FULL-COURT PRESSURE

Student athletes are bedeviled by the push to succeed

Spencer Fields once kicked a star tennis player off the North Central High School team, even though the coach realized then that it meant the school would likely lose a state tennis title.

Why? Because the kid was poisoning the mood of the team by putting too much pressure on everyone.

"The player was very negative to himself, his teammates and then behaved very badly during matches," Fields said. "The great thing about this player is that he has really changed himself and is a great young man now."

A team of Y-Press journalists decided to find out how young athletes and coaches deal with sports pressure and what advice they have for others participating in sports. We interviewed Fields, 32, who has won state championships as a North Central student athlete and now as a coach, as well as successful youth players in basketball, football, tennis and track.

All agreed that pressure is unavoidable in sports.

"It can be a downfall or it can be a great thing," said Walter Offutt, a basketball star at Warren Central High School, who has been ranked among the best high-school players in the country. The 18-year-old will attend The Ohio State University next fall.

"I experience both types of pressure. Sometimes I'll be off one night and know it's because the pressure really got to me," Walter said. "But then again, sometimes when the pressure is on, I step it up another level and play better."

Another successful basketball player is Daryn Hightower, a senior who plays three sports for Bishop Chatard High School. He described sports pressure as an adrenaline rush, and often the 18-year-old will feel the pressure on the basketball court at the exact moment when he needs to make the ball go though the hoop.

"Pressure can be a good thing, but players have to handle it the right way by being honest and open about the pressure they feel before trying to deal with it," said Fields.

When he puts pressure on tennis players, Fields said, he does it in specific ways to help improve their performance. For example, if a kid needs to be faster, Fields pushes him to get in better shape -- perhaps by running miles. For pressure to be positive, it needs to be combined with goals and realistic expectations, he said.

Also, the coach said, peer-to-peer pressure is the most effective. "The pressure teammates can apply to each other is much more productive than the pressure they get from parents and the school," Fields said. “Often, people will do things for each other if the goal is to improve and have fun.”

Individual athletes handle pressure in different ways. Walter makes sure he surrounds himself with people he can trust.

Nick Chappell, 15, doesn't think about winning, just playing well and enjoying himself. As a North Central freshman, he played No. 1 singles, helping lead the tennis team to a state championship last fall.

"Usually, I find myself just trying to slow things down and manage my time better so that I don't get overwhelmed with my stress," said Kate Muskat, a Chatard senior who has excelled in track, especially sprints. She even transforms sports pressure into a motivator. "Usually, it gives me more adrenaline and just the will to complete my task even more," said the 18-year-old.

As a coach, Fields tries to respond to each of this athletes in the way that suits them best. 

“I find that they can relax better when they can be themselves, ” he said.

Fields said a key to handling pressure is to combine it with fun.

"As a coach, I have tried to look extensively at how I can keep it fun but keep it pressurized. My high school team went 26 and zero, and we won a state title, which was great, but it was a lot of pressure. . . . But at the same time, we also did more barbecues; we did more team gatherings; we went to dinner as a team. We always had fun with our teammates, and so the whole season was just fun."

Student athletes also face pressure from other students and teachers.

"You might have a game Thursday night, and you know if you don't do well, you're gonna hear about it on Friday morning with the students," Walter said.

He said star athletes get attention from everyone at school: students, teachers, the principal and even the superintendent. As a result, he feels like he can't let his guard down.

“You have to handle yourself in a more appropriate, parent type of way. You gotta be above your age and be mature about everything you’re doing,” Walter said.

But it's not anyone at school creating the most problems with sports pressure. Overwhelmingly, it's parents who are the biggest problem, according to national studies and many coaches, including Fields.

A 2003 survey by “SportingKid Magazine” found that 84 percent had witnessed “violent parental behavior” toward children, coaches or officials at sporting events. For example, in a soccer league for 6- and 7-year olds in Illinois, a mother stormed the field to oppose a referee’s call. He hollered at her to get off the field. Then, the dad got involved and strangled the ref, according to a report by the National Alliance for Youth Sports.

Its Web site also reported a mom assaulting a ref with a folding chair, and a girls’ softball team going off to play “Duck, Duck, Goose,” when parents stopped the game to fight over a pitching rule technicality.

The result of all this pushy parenting?

U.S. News & World Report noted in an in-depth 2004 package about youth athletics that 70 percent of all children in organized sports eventually drop out. Sports injuries among children pressured to play and specialize in sports at an early age are way up too, according to several published accounts.

In tennis, specifically, Fields estimated that four out of five kids feel too much pressure from their parents about the sport.

“I have in my North Central tennis teams, boys and girls combined, 127 athletes. I bet at least 90 or 100 of them feel their parents are a big problem when they’re playing tennis,” Fields said.

It doesn’t help when parents yell out advice, especially in a quiet sport like tennis, he said. They need to realize that the pressure they exert on their kids doesn’t help. Parents must accept that their children might not be star athletes, but can learn and have fun, Fields noted.

Most of the student athletes interviewed don't feel their parents put too much pressure on them, and they appreciate it.

"My parents are pretty easygoing with sports. They just want me to go out there and do my best, and whatever comes out of it comes out of it," Daryn said.

Walter said handling sports pressure boils down to accepting it as a part of success.

“No one said life is easy… Sometimes people don’t want to feel stress, but they’re never going to meet their expectations in life if they avoid it.”

REPORTERS: Quinn Andrews, 13, Justin Byers, 15, Max Gabovitch, 14, and Mihir Kumar, 14.

 

Advice on handling pressure

·       Take a realistic look at your sporting goals, and what it takes to get there and remain flexible.

·        Don't take risks, unless you can deal with the consequences.

·        Get plenty of sleep.

·        Eat healthily before your sporting events.

·        Warm up before any game or event.

·        Practice, practice, practice.

·        Relax before a game.

·        Recognize that everyone makes mistakes, including you.

·        Explain to others, including your parents, how the pressure they put on you feels.

 ·        Be yourself.

·        Remember that positive, goal-oriented sports pressure makes you a better athlete.

 ·        Remember that you're playing sports because they're fun and help you make friends, whether you win or lose.

 ·        Be thankful for the opportunity to play sports; realize that everyone wants to win.

If you’d like to learn more about youth sports, pressure and how to cope with it, try these Web sites:

National Alliance for Youth Sports: http://www.nays.org 

MVP Parents: http://mvparents.com/article.php?aid=39&cid=1

              

Center For Effective Parenting: http://www.parenting-ed.org/handout3/Specific%20Concerns%20and%20Problems/peer%20pressure.htm

 

The Creative Athlete: http://www.onlinesports.com/sportstrust/creative13.html

 

Sources: http://www.online.sports.com; http://www.kidshealth.org 

and Y-Press student athletes Alesha Peterson, 17 and Charlie Osborne, 12.

 Copyright 2008 Y-Press