Parents What is burnout?

[curlymop]

At what age do they need to start doing the large number of hours to safely do their sport? I think the huge number of hours some of the young girls are being asked to do may be a huge factor in young gymnasts burning out. I've heard of some gymnasts in my DD pre-team being asked to move to 16 hours a week. Isn't this a lot for 5 and 6 year old girls? Would this contribute to burn out? And I'm honestly asking b/c this sport is still very new for our family.

I hesitate to make a blanket statement since there's always the exception, but that would be way too many hours for any of my kids at that age. My son is 6 going into 1st grade, and I'm hesitant to agree to the 9 hours he's being asked to do in the fall (up from 4 hours last season). I realize he's a boy and there's not as much pressure to ramp up the hours so early like there is with girls, but in general I don't think it's healthy for any young child to devote all of his or her time to one activity. If he decides to quit gym at some point, I want him to have some other skills and experiences to fall back on, and if he continues with it, I want him to feel like he had a chance to try other activities. He played baseball this spring on the same team as his big brother, and it was such a great experience for both of them. Right now he loves being at the gym, but if we tried going to 16 hours during the school year, there wouldn't be time for anything else besides school. He would very quickly resent that and burn out.

 

[mimi]

or if they look like this after practice:

I think this should be my screensaver! I swear this is how I feel and look most days!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

16 hours for preteam seems crazy. 16 hours for a 5-6 year old seems crazy. At our gym they move to 16 hours at level 5.

i keep telling everyone this. increasing hours must be gradual and only when more time warrants it. to much, to soon, too young= I QUIT