Problems With Youth Sports That Cause Kids to Quit (Early)

If you have high standards with low

support where it's not a psychologically

safe environment where athletes don't

feel like they can be themselves, you're

going to burn your athlete out. You're

going to have your athlete hate

basketball. And I've seen it as the

director of BTG basketball, some of my

most talented athletes. I had one super

talented athlete that he quit after the

spring season. He felt this pressure to

always play. I'm like, "Dude, it's okay

if you don't play the summer with us.

It's fine. Don't say quit. Don't put a

label on it. Don't quit." The reason

that he quit, the reason that I've I've

seen other really successful players

burn out is because they've been treated

like professional athletes since they're

like in second grade, fourth grade,

sixth grade, even a ninth grader, a high

schooler is not a professional athlete.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to

another episode, the first episode of

2026 of the Beyond the Scoreboard

podcast. The podcast that is providing

information and inspiration for coaches

and parents to transform athletes beyond

the game. I'm your host, Coach Justin

Fertado. And in today's episode, I am

going to make it a very very simple on

how to transform any athlete beyond the

game. Now, if you're a parent that that

is listening to this, you're a coach

that's listening to this, maybe thinking

about programs to join, you're if

there's a program that talks about

winning in youth sports, run, run away,

run as fast as you can. The biggest

challenge our youth are facing is elite

basketball, elite club sports. Are there

a 1% of athletes that may potentially

benefit from this? Yes. However, let's

look at the overuse injuries. Achilles

injury, Jason Tatum, Achilles injury,

Tyrese Hallebertton, not only talking

about burnout, right? That that's at the

highest level because those guys have

put so many miles on their body. Now,

obviously, winning is a great thing,

right? We want to be competitive. You

don't want to develop um losers, quote

unquote. However, if a program is only

focused on winning,

then

you just go find the bigger, faster,

stronger athletes, right? That's what it

is. That if if you want to build a

winning team, right, in sports, just

find the bigger, faster, stronger

athletes. Don't even have to be more

skilled. Just bigger, faster, stronger.

What you want to look for is a program

that has high standards and high support

for your athletes. A lot of these

programs that are successful that are

that do focus on winning, what they have

is high standards, right? They they have

an high standards for an elite level of

play, which is great. They have low

support and they degrade young people

and they treat young people like young

professional athletes. And what we see

is a high anxiety levels in our young

people. What we see is burnout, right?

70% of our young athletes are quitting

by the age of 13 because of traditional

coaches. Think of your traditional Bobby

Knight. High standards, yelling,

cursing, cursing, you do this, you do

that. And I'm not saying high standards

aren't important. They are absolutely

essential to helping athletes develop

and transform their game. But if you

have high standards with low support,

right, where it's not a psychologically

safe environment where athletes don't

feel like they can be themselves, you're

going to burn your athlete out. You're

going to have your athlete hate

basketball. And I've seen it as the

director of BTG basketball, some of my

most talented athletes. I had one super

talented athlete that he quit after the

spring season quit basketball. I think

he came back though. He came back for

his junior season. He just needed a

break, right? But he felt this pressure

to always play. I'm like, "Dude, it's

okay. If you don't play the summer with

us, it's fine. Don't say quit. Don't put

a label on it. Don't quit." The reason

that he quit, the reason that I've I've

seen other really successful players

burn out is because they've been treated

like professional athletes since they're

like in second grade, fourth grade,

sixth grade. Even a ninth grader, a high

schooler, is not a professional athlete.

High standards are great. Our kids need

high standards. And I absolutely agree

about that. And I'll share with you my

struggles because I'm the opposite. Now,

we want to have high standards and high

support. What I'll say, I naturally,

just my personality. I'm very good at

supporting people and my natural ability

maybe isn't necessarily to hold people

to high standards. I'm improving on that

and I'll share a little bit more about

that. So you also don't want to go to an

organization that this is probably more

recreation, right? Where there are low

standards. Ah, you can show up whenever

you want. Ah, it's okay. You you don't

have to work hard, right? That's that's

low standards, right? High support. Ah,

great to see you though, Johnny. Low

standards, high support. What we want is

both high standards, high support. And

what does that look like? High standards

means we have high standards. You need

to be here on time. this is the effort

level that is required if you're going

to play on this team, right? And if you

don't meet it, we're going to hold you

to that. Not because I don't believe in

you, because I do believe in you. I

believe in your potential. We have to

hold you accountable. It is our

responsibility as a coach and a program

to hold you accountable so you can reach

your goals. And at the same time that as

soon as you walk into the gym, you feel

like you belong. You feel like you're

safe. you feel like, oh, the coaches

here, they care about me. That is how

you unlock and transform young athletes.

And that's what we've been doing at BTG

basketball is we have high standards.

And I'll be honest, I was burnt out last

July, last June, and I dropped some of

my standards. And that's something that

I'm working on right now. How to be a

better coach, how to always remain high

standards, high support. I will give you

an example this week. All right. what

I'm working on for myself as a coach

right now. How? Because as a coach, you

also as a parent or a coach, right? You

want to go to a program where there's a

director over there that is constantly

learning and growing. And that's what

I'm doing. I want to constantly learn

and grow and how I can be a better

leader. I need to be a better direct

communicator. I need to be more

assertive. I need to be more firm with

how I talk to my athletes. And I'm

working on that this week. Yesterday, we

had the practice. Boom. Look at me when

I'm talking, right? I'm going to demand

it. I'm not moving on. I'm not talk I'm

not u moving on to the next drill until

we do it right. Oh, we're not

communicating. I use something called

the penalty box. You're in the penalty

box or we're running. Hold them real

accountable. If you say you're going to

do something, you have to hold them to

it. Otherwise, you're not holding

yourself to standards. And that's

something that I'm learning. I didn't

naturally get taught that growing up.

So, I have to kind of teach that u to

myself. And and that's okay. I'm excited

about that. I'm excited about that

opportunity. You have to have high

standards for our players. So, specific

situations this week, I am a conceptual

offense person. Talking basketball wise,

won't go into the details. Long story

short, I've been giving my athletes too

much freedom. So, I was like, I went in,

I plan before practice. We're going to

do this, right? These are your two

options. Boop. Boop. If they don't do

those two options, turn over. Turn over.

Hold them accountable. You know, one of

the things on defense that if if they

didn't pick up on defense right at half

court, boom, nope. Offense, go the other

way. Defense didn't do their job, right?

So, holding them to that high standard

is essential. And giving them that

support like I believe in you. I believe

that you can do that. You know, high

fives, different ways. Everyone has

their own kind of mechanisms of how

they're going to support athletes. But

one of the things that I see is the

biggest challenge is is people have

really high standards for kids, for

anyone, right? But they don't they feel

like they're always getting that

negative feedback, right? Like, ah, god,

like, I know the standards. Like, I I I

agree with you, coach, but I want I want

to know that you're on my team. This

generation wants to know that their

coaches, their parents, I can't talk

really as much as about parents, but as

teachers, they're on their team. They

they are with them. They want to be a

part of their journey. They don't want

to feel like ah coaches like I'm I'm

playing against coach, right? They want

to feel like you're on their team. So

you we have to have high standards and

high support. So if you are a coach in

the Los Angeles area, we would love for

you to shoot us an email at infobtg

basketball.org. We we're always looking

for transformational coaches. If you are

a parent in the West Los Angeles area

and you're looking for a basketball

program that not only invests into your

athlete as a basketball player and but

more importantly as a human being, our

goal is to transform athletes beyond the

game, beyond the scoreboard. Our mission

is to provide coaches across the world

with the resources and tools, the

information, the inspiration to

transform athletes beyond the game. We

got to take back youth sports and we

need to go make an impact. Stop going to

these clubs that, you know, sell, oh,

winning, winning, winning, right? That's

going to work for the best athletes, for

the stronger, better, faster athletes.

If you're a stronger, better faster, go

to those elite factories, right? That's

the place. But if you're somewhere in

the middle, there are organizations,

there are programs that will really help

your athlete develop. Your athlete needs

high standards and high support. Thank

you for listening to this episode. But

if you got something from it, please

share it with a friend, a parent, a

coach, and we look forward to bringing

you more value next week. Thank you for

listening to this episode of the Beyond

the Scoreboard podcast. If you enjoyed

this episode, make sure that you

subscribe wherever you listen to

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and coaches who are the ones that are

impacting our athletes. That's how we

create a ripple effect.