🏆Is Your Kid Overtraining?

You notice it first in the small things.

Your kid looks tired walking out of practice.
Their energy seems flat.
They snap a little easier at home.
They tell you, “I’m fine,” but something feels off.

The hard part for parents is this: overtraining rarely shows up all at once.
It shows up quietly.
Gradually.
Like a slow leak you don’t see until the tire is almost flat.

And most youth athletes won’t say a word — because they don’t want to disappoint anyone.

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🧬The Insight

Overtraining isn’t caused by hard work. It’s caused by hard work without enough recovery.

NIH research is clear: kids’ bodies and nervous systems can’t handle the same training loads as adults, and they hide symptoms until they can’t.

Overtraining is not just “being tired.”
It affects mood, sleep, focus, appetite, speed, strength, and confidence.

And it builds slowly over weeks, not days.

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💤The Story

A sports medicine group studied high-performing youth athletes who suddenly stopped improving.
What they found was consistent across nearly all of them:

• They were training hard.
• They were training often.
• They weren’t recovering.

Kids were reporting things like:

“I’m tired but can’t sleep.”
“My legs feel heavy.”
“I don’t feel like myself.”
“I don’t want to go to practice but don’t know why.”

None of them thought they were overtrained.
Most parents didn’t think so either.

But every athlete returned to normal performance when two things happened:

1. Their training load decreased.

2. Their recovery increased.

The fix wasn’t more effort.
It was more margin.

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🔁The Shift

Here’s the mindset shift for parents:

Your athlete grows during recovery, not during reps.

If the schedule is nonstop, the performance will eventually stall or slide backward.
More isn’t better. Better is better.

Overtraining usually happens when:

• Kids play multiple sports at the same time
• There’s no built-in rest day
• Practice intensity is too high, too often
• Sleep is inconsistent
• Games + practice + lessons stack up with no gap

As a parent, you’re the only one with the full view of their total load.
Coaches don’t see everything.
Kids won’t report everything.
You’re the governor.

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🧭The Takeaway

If your child seems “off,” believe the signs before you believe the schedule.

NIH research lists the most common early signals:

• Constant fatigue
• Trouble sleeping
• Moodiness or irritability
• Drop in motivation
• Declining performance
• Frequent small injuries
• Longer recovery time after practice
• Loss of excitement for the sport

If two or more show up, it’s time to adjust something.

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👊Put It Into Practice

This week, do three simple things:

1. Check for symptoms
   Ask your athlete:
   “How’s your body feeling? Anything feeling heavier or harder than normal?”

2. Reduce one load
   Cut:
   • A training session
   • A private lesson
   • A weekend scrimmage
   Or give them an actual day of rest.

3. Add one recovery habit
   Choose one:
   • Earlier bedtime
   • Stretching/light mobility
   • Contrast shower
   • More carbs around practice
   • Screen-free hour before bed

Small adjustments prevent big problems.

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🏆The Locker Room

Athletes improve through cycles: load, recover, adapt.
Skip recovery and the cycle breaks.

If your athlete looks worn down, pulling back isn’t weakness.
It’s leadership.

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❤️The Parents’ Bleachers

You’re not just protecting their performance.
You’re protecting their joy.

Kids who get overtrained lose the love of the game long before they lose the ability to play it.

Your job is to help them enjoy the sport for years, not just survive the season.

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⚡BE THE CATALYST

Reply to this email:
Have you ever seen your athlete show signs of overtraining? What did you notice first?

Forward this to a parent who might not realize their kid is running on empty.