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28 NEW ENGLAND LACROSSE JOURNAL January-February 2020 Subscribe today at laxjournal.com/subscribe THE MENTAL EDGE THE MENTAL EDGE M o re and more these days, anxiety around lacrosse seems to be a larg- er struggle for many young players. Often, this is due to a few different factors, but most surround per- ceived expectations and pressure. One of the major transformations we've seen in youth sports in the last decade is more and more sport specialization at an earlier age. This leads to a variety of environmental, rela- tional, and psychological conse- quences. For players interested in playing lacrosse at the high school and collegiate level, play- ing year-round and joining club teams has become the norm in middle school and even younger. While there is a variety of different factors that can lead to issues such as depression and anxiety in young athletes, we'll focus on a few that relate to the influences of the modern youth sports industry. Parental investment Youth sports has become expensive. The youth sports market in the U.S. exceeds that of the NFL in total rev- enue. Parents spend more and more money on their kids with the hopes of them being successful in lacrosse and also, with club teams becoming more prevalent, this re- quires more travel and associated costs. Parents' lives become more and more centered around that of their child's involvement in lacrosse and children are aware of this. Whether parents' outwardly express pressure on their children, the kids pick up on how central their lacrosse involvement is to the family. Kids naturally want to please their parents and demon- strate their value, so this can lead to unintended pressure and expectations, even if it's not the parent's intentions. Social support The difficulties of playing club sports include the travel and being involved in multiple teams, and this can lead to difficulties forming a strong friend group that can provide support through difficulty. When you are only involved in school sports, your friend group is more accessible since you live near and see many of the same kids frequently. Unfortunately, with the increased involvement for many youth lacrosse play- ers in club sports, you may be seeing many different kids; even if you form strong bonds, those friends may not live close to you, which limits the potential to interact. Physical and mental demands Lacrosse has many increased demands being placed on youth players. These include year-round training schedules, the encouragement of supplemental training such as lacrosse skills coaching, strength and condition- ing, mental performance coaching, nutritional coaching, and the list goes on. More training hours in the week and throughout the year can lead to everything from decreased performance, loss of motivation, anxiety, depression, overuse injuries, lack of adequate sleep, and more. Athlete identity When you spend so much time, effort and investment in one area as a child, you tend to build your identity around that quality, which occurs naturally enough at first due to finding success, accomplishment and enjoy- ment from it. It's natural to succeed at lacrosse and have that lead to a sense of being good at lacrosse, and this has a lot of potential value. The difficulty is that over time this can lead to how you assess your value as a human being. Thus, when difficulty emerges, that puts that into question such as playing at a higher level of competition where you're no longer better than your peers, getting injured and then you can't play, or other challenges, you can feel lost in terms of who you are. Kids may think, "If I'm not a good lacrosse player, then who am I? What value do I have?" Adolescence is a natural stage in which children are working to form and explore their identity, and if they have only one way to define their identity then this can be very fragile. What can we do? The modern youth sports industry is neither good nor bad; it is what it is. There are many benefits that create opportunity for youth athletes that didn't exist for players in the past, but with that comes unique chal- lenges that we want to recognize, validate and address if possible. Here are a few ways in which we can work to better support youth lacrosse players. 1. Talk about it The first step is to ensure you're having a dialogue about the challenges highlighted above and checking in regularly to see where the child is at. Create op- portunities to discuss how motivated they're feeling, what challenges they're facing, and if they need any support. While these might seem obvious and we'd expect that a young athlete would say if they were unhappy, over- whelmed or facing some other type of challenge, this may not be true. Like we highlighted above with many of the factors that can influence them, they may not speak up for fear of letting others down, being viewed as less, or feeling ashamed, alone, and more. 2. Encourage balance Our society and culture around sports is often fo- cused around more, more, more. It's easy for an athlete to feel if they take time off, focus on other interests, or shift their focus in a new direction that they will fall behind -- this comes from coaches, peers, the media and other social pressures. Helping young athletes take a broader perspective to their development and having a long-term view will help them to see that adjustments will be made in which they have time and ability to focus on other sports, take vaca- tions, foster other interests, and more if they want that. Not that this is needed for all lacrosse players, but we do know that overtraining and overspecialization at too young an age leads to increased likelihood for injuries, mental health issues and burnout. 3. Build a support team The final piece is helping to have a support team that can provide support and accountability to an athlete. Encourage the athlete to engage with people who have the athlete's best interests at heart and to help guide their ongoing develop- ment not only as an athlete, but as a human being. Parents can't do it all themselves, so having coaches, family friends, and others can be a valuable asset in cre- ating a communal support network around an athlete to help them be their best. Landon DuMar is the Mental Performance Coach at RPM Athlete Performance in Natick, Mass. He currently is pursuing a master's degree in athletic counseling at Springfield College and has experience working with a variety of collegiate and youth athletes, coaches and trainers on the mental aspects of sport and perfor- mance that focuses on flow, mindfulness, expertise and positive psychology. His background in counseling psychology and extensive experience working in youth mental health programming informs his holistic approach to health, wellness, and well-being. Learn more at www.rpmathlete.com. feedback@laxjournal.com DUMAR LANDON How young players can help manage PRESSURE & EXPECTATIONS Jen Fuller/Getty Images