It is every young athletes dream to be great at a sport, but sometimes playing sports do not always make athletes happy.

When someone is in middle school, they should be enjoying the sport(s) they play instead of stressing themselves out with how good they expect themselves to be in two or three years. Now, do not take this as saying you should not be practicing, but you should also be enjoying what you are doing. According to myteamgenuis.com “[wanting to win] can cause coaches to instruct more aggressively as they are chasing victories more than developing skills.” This causes athletes to go into a negative and stressful state of mind.

When athletes are in a negative mindset, this can cause them to not try during practices. When they do not try during practices, they anger coaches who will then only put in the best players instead of being fair and giving everyone a chance to play. This has gotten to such a level that in a recent study by Josephean Institute, “90% of children would rather play on a losing team than sit on the bench of a winning team.”