SetterU

An open letter to parents and coaches of open-level volleyball players:

I think your athlete is burnt out. It is month five or six of the club season filled with two to three practices a week, stacked three-day tournaments, constant travel, lessons and personal training and the obvious nonstop pressure to perform…these athletes are running on empty. Then we ask them to roll straight from nationals into tryouts then directly into high school season without any real break, like they’re machines instead of people. It’s not just physical fatigue, although you’ll see that too. The bigger piece is the mental and emotional side of things. It’s the hesitation where there used to be instincts. It’s the athlete who looks flat, less vocal, less engaged. And instead of recognizing it, we label it: “She needs to want it more,” or “She’s not playing like herself.” The reality is, she’s been pushing through for months. That’s exactly how she got here.

Open-level athletes are managing so much. Coach expectations, playing time, recruiting pressure, and the demand to perform every single weekend. There is no real off switch. And eventually, that constant output without recovery catches up in performance and also behavior, energy, and emotional control.

I’m seeing it firsthand. I train a lot of athletes, and in just the last month, I’ve had more players than ever come into the gym extremely emotional, overwhelmed, and quick to snap. Not because they’re difficult, not because they have attitude problems, but because they’re exhausted. Mentally and emotionally drained. When the system is overloaded for that long, something has to give, and for a lot of them, it’s their ability to regulate and respond the way they normally would.

Coaches if we’re not paying attention, we misread that moment completely. Before questioning their effort, ask a better question: when was the last time they had a real reset? Not a day off or a lighter practice, but actual time away from the game. I’m all about extra training and additional work but if we keep demanding more without ever allowing them to recover, we’re not setting high-level athletes up for success. We are setting them up for burnout.