I knew a kid who almost burned out, but it wasn't because of "overtraining". She was one of those kids who you saw at 7 years old and thought "yeah, this kid is going to be a college athlete". Extremely athletic, fast and strong, talented. From U10-U14, she played for a notoriously tough coach, and headed into high school seemed ready to give up on the sport. Her parents weren't particularly neurotic about her playing soccer, and at U15 her coach was leaving the club she was at to another club that was too far for her to follow him, so she was toying with the idea of taking the year off. I casually mentioned to the dad that if they had any interest her playing in college, U15 was a bad year to take off. He looked into that a little more and agreed with me, so they convinced her to join another club and see how she felt about things. She did...and it turned out that she absolutely loved the new coach, new club and new team. The change of scenery completely rejuvenated her interest and passion for the sport. So from this, the lesson learned is that "burnout" doesn't have to come from overtraining, and that coaching and environment are big factors too..
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