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Melanie Cole: If you're a parent, you know that sports provide a wonderful opportunity for the children in our communities and our families. However, sometimes they can take a toll not only on the youth athlete but on the families as well. My guest is Rachel Hall. She's an athletic trainer with Bryan Health. Do you think our kids can their families are too invested in youth sports and what do you want the listeners to know about balancing youth sports with other activities?

Rachel Hall, Athletic Trainer: As we mentioned off air, it’s a busy time of year and everything you said I agree with. Sports are so wonderful, they do so many positive things for our kids, our families as a whole, but I think the biggest thing to look at is what happens when we start turning it from a very positive experience to becoming a negative experience. We're at that part of the school year where we're two months away from the end of the academic year, kids are tired, parents are tired and I think sometimes we just forget to check in with each other to make sure that everyone is still enjoying their sport and getting out of it what they intended.

Melanie: That’s a big deal, isn't it? The kids, they enjoy it and certainly at the beginning, they love it and they think it’s really fun, but then they get really invested and sometimes to the point of depression if something doesn't go right or if a practice isn't great. How do we speak to our kids about the sport that they're in and try and keep those motivational levels up but also keep their morale up?

Rachel: I think that’s just it. It’s speaking to our kids. Often, I’ll be talking to a kid and they’ll voice it. A lot of the times, you have to give them that chance. How did practice go today? They might just mumble and stomp off to their room because they're tired, but make sure you follow up with them. Did something not go right today? Is something frustrating you? Usually, when you give them that opportunity, even just to voice their opinion, a lot of the times, they just want to be heard, they need to vent, they need to let out what they're thinking, and that gives parents a chance to just check in with them. Maybe offer some advice. You love doing this, you keep wanting to get in and put your all in it. Just checking in with them sometimes is all they need to refresh, unload that mental burden that’s on them so that they can get back and find that joy in their sport.

Melanie: How do we help them connect with a life away from their sports? When a child is really dedicated to a sport, there's sports specific training that goes on and they don't really see the benefit of cross training, and then, of course, we come up with all the chronic injuries.

Rachel: There are two different arguments I get from parents all the time. ‘My kid only likes this one sport' and all the research is showing that when you're a single sport athlete, your injury rates are just so much higher than the multisport athlete. I think it’s making sure those single sport athletes do get a break, that you're building in some time in between their competitive season and their training season to make sure that they can step away from their sport not only physically to heal but mentally just to give their brain a rest. It’s that old phrase of ‘absence makes the heart grow stronger.’ If they're always doing their sport, then all of a sudden it becomes less of a love and more of a chore. Simply, having them take a week off of a training session, a week away from their private coach or private lessons, will sometimes give them enough chance to reset.

On the opposite side of that, the multisport athletes, as we said before, ‘I was so happy my boys basketball team just won state and two days later they were at that baseball practice ready to go for their first game tomorrow.’ It’s just letting them acknowledge are you feeling tired, yes but I need to start baseball. Just having that conversation that maybe is just away from that. Did you enjoy your day off in between the two sports? Are you looking forward to seeing your other set of friends that might not have played that sport but now you're in the baseball season and get to see them? Just having those conversations about their friends and don't forget to ask how school is going. A lot of issues going on in schools right now. Those are the conversations that help them feel heard and keep them nice and fresh for their sport.

Melanie: Another issue seems to be pretty prevalent in our society today. While the youth athlete really does love their sport, that’s what they want to think about, they're really dedicated, sometimes it’s the parents that are thinking they're going to get a scholarship when we know that not so many of them really actually do go into the pros. The parents are the ones thinking this is it, this kid is a prodigy at this. What do we do or what can we tell the parents to help them realize that this is something that’s supposed to be fun for the kids and supposed to help them get through school and team and morale, but maybe isn't going to be something they're going to take to the pros?

Rachel: I think that’s the hardest topic to always approach with parents. Parents love their kid and they want the world for their child, but sometimes that gives us a false view of our own children and our own family, so that’s one of the first things I always say – be realistic. When looking at your child playing, if they're not getting the playing time you think they deserve, if you think that a coach isn't giving them the attention. A lot of parents’ first thing is ‘it’s not my child, it’s the coach, I need to fix this.’ Encourage your child to have that conversation. Does your child feel like they're not getting the playing time that you think they are? If they feel their teammates are better than they are right now or if they feel like they're better, encourage them. Work a little bit harder. Make sure that you're not building in excuses. At the same time, for parents, again you're shuffling kids from sport to sport, you’ve got your own work, your own stresses there. It’s just asking yourself that question – why are we doing this? Is it because my child wants to participate and is finding joy? As they get older, is it that goal of a college scholarship? I think one of the greatest things out there is there's such a wide variety of college sports that they might not get that D1 full ride, but they can still get a scholarship to a smaller institution and not have to worry about the same stresses. That’s where it’s always hard to say have that realistic expectation of your child. Like you said, the chance of getting a collegiate scholarship, let alone going professional, is so small, so make sure you're encouraging their academics because a lot of these kids go pro in something other than sports, one of my favorite NCAA lines.

Melanie: Where does social media fit into this and YouTube? I know kids that if they're really into a sport, they’ll watch the pros on YouTube do various things and my son the gymnast sits there and watches gymnastics all the time. Where do you think that fits into the picture and is that healthy for children to be watching elite athletes doing what it is that they're aspiring to or can that be a little bit of a negative?

Rachel: It can be both. Everyone loves to watch the highlight reel. They want to see these athletes doing these amazing catches, hit the home runs, all of that, but also on YouTube and other social media sites are really cool videos of these professional athletes doing their day to day practice and drills that they're doing drills the same thing that you're doing in your own practice. I think that's something that parents can encourage when kids are on social media is don't just watch the end product, the highlight reel. Watch that practice film of them. I had an interesting case with one of my basketball players who was on vacation with his family and there happened to be a professional athlete in the fitness center with him and he came back and he was so excited. He said he does the same exercises we do here at school. There are those basics, so make sure it's not all highlight reels that they're also seeing that there are really good fundamentals that these professional athletes are doing. At the same time, if you notice your athlete is just obsessed with that social media, social media is a very good chance for us to live a dream life or ideal life, so you'll see people post only highlights on there, but understand highlights don’t come every single day. There's going to be dips in that, so make sure that there's not an obsessive following, make sure they're taking breaks, or at the same time that they're paying just as much attention to those athletes when they have a bad game as they do the good games so they see that it’s not all highlight reels, that there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.

Melanie: Wrap it up for us because this is really good information and so important for parents and their youth athletes to hear that you need to cross train to avoid some of those chronic overuse injuries that you need to really explore other avenues and sports and even things that don’t have anything to do with sports. Wrap it up with your best advice on ways to take a break from youth sports and expand our children’s horizons.

Rachel: I think the best thing is to get back to your family and your family vacation. We have so many great resources in not only Nebraska but across the country. Go explore some of these different sightseeing adventures that we have. Take a day where you're not doing organized sports, but maybe you're on your feet, you're walking in Mahoney Park, you're along the river, and also do other things not necessarily involved. Do a different activity. We have a great chess club at our school that one of our athletes like because it's strategy and mental preparedness that you need for sports but in a completely different frame of mind. Other things that you can do is try something completely different. We have different parkour parks, you'll see these Ninja Warrior training facilities, do something that might be physical but gets them completely away from organized in what I call free play. Just by doing something completely different, and doing it as a family, nothing will make a teenage last more than a parent willing to embarrass themselves, but nothing will bring you closer as well in that active family environment.

Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today and a special thank you to our podcast partner, Davis Design. For more information about healthy living, you can go to bryanhealth.org. That’s bryanhealth.org. This is Bryan Health Podcast. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for tuning in.