Cup runneth over
Where is the limit with high expectations?
To get good at something, you need to put in the time.
This idea must be professed to young athletes. It teaches commitment and accountability. Show up and keep showing up.
“Do the work”; however, must be professed carefully so as not to entertain destructive expectations.
Putting in the time in elite youth athletics comes at a cost. That is not to say young athletes do not become successful by going all in, and it does not even mean it is wrong. It does mean that the youth athlete often seeks or pushes for maximal gains at an early phase of development, potentially blunting responsiveness to gains in the later phases.
A tweet from Gordo Byrn, featured below, refers to this as LoadMax. If Merriam-Webster ever inks LoadMax in the dictionary, my name is all over that definition. I have lived it and know what can happen when you LoadMax and not LoadOptimize at 16 years old.
What does LoadMax look like?
It is fascinating to think about the level of swimming I was doing as a high schooler. We had a school-year training and competition schedule like the following:
5-6:30 a.m. and 4:00-7:00 p.m. M/W/F
4:00-7:00 p.m. T/Th
7:00-9:00 a.m. (sometimes 10:00) S
Off Sunday and it was needed
Multiple weekends on the road at meets
2-3 weeks off in August. A 48-week sport!
I do not illustrate this to be braggadocio. I really am not that impressed with the schedule because it only created a vat of fatigue. I got some positive results at competitions, but nothing that would cause one to say “he did that because he trains like an animal!”.
Re: Gordo’s tweet:
Doubles in the school year? Yep.
Yes to other interests? Nope.
Time for sleep and school? Somehow.
This level of commitment is not unique to me or to swimming. It is rampant in the whole youth sports domain.
How does it happen?
Part of the problem is that we [many of the athletes in the group] enjoyed a lot of what we were doing. We loved to train, never missed a workout, and felt that crawling out of the facility was a hallmark of “honest work”. There also seems to be a promise of success when you set forth high expectations and go all in, but that is not necessarily true.
In my case, I put the expectations on myself, but many others had external pressure from parents, high-level colleges, or coaches to exhaust all of their resources in pursuit of athletic success.
For example, in April 2016, we pulled out all of the stops. This was the most training I have ever done in a month and will probably ever do. I got irresponsibly fit and the reparations did not show up in May, June, or even in that entire year. They showed up 4 years later.
It’s hard to justify holding a motivated youth athlete back when the acute effects of LoadMax manifest as feeling like a rockstar. Having a coach or facilitator who understands the temptation and how to deflect the temptation in a direction that fosters growth is a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Avoiding temptation
There will always be kids who are forcing themselves to LoadMax or have parents who are pressuring them to do so. This is tempting to follow suit and the reason is two-fold:
You’ll get really good
You’ll stay on pace with the other LoadMaxers
What you won’t get is breathing room for growth later on. It is called LoadMax for a reason. The ceiling is being reached.
What happened when I went to the next level; to college? I swam out of my mind freshman year. I finally got my year of rest because what we were doing was LESS than I was accustomed to. Traditionally, the college level is where the preparation and commitment ratchets up a notch.
I consider this my grace period because it eventually came to an end. I was mentally and physically spent by the time the next season rolled around. More so in the mental arena.
The development process had stalled. I kept swimming all of the way through, but the limit pushing done at age 15, 16, 17 had most certainly caught up.
Where to look
I took some important points away from my experience:
Always be setting up the next step
Decide when you want to be your strongest. This requires guidance.
Leave room for more. It will get hard organically.
In a practical sense, this may be as simple as:
Dialing in foundational strength training for a high schooler
Specific strength becomes more important as the athlete ages, thus setting up a foundation for optimizing strength in later development is a sound strategy.
Fostering a positive relationship with the game or sport
Leaving a sport at the end of a career and wanting nothing to do with it is unfortunate. I know. Play or compete with appreciation.
Expanding versatility
Specializing in a particular event or position can wait. Opt for the diverse skillset.
Doing something “else” outside the sport!
Other interests matter. There is a lot to explore with friends and at school and these opportunities should be capitalized on.
It is important to understand that athletic excellence at a young age is not inherently bad.
The benefits of a structure and a time commitment are a teacher that extends beyond the athletic realm. Exploring talent should be fun and celebrated.
The problems begin to occur when it is taken too far. While not apparent initially, the potential downstream effects are undesirable.
Put in the time. Understand the costs. Keep a leash on it. Don’t Load like Max.