The positive impacts of sports on mental health generally outweigh the negative, especially when it comes to children, preteens, and teenagers However, things can get complicated when adolescents exhibit potential for greatness in athletics. While their talents and training may open up an exciting world of opportunity, there are unique challenges posed to elite youth athletes. These span beyond documented concerns such as early onset burnout along with the anxiety and stress they may feel prior to competition. You can read more about such challenges in this article. What today’s feature covers instead, are unique external threats that may compromise the mental health of budding stars of the arena, court, track, or field. Please keep reading.
4 External Mental Health Challenges Faced by Young Elite Athletes and What Can be Done to Better Protect Them
Pressure from Dependent Households
The modern term “toxic parenting” is used to describe when parents influence their child’s behavior through guilt, fear, and/or obligation. For the intent and purpose of today’s topic, it can be evident when parents deliberately pressure their children to become elite athletes at any cost.
However, there are times when this pressure is not vocalized nor manifested in a manner that resembles abuse, manipulation, or exploitation. In some cases it is inferred by parental dependency on their child’s athletic success. This is more common among low income households, with parents seeing their athletically talented child as being a vessel for escaping multigenerational poverty. That being said, escape from poverty is not the only motivating factor.
The story of two-time Summer Olympic surfer Kanoa Igarashi serves as an example of how parents can levy obligation on their child, even if it comes from a loving place. Kanoa’s parents are from Japan. His father Tsutomu had dreams of becoming a professional surfer, but found no success. Upon learning of his wife’s pregnancy with their first child (Kanoa) they gathered up their belongings and moved to the capital of professional surfing in the United States; Huntington Beach. In numerous interviews (including this Outside feature) Kanoa confirmed that his parents moved to “Surf City USA” with the sole purpose of turning their yet-to-be born child into an elite professional surfer. He speaks often of 5 AM wakeup calls to drive to surf contests at the age of 5 years old, and had signed his first sponsorship deal when he turned seven (more on this topic below). At 11 years of age, the home-schooled surfer claimed a record-breaking 30 National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) contest wins. By the time Kanoa was 16 (when he completed his GED) he was being flown around the world by sponsors who were collectively paying him seven-figures per annum. While Kanoa has never publicly spoken a negative word about his upbringing, he indicates that his goals and ambitions today are a way to honor the sacrifices his parents made. Some may question; are his goals and ambitions truly his? Were parental sacrifices made only for the benefit of their unborn child, or themselves who have been financially dependent upon the Olympian since he was a young teen? The family’s future continues to rest upon his shoulders to this very day.
There are multicultural and sociocultural nuances to consider. In many communities a cultural norm persists where households lean on the success of their athlete offspring. Collegiate level athletes are often happy to take on this responsibility, seeing it as a way to give back to their parents and supportive kin. Things are more nuanced when younger athletes are involved, though. The accepted burden and pressure these adolescents may feel could compromise their mental health (and performance) if not provided with an outlet for counseling and support. The same applies to aforementioned collegiate athletes. Ultimately, parents are encouraged to seek out athlete services that integrate mental health support with a focus comparable to physical training regimes.
Pressure from Collegiate and Professional Scouts
Adolescents feel enough pressure as it is when pressed to decide upon which post-secondary institution to attend from an academic perspective. Now consider the added complexities of transitioning to an elite collegiate athletic program. Or in some cases, deciding on whether or not to bypass the NCAA to enter the big leagues. This pressure is compounded when program scouts come sniffing around.
As per NCAA Division I recruitment rules for most sports, programs can begin reaching out to athletes starting June 15 after their sophomore year. Students are typically between the ages of 15 and 16 years old in their sophomore year. There are also reports of privatized scouts finding a loophole to engage athletes at an even earlier age. It is stated to occur in “grassroots” athletic programs that are sponsored by big brands. One accounting from a former Sports Illustrated writer explains how it works:
“And, you know, it was during the course of one of those stories that I met a guy named Joe Keller who was starting a team of, you know, 10-year-old – nine and 10-year-old boys. And it just felt like this right moment to, you know, start a journey with a young group of boys and show how this grassroots system worked […] Grassroots is the word that the shoe companies used. They call it their grassroots basketball departments or divisions – you know, Adidas and Nike and Reebok. So that’s the term I use. And what it really is is it’s sort of the roots of the game, right? The game – it’s for these nine and 10- year-old prospects getting sort of mined by these men who are attempting to make money off of them and sort of leverage their futures for big money.” (NPR)
Remember that shoe companies (etc.) have ties to both collegiate and professional teams. If they sponsor youth programs and have a vested interest in a elite young athlete’s transition to one team or another, there may be a conflict of interest. Young players may begin to feel pressure to join a given program after years of being groomed to do so.
Pressures from Sponsors
Carrying over from the early recruitment concerns above, we must draw attention to the recent arrival of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals in the NCAA. NIL deals enable college athletes to make money from brand sponsorships. They are organized by groups known as “collectives”. Collectives operate independently of the university and athletic departments, but are typically founded by alumni of the schools. They raise funds to be allocated to athletes for the rights to use their NIL. These collectives essentially exert influence over young athlete decision making and add another layer of risk to their mental health.
While the NCAA has age restrictions in place regarding NIL deal sponsorships and subsequent pressures athletes may face as brand ambassadors, there are no age protections provided to other athletes – those involved in action/extreme sports. As addressed in Olympian Kanoa Igarashi’s story (above) action sports athletes can be recruited by brands while in Grade school or earlier. Skateboarders, surfers, BMX riders and the like are securing brand deals as early as 3-years old. Yes, 3-years old. Adult athletes have a hard enough time fulfilling brand obligations, so imagine what that pressure feels like for small child. View more on sponsorship pressures faced by young extreme sports athletes.
A New Threat from Disgruntled Sports Bettors
Lastly, we point to the newest external threat to the mental health of elite youth athletes. It has become a growing concern ever since the federal ban on sports betting was removed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018. Threats against athletes have been on the rise as disgruntled sports bettors lay blame on them for failed point spread wagers. While this threat is occurring at a collegiate level, the assumption is that adolescents are not exposed because it is not legal to bet on high-school sports. Unfortunately unregulated sportsbooks, which account for as much as 89% of the U.S. sports betting market, offer betting lines on high-school sports and even little league baseball.
What Needs to Be Done
Professional mental health support must be integrated into all elite youth athlete programs. Considering everything above, this should be introduced as soon as it becomes clear that a young athlete exhibits potential for greatness in their sport. Early intervention ensures that mental health support is normalized in their world, and carried through into collegiate environments and potentially on to professional athletics.
Kindbridge Behavioral Health is America’s preeminent online counseling support platform for athletes. We have developed a partnership with Momentum Labs to expand towards a more holistic offering. The Momentum Labs sports performance coaching platform that will help athletes of all-ages improve their mindset and mental health, with support from Kindbridge on the latter. Parents can reach out via the contacts provided below to discuss a customized mental health strategy for their children. Alternatively, you may click the banner below to learn more about this exciting new sports performance coaching platform.
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