Cultivating a love for the game, more than the skill in playing it, is best way to keep athletes from avoiding burnout, switching to other sports
Seng Chiu didn’t plan to start his own volleyball club. Though he had a lifelong love for the sport, he was perfectly content spending most of his career career coaching at the high school and college level.
Notable stops for him included George Mason University, the University of Nevada-Reno and the College of William & Mary, where he played club volleyball.
But as volleyball exploded in popularity, Chiu recognized two problems: Young players were being systematically weeded out, as most clubs targeted elite-level athletes, and those who endured oftentimes burned out.
READ THE REST AT JUNIOR VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION
About Sean Jensen
Sean K. Jensen was born in South Korea, but he was raised in California, Massachusetts and Virginia, mostly on or near military bases. Given his unique background, he's always been drawn to storytelling, a skill he developed at Northwestern University and crafted for 16 years as a reporter and columnist, almost exclusively covering the NFL.
He’s now an inspirational speaker and author of The Middle School Rules, a book series that tells the defining moments of professional athletes. He is also the creator of Model Student Athlete, a video series for young athletes, and Winning Is Not Everything, a podcast that aims to “bring sanity back to youth sports” through conversations with high-character athletes, coaches, and parents. You can learn more about him at his website, SeanKJensen.com.
Connect with Sean Jensen
