Young athletes’ search for meaning.
This is a quote from a famous book, Man’s search for meaning, Written by Viktor Frankl. Also the focus of this episode. Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who survived a horrific 31 months in a Nazi concentration camp. His above mentioned book should be required reading in many schools and colleges.
Reading that book (for the third time) deepened my understanding of the importance of empowering young athletes to find meaning in their lives outside of sports. Helping any young person discover their uniqueness person important to their lifelong well-being.
The inspiration for this work was fueled by Frankl, combined with my sympathy for the young people I know who are lost and confused in their struggle to discover the full meaning of life.
Young people are not just athletes.
Viktor Frankl’s experience and insight
Before going into the details of Frankl’s horrors at Auschwitz and Dachau Nazi prison concentration suffice it to say that he managed to survive unspeakable mental and physical abuse during his days working in the camps. Starvation, disease and physical beatings. Forced outdoor labor in sub-freezing temperatures in shoes filled with torn rags and holes. Witnessing the torture and killing of camp prisoners.
He survived all this, taking into account the previously defined meaning of his life, as well as the ability to enrich this meaning from the pain and suffering of imprisonment. According to Frankl’s observations, many people who did not survive the labor camps had no meaning in their lives. Some of them have committed commit suicide or simply give up and wither and succumb to an early death.
Frankl’s experiences in these labor camps inspired him to develop a new school of psychological intervention called Logotherapy. This name is derived from the Greek word “logos”. meaning. It is a treatment that aims to help people discover their personal meaning in life.
Frankl published several books focusing on logotherapy. There are no special features of logotherapy here.
My professional experience and understanding
I have worked with many young athletes for 50+ years as a psychologist and coach, witnessing the devastation of young people. athletic career does not meet their expectations, especially with the ending. Poor performance, layoffs, minimal playing opportunities in college, not being able to make the team they tried out for, injuries, etc.
When the above situations occur, frustration and sadness are perfectly normal feelings. Total devastation is another story that reveals an over or complete addiction to their sport or activity in a personal sense.
Young people experiencing this devastation, especially when their high school or college athletic careers are suspended or over, often report a void in their lives and a complete emptiness about their future direction. Some are engaged in bodybuilding and try to maintain their athletic identity. Many of these retired athletes find themselves in a situation depression and an ever-shrinking pattern of meaningful activity.
They are lost in the sad state of not knowing who they are and having no direction for their future.
Adults contribute to this mess
Such devastation should come as no surprise, given that most of their lives have been associated with sports from a young age. Year-round dedication to sports thanks to overzealous adults. For such coaches, this indicates that their life meaning is somewhat narrow.
Parents putting their children in this situation means they are simply doing what the families around them are doing and/or they believe it will secure a college (or professional sports) career for their children. Considering that only six percent of athletes transfer from high school sports to college athletics, according to NCAA statistics, that doesn’t happen.
While such coaches and parents may have good short-term intentions, they fail to realize the long-term damage they can do to young people. All of the above, overuse injuries, tirednesswithdrawal from sports and other harmful manifestations, which are detailed in the previous post You are more than an athlete.
March forward
Something needs to be done to address and prevent the widespread condition described here and experienced by many young athletes in today’s youth sports culture.
The next section examines approaches and strategies to help young athletes and other youth identify what is important to them outside of sport in order to overcome and prevent the problems discussed above.
