So Over It: Focusing on one sport for a long period of time can cause burnout, ruining the love for the sport overtime

As I stood in my dance studio, panting after running through our routine for the fourth time, my teacher piled on the corrections. She told us “if you all are perfect, this will be the last time we run the dance for the night.”

But we weren’t perfect. Our formations were sloppy, our movements weren’t crisp and someone messed up the ending pose that we’d just refined five minutes ago. I was barely given any positive notes, all that mattered were the mistakes. No matter how well I performed, I was never good enough. 

I had rehearsed for the last two hours. The idea of doing the dance one more time brought tears to my eyes. We had been practicing for weeks, how were we still not perfect?

I never had a break. With dance, there was never an “off season.” After school, I only had an hour or two where I could lie down and rest before spending hours at the studio doing countless plies at the barre.

I couldn’t put myself through it anymore. I danced three to four times a week for over half my life. Ballet on Mondays and Wednesdays, competition rehearsal on Tuesdays and random classes on Saturdays — playing other sports never interested me nor did I have the opportunity. Even after 11 years dedicated to the sport that had once brought me joy, I was ready to throw it all away.

The excessive amounts of overtraining and rehearsals led me to quit the sport in the beginning of eighth grade. Now a few years later, I am much happier involving myself in multiple different activities like cheer and Harbinger than experiencing a state that many know as “burnout” with dance.

Burnout is described as consistent or unexplained fatigue, a negative mood state and poor performance in spite of normal training. Busy class, rehearsal and performing schedules can also result in fatigue and injury.  Burnout is often seen in dancers where training, rehearsing and performing schedules don’t give them sufficient time to rest and recover, according to dancingopportunities.com.

And it’s not just with dancers. A study done by the New York Times found that 60% of athletes have overtrained at some point. Training for too long causes athletes to get into a state of fatigue that they can’t escape. A poll of 248 East students found that 87% have experienced burnout after playing a sport for too long.

While I was dancing, I became bored and frustrated. I spent so many years in sparkly costumes and tap dancing across the stage — it was no longer special for me, it was now just a dull routine. I wanted to try other things, like cheer and swimming year round. So after dancing became like a chore rather than a hobby, I came to realize that playing one sport for too long is too damaging for it to be worth it.

Even football legends like Clemson University Head Coach Dabo Swinney encourage involving yourself in multiple sports. He believes the cross-training, the different types of coaching, the different environments that you practice in and the different challenges develops a much more competitive, well-rounded type of person that you wouldn’t get by committing to one sport. 

When I looked at my friends who play seasonal sports, they always seemed so much happier. Their sport wasn’t something they had to do all year, and it made it more special when their season came around and they got to see their teammates and play in games. 

The one activity I was consistent with, besides dance, was swim team. I always looked forward to summertime so I could swim laps, race and hang out with my teammates. I never swam year-round, so after quitting dance, I realized why swimming was so important to me.

The two months of swimming in the summer were the one time I was doing something different. I loved the freedom it gave me and the opportunity for me to do something new. Swim helped me realize that when you play one sport, you close yourself off from finding new friendships and other activities you enjoy. 

After not dancing for three years, I’ve realized how much I’ve learned through other activities. Harbinger has taught me responsibility and accountability. Cheer has taught me positivity and flexibility. All of these things I wouldn’t have had if I continued to trap myself in the commitment to dance.

My feelings of burnout have disappeared. I no longer have to deal with the feeling of dread while going to rehearsals, memorizing countless dance routines and having zero free time. I’m happy I quit because I’ve now realized the importance of involving yourself in multiple activities instead of trapping yourself in one sport.