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[quote=Anonymous]Burn out is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, some kids do "burn out" but most kids stop playing for a variety of reasons not really burnout. The biggest wave of children leaving sports applies to not just soccer but all sports and occurs at the age when children realize they can say no. For many this is puberty and they realize they never really liked it that much in the first place. The teen years are also a big wave of reprioritizing for kids. Many will find the sports they played when younger don't fit into their social or academic schedules. Some will get exposed to sports in high school that they didn't know existed before and switch from soccer to something else. The fact is almost all US children play at least one season of organized soccer these days and for many it is not their sport so it is not surprising that a high percentage don't keep playing forever.

Burn out implies some kind of overindulgence. Kid loved soccer and played every moment of every day until suddenly they don't love it any more. I've been around youth soccer for years and I really haven't seen this where the kid just played too much. I have seen kids driven out of the sport by bad abusive coaches but that's not really the same as burnout. I've seen kids whose parents pushed them much harder than they were really up for and most of them do quit when they figure out they can but that's more a matter of developing independence and their own voice than burnout. Most college players quit after college for some period of time because of the horrid coaching they received in college--that's kind of a burnout, but many of them after 5 or 10 years realize they still love the sport and get back into at some kind of amateur level.

If you have a kid who really loves the game I wouldn't worry much about burnout. Just keep them away from abusive coaching and they should fine. If they constantly want to play more and more, you may have to set the limits for balancing school and family and the rest of life, but within those limits let them play. In most cases playing more makes them better which makes them love it more.[/quote]

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