Why Players Burn Out:
Are We Helping Them Love the Game?

Why do players burn out from a game they once loved?

A basketball player recently shared a story that really challenged me. He said that after a bad practice, he couldn’t simply go back to his dorm and enjoy the rest of his day. He felt like he had to immediately get back to work on his game.

When practice went well, everything felt great.

When practice went poorly, everything felt terrible.

That raises a difficult question for us as coaches:

Are we teaching our players that their performance determines how they should feel about themselves?

Tomorrow we’ll talk through three ways we can help protect our players from burnout:

🏀 Make practice fun — because the game was meant to be enjoyed.

🗣️ Call out the best in your players — develop them without degrading them.

❤️ Love them in the way they need to be loved — helping every player know that they are seen, heard, and loved.

We’ll also talk about the deeper issue underneath performance:

Identity.

Because if a player believes, “I’m only okay when I play well,” then every practice becomes a referendum on their worth.

But when a player knows they are loved before they perform, they can compete with freedom rather than desperation.

The goal isn’t just to keep players from quitting basketball.

The goal is to help them love the game without needing the game to tell them who they are.

If could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

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