From Amateur to Professional and the Drop-out Phenomenon

15 Feb 2024 - Sport

From Amateur to Professional and the Drop-out Phenomenon

The most important moment in the career of a young athlete is certainly the step from amateur to professional athlete. A small step that divides two completely different worlds in terms of training methodologies, social life and economic aspect.

This step, on average, based on the type of sport, is around 16-18 years of age, precisely the years with the highest percentage of drop-outs, i.e. the withdrawal from competitive sport of young athletes.

The causes can be of various kinds, such as:

  • the pressure to perform
  • the achievement of objectives set to far from the present moment
  • the monotony and repetitiveness of training
  • the lack of challenges
  • the excessive presence of selective competitions
  • relationship with coach, teammates or parents

How many times have we seen young athletes abandon sport even before taking this step? How many times have we seen accomplished athletes last a short time and retire at a young age?

If we give that step a time frame of 1 year and around that step a time frame of + and – 2/3 years we can see that statistically the retirements happen right in those boundaries, just before becoming professionals or immediately after becoming one. Once this boundaries are passed the athlete should have a standard course.

The cause, except for various particular situations, can be attributed to poor psycho-physical management of the athlete at a young age, therefore too lascivious and talent-oriented management or too rigid and skill-oriented management, which leads young athlete to have a premature psycho-physical burnout.

The role of the Performance Coach is to help young athletes to understand and self-manage the curve. The curve is the natural and physiological trend of the athlete’s physical, mental and technical performance with periods of progression, stagnation or even regression.

The Performance Coach’s ability is preventing and intervening on this curve, by providing young athlete with tools, that will help him to act in the best way on these periods and avoid burnout due to incorrect training loads at the wrong times.

The benefits that the athlete will have will not only be in terms of performance, but will also be evident in terms of the duration of the sporting career, as the young athlete will become aware of his psycho-physical balance in order to alternate periods of functional overload with effective rest.