By David Udelf
When their sports career ends, young people sometimes face real anguish.
That’s a phrase derived from the iconic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, written by Viktor Frankl. It’s also the focus of this piece. Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and survivor of a horrendous 31 months in a Nazi workcamp. His aforementioned book is required reading in many schools and colleges.
Reading that book (for the third time) emboldened my understanding of the importance of empowering young athletes to find meaning in their lives beyond sports. Helping any young person discover their unique identity is critical to their lifelong well-being.
Inspiration for this piece was fueled by Frankl, in combination with my compassion for the young people I’ve known who are lost and confused in their struggle to unravel a complete life meaning.
Young people are far more than just athletes.
Viktor Frankl’s Experience and Insight
Without delving into the details of the horrors Frankl endured during his imprisonment in Auschwitz and Dachau Nazi concentration camps, suffice it to say that he managed to survive indescribable mental and physical abuse during his workcamp days. Starvation, illness, and physical beatings. Forced outdoor labor in tattered rags and shoes filled with holes in sub-freezing temperatures. Bearing witness to the torture and murder of fellow camp prisoners.
He survived all that, crediting the previously established meaning of his life, plus an ability to enrich that meaning from the pain and suffering experienced while imprisoned. Many people who failed to survive the work camps lacked meaning in their lives, according to Frankl’s observations. Some of them committed suicide or just gave up, withered away, succumbing to an early death.
Frankl’s experience in those work camps inspired his development of a new school of psychological intervention called Logotherapy. It’s a name derived from “logos,” the Greek word for meaning. It’s a treatment approach focused on assisting people to discover and define their personal meaning in life.
Frankl published multiple books focused on logotherapy. No detailing Logotherapy specifics, herein.
My Professional Experience and Insight
I’ve worked with numerous young athletes for 50+ years as a psychologist and coach, witnessing the devastation of young people when their athletic career fails to meet their expectations, especially when it ends. Poor performance, getting cut, minimal college playing opportunities, failure to make a team they tried out for, injuries, etc.
Disappointment and sadness are perfectly normal emotions when the above happens. Total ruin experienced is another story, revealing an over- or total dependence on their sport or activity for personal meaning.
Young people experiencing this devastation, especially when their high school or collegiate athletic career is interrupted or ends, often report an emptiness in their life, and a total blank as to their future direction. Some become obsessed with bodybuilding, desperately trying to maintain an athletic identity. Many of these retired athletes lapse into a state of depression and a pattern of ever-shrinking activity of meaning.
They’re lost in a sad state of not knowing who they are and a lack of direction for their future.
Adult Contribution to This Mess
Given how much of their lives revolved around sports from an early age, such devastation should not be a surprise. Due to overzealous adults forcing year-round dedication to a sport. For such coaches, that’s a possible sign that their life meaning is a bit narrow.
On the parental end, placing their kids in that situation suggests that they are just going along with what surrounding families are doing, and/or believing it’s securing a collegiate (or professional sports) career for their child. That’s not likely to happen, given that only an approximate six percent of athletes advance from high school sports into collegiate athletics, according to NCAA statistics.
While the short-term intention of such coaches and parents may be okay, they fail to realize the potential long-term damage they’re doing to young people. All of the above, plus overuse injury, burnout, quitting sports, and other damaging manifestations that are detailed in this previous post You’re Far More Than an Athlete.
Forward March
Something must be done to remedy and prevent the pervasive plight described herein and experienced by so many young athletes in the current youth sport culture.
The next piece will review an approach and strategies to help young athletes and other young people to discover what matters to them, beyond sports, with the intent to ameliorate and prevent the problems discussed above.
David Udelf, Psy.D., has extensive and diverse experience as a clinical and sport psychologist, combined with 40-plus years of coaching. He’s in private practice at Becker, Udelf, and Associates.
