Why College Athletes are Overworked
College student-athletes are overwhelmed and overworked. Their intense sports schedule has left them little time to do anything else and resulting in many becoming depressed. Studies have shown that their coaches are having them practice more than double the time they are allowed. These intense environments have led to health problems, and even worse, death. College athletes are overworked with long practice hours, frequent travel, and their lack of time off, this is leading to many mental health issues.
College athletes are overworked from long practice hours. College athletes are overworked from long practice hours. “Officially, the NCAA restricts student-athletes' in-season practice to 20 hours per week,
…show more content…
There’s more pressure put on student athletes to become better in their sport, and even train year around. Training year round results in a lot of extra time and travel. There's a lot of time spent traveling to and from games, practices, lessons, etc. “Game days count as three total hours, even though they often require travel and hours of pre- and post-game meetings and activities.” (Jacobs, 2015). Travel days are counted as off days for student athletes, they want this to be changed. Most coaches are most against changing the status. (NCSA, 2023). Student athletes have increasing demands these days and are pressured to commit to year-round training. There is a lot of travel time that is involved with this additional training, including extra practices, games, private lessons, etc. All of this additional training stress leads to burn out, because there is no time for …show more content…
The society now has the “more is better” approach, which frequently pushes athletes to exceed their limits. The commitment to a particular sport leaves no time off, and the demands to achieve keep growing. “There is a school of thought in American sport today that ‘more is better.’ Parents and coaches, perhaps dreaming of the spoils of athletic success, are encouraging kids at increasingly younger ages to specialize in a particular sport and to commit to year-round training in it.” (Kaufman, 2023). “Cutting-edge physical training programs frequently require overloading athletes to obtain maximum training gains. The pressures to do and achieve more keep growing, and far too rarely is consideration given to the costs of operating in this non-stop fashion. In reality, however, the human body needs recovery to thrive.” (Kaufman, 2023). Student athletes often get burnt out due to the exhaustion they put on their bodies. The commitment that student athletes are putting towards their sport leaves them with no other time to enjoy anything else. The pressures from the approach “more is better” requires too much time for the student athlete, and doesn’t allow free
College sports are a major part of American culture. College athletes devote hours upon hours a week to their sports training, but unfortunately, sports can take up a lot of time and distract from other important activities. This can harm academics, as athletes have to balance sports and academics, especially at a college. Participating in sports is almost like working a part-time job and having to balance school too which can be difficult to do, and focus may be rendered on one task and not both. Furthermore, athletes will be on scholarships too, which is why college athletes should not be paid.
Once student athletes commit to a college they work hours upon
Student athlete not only make sacrifices on the field but of as well. It could take a hit on your social life and cause anxiety at a higher rate. However, if a dramatic change happens to their grades, they can lose the scholarship and sponsorship deals. In college 2 hours to 3 is not enough to study finish extra homework or even have a job. Just because you have a scholarship doesn’t mean everything is free, your dorm, classes may be paid by the school but your food bill gas bill are not.
An article from Trine University states, “It is not uncommon for student-athletes to feel intense pressure to do well in both school and sports. As the pressure to win increases, athletes and coaches spend more time training and feel more stress, which sometimes leads to overtraining and burnout” (). With a huge amount of stress to do well in both school and sports, student athletes often feel exhausted and
The time for homework of an athlete is very little time. For example, I am a cross country runner here at College of The Desert, I am up by 5:00 in the morning to leave for practice, I end practice around 7:30, or 8 depending on the workout, I then need to get home and get ready for my next class, and after that my next class, I end up getting home around 9:30pm, and get started on homework, which could take up to a couple of hours, and I go to bed around 2am, and then get some sleep for the next practice, it may not be everyday but it does take a tole on an athlete's body. College football players should be paid for the risks that they put their bodies in, when they are in the game or on the practice field. The college football player, has pads and a helmet, but can be hurt internally. For example, I was in pop warner football when I was younger, and it was the last game of the year before my team
Not only do college athletes have to make sure they are making every practice and competition, they also have to make sure they are excelling in their studies. This leaves little to no leeway time for them. The time crunch makes it hard for college athletes to support themselves financially, and oftentimes it's hard for them to buy the necessities. For example, student athlete Onashi says that “I was super exhausted” from having to juggle school, practice, and competitions(S3P4). If these athletes are taking on such a heavy workload don't you think they should be getting paid to do so.
“A study shows the average Division I football player already spends 44.8 hours a week on gridiron duties.”(“College”). With the extended season, athletes will lose time away from their academics and it will increase the possibility of injuries. With the added games the players will be away from class. The traveling and extra practices will put players in a tough position to focus on both their academics and athletics. The games and practices will give opportunity for players to get hurt.
This is a struggle for many athletes since their school and team schedules are very demanding. For example a typical college volleyball player will be expected to practice for two hours four times a week and complete a mandatory workout twice a week, these workouts typically take about an hour, possibly longer. College athletes are also expected to travel for games which causes them to give up more of their time for the team. Imagine trying to meet all the expectations of your coach while also trying to meet the expectations of your professors, it seems almost impossible; so why would you want to have the additional worry of paying for your entire education, which is typically upwards of $10,000, on top of everything
Sports and school take up almost all of their free time. The extra time they have is used for things like sports conditioning at a gym or studying. “The typical Division I college football player
This can make it even more difficult for them to balance the demands of their sport with their academic
This notion is supported by Dr. Daniel Gould, who believes that “Children who participate in sports have increased educational aspirations, closer ties to school and increased occupational aspirations in youth” (1). People against the funding of high school sports think that parents and society are placing more emphasis than ever before and, “[P]ressures athletic personnel to deviate on winning from the athlete- centered educational and personal development mission” (Gould 1). However, athletes strive to do better in class. Michael Lorenc, a high school basketball coach believes that “those who seem to have an overwhelming schedule where they’re playing maybe multiple sports, and high academic schedules, they tend to do better than those who don’t do anything extracurricularly” (Gray). Balancing sports and school makes athletes put more effort into keeping up grades while playing the sport they love.
While other students have time for jobs, athletes won’t be able to between school, practice, and
On a day-to-day basis student athletes are required to maintain a healthy balance between their respective sport and their schoolwork, which is difficult. A typical student-athlete schedule includes waking up early, attending classes, going to practice, lifting,
Athletes who play football or basketball are at a higher risk of career ending injuries. These two sports are the hardest on an athletes body. Only one out of twenty-five college athletes go pro, so why put your body at risk when you don’t receive anything for doing that and your chances of going pro are slim? A lot of these student athletes are stressed out because of schoolwork participating in a college sport. This is just another reason that these athletes deserve to be
Athletes are overpaid and are very irresponsible and don’t deserve to make what they do. Athletes are way too overpaid and are not responsible enough to handle all their money. To start off, 78% of athletes are either bankrupt or in financial trouble two years into retirement. This is because they will buy anything.