first.
Just because something is there, doesn’t mean you have to have it. There will always be races to run and there will always be social gatherings to attend. Unfortunately, it’s hard to mix lots of fun with good running. Be focused on your goals while you’re in season and when you’re out of season, enjoy yourself.
Recovery has to be a high priority. When we’re always chasing after the next fun run or race, we tend to miss out on important recovery days. Just like my kids who go from practice to practice without any down time, we lose sight on how to recover so we can get back to running hard.
Being well-rounded is such a good thing. Having skills, talents and interests that are varied is healthy and makes for a balanced individual. On the other hand, I respect and acknowledge that when some of us (myself included) find what we are good at, we tend to double and triple down on it. Have times when you are laser focused and times when you’re balanced. It’s good for you.

Remember, we are not professional runners, so yes, you need to have fun. But we also have these big goals that we want to achieve and it does take a certain level of commitment and sacrifice to accomplish them.

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