Now do not get me wrong. Not every student-athlete is washing out of athletics. But I do see it more now than I did even 10 years ago. I am sure there are many scientific papers out there about this but this is more about my observations. I invite you to add any comments of your own or study references. Here is what I am seeing:
Most athletes who have a chance to play in college are probably good at more than one sport. They are just good athletes. Even though they may be best at or enjoy one sport the most, they love competing with their friends and teammates in several different sports. When they enter high school they are already 3 or 4 sport athletes and want to continue because they really enjoy it. Over the years athletic participation has become very competitive. There are more student-athletes than ever competing for a limited number of sports scholarships. Club programs offer an opportunity to play a sport year around during the high-school sports' off-seasons to get better and be more competitive. The club programs often market themselves as the best way to get noticed or recruited by college coaches. So you take a 3-sport athletes, give them the opportunity to play in a high level club to get recruited and suddenly you go from a 3-sport to a 5 or now even 6-sport athlete! These athletes are also under pressure to perform in the classroom. College athletic programs are taking grades more seriously than ever so academics count.
I more and more often see student-athletes playing a high school varsity sport and club sport in the fall, varsity sport in the winter, varsity and club in the spring, and 1 or 2 club sports in the summer. Technically this becomes a 6 or 7 sport athlete. Every spare moment they have is spent catching up on school work or practicing a sport on their own. Sleep is a secondary thought at best with many of these kids getting 4 - 5 hours a night regularly. The seasons blend together and there is no time for recovery, rest, or strength training.
The 4 - 7 sport athletes I see have chronic over-use injuries. Their shoulders are fatigued, sore and tight, their backs are sore and often spasm, they have weak hips, knees and ankles which often lead to strains and sprains. By the time they are 16 or 17 their bodies are so worn down the student athletes are "band-aiding" themselves together long enough to get through a season or even a tournament. Mentally they never get a break.
I will make an analogy: Let's assume you love your job. You cannot believe you get paid to do what you do and really enjoy going to work every day. Now lets assume you have to be there 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Let's also assume someone runs a chair into your knee every day hard enough for you to feel it but it is not really painful. And let's say they run this chair in to you 100 times a day. Every day. You have 6 or 7 different bosses all telling you to do your job better and all of them telling you how to do it and all of them having different ways they want it done. How long do you think you would last? I would probably make it 2 or 3 months and then just be done! And we expect these kids to do it for years and years. Think about it!
Next week I will explore some solutions. I will talk about ways to build better athletes and start making sports fun again and less of a grind. I will also talk about the reality of what it takes to play sports at the college level. I welcome your comments and suggestions. You can post here or e mail me at tom@canyonptandf.com. And for more information on injury prevention visit www.canyonptandf.com.
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