If these are the top 4 reasons that kids tend to quit sports when they turn 13, then every single teen should be enrolled in martial arts!
Why Would Teens Quit A Sport?
1. No longer fun
The number one reason that adolescents stop? The sport isn’t fun anymore.
“There are two things that can happen, in my opinion,” explains Bill Morton, a longtime coach in the Raleigh-Durham area and dad of three boys (including two teenagers) who play baseball. “When you get older, it gets competitive. Some of the kids take it very seriously, but some are out there just to have fun, so that kid who just has a love of the game can get turned off by the intensity.”
2. Too competitive
Morton explains, “A kid might realize they can’t compete at the level they need to. And, they are not ready to dedicate themselves to one single sport, and unfortunately that’s what kids are expected to do now.”
3. Too much physical pressure
Needless to say, when sports get serious and winning becomes the primary goal, which tends to happen around middle school, it puts tremendous pressure on teenagers—and there’s not much fun in that. For starters, there are the physical demands of rigorous training schedules. More than one expert told Your Teen that sports-related injuries are on the rise in teenagers, in large part because so many young athletes now play just one sport year-round.
4. Too much emotional pressure
The emotional pressure is also particularly tough for teenagers to handle. This can come from coaches, who too often care more about scoring than their athletes’ overall well-being, and from parents, who fixate on their teenager’s—and team’s—performance. “Especially in the teenage years, when it’s all about being the best and winning, it’s so much pressure,” notes Frank Sileo, a psychologist in Ridgewood, New Jersey and author of Sally Sore Loser. “I understand we all like to win,” he adds. “Winning feels good, and losing doesn’t feel so good. No one is going to deny that. But, at what point do we lose the focus of what we’re doing here?”