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“More preteen athletes have been working with private coaches to level up,” Charley Locke reports in “The Next Big Thing in Youth Sports? Personal Trainers.” Some trainers are working with kids as young as seven. And parents are paying a hefty price tag to help their children compete.
Are personal trainers an investment in a child’s future or a fast track to burnout? We asked teenagers to tell us what they think.
Many student athletes shared their own experiences, with some saying one-on-one coaching provided the “edge” they needed, and others saying it turned a sport they loved into one they “started to dread.” They discussed the benefits of personal training on and off the court, the mental and physical toll of competing at a high level, and the blurry line between a child’s passion and a parent’s pressure.
Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation this week, including students from C.W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville, N.Y., and Ellisville.
Please note: Comments have been edited and condensed.
Some students argued that earlier is better for building elite skills.
If a child is really serious about their sport, and their parents want them to get better, then yes, get a personal trainer. I am an athlete, and I got my first personal trainer at 5 years old. I am super thankful for that because I’ve always felt like I was always ahead of everyone. So if a child wants to become a pro, then let them have a trainer.
— Jaydon, Montclair High School, CA
I think having a personal trainer younger is better because you can learn stuff faster and sooner. Let’s say for example you don’t know how to diet and recover till you’re 16, but someone else learned it when they were 10. Who do you think will be better over the years? So I think people should get a trainer if they can afford it earlier.
I never had a private coach until I started playing tennis. This experience of having a private coach has allowed me to not only grow so much more because of one-on-one coaching, but also has allowed me to create a strong relationship with my coach and a healthier relationship with my sport that keeps me as motivated as possible.
Others said children need time to “be kids” and have fun with their sports.
There is an age where child athletes are too young to be having a personal trainer. Kids should be allowed to be kids. If children want to play sports, they should just be allowed to play sports for fun. Getting personal trainers for young children should not be normalized.
In my view, young children should not have personal trainers because this kind of intense, specialized coaching turns what should be play into work far too early. When kids spend more time in organized training than in free, unstructured play, they face a greater risk of overuse injuries and burnout, as studies in the article suggest. Instead of listening to their own bodies and stopping when they are tired or sore, they may feel pressure to keep pushing to satisfy parents or justify the money being spent. This makes sports less about joy, friendship, and healthy movement, and more about performance, scholarships, and future careers that most kids will never actually have.
I agree that there is a certain age that is too young to have a personal trainer because my experience with early training confirms it. When I was still in elementary school, my parents signed me up for a personal trainer for soccer that I went to every week. At the time, I just played park district soccer with all my friends on a laid back team and I loved it. However, working with a personal trainer every week slowly took the fun out of it and it became more of a physically demanding competition that I started to dread going to.
Several expressed concern over the physical and mental toll of intensive training.
I play in varsity swim after school, and even then I was getting cramps and injuries from overuse. I couldn’t imagine how much strain other children with more sports than just that could be dealing with, and at even younger ages than me. I believe that personal trainers shouldn’t be given to children until the child confirms they both want it and can handle the physical (and not to mention the mental) strain that these children go through. While future scholarships are incredibly important to most, parents of their children should not prioritize results over their child’s health.
I like to run track for fun at school, and it’s usually a very positive experience because I choose to be there and there are no expectations; however, the second that outside expectations are introduced into a sport or hobby it becomes stressful and boring for me, which is exactly why I would never want a personal coach. Having a personal coach at a young age puts a lot of pressure on children because they feel obligated to practice for long hours and perform well, because they believe they may disappoint their coach or waste their parent’s money.
The distance between passion and pressure grows blurry quite quickly when unmanaged ego plays a roll. A personal trainer who holds an expectation with the child and family that the child is not simply gaining excellence on skills for their pleasure, but instead skills that are mandatory in securing a future of fame and riches, then I can only imagine the self-esteem issues, mental health struggles, and fear of failure that a child might be burdened with.
Some highlighted the benefits of personal trainers beyond just winning games.
A good trainer can help assist them to success in many ways, including eating habits, techniques, and even character building. Starting at a young age is also very beneficial because it can get them quickly into the hang of things to over time improve. If a child seems very passionate about their sport, or even struggling, a trainer could help lift them up and help them gain confidence. I find that a personal trainer could be very beneficial for any child any age.
I think child athletes having private trainers can be a good thing if it’s handled the right way. A private trainer can help kids learn proper techniques, improve their skills, and build confidence in their sport. It can also help prevent injuries because they are being guided by someone with experience. However, it’s important that the focus stays on having fun and staying healthy rather than putting too much pressure on the child to perform or win.
During the end of last school year and over the summer, I attended a small group training center for female athletes. I learned about the importance of nutrition, injury prevention, and recovery while weight training. As my schedule during junior year picked up, I wasn’t able to go as often yet I was still able to continue training by using the workouts I had learned there and using what I learned about nutrition to properly fuel my body. Personal training establishes life long healthy habits and skills you can take with you beyond playing sports.
One student raised questions about fairness and access in youth sports as a whole.
While personal coaches are a useful tool to increase a child’s skill in a sport or hobby they are interested in, encouraging expensive private coaches to young students pushes a culture in sports that have been keeping many families away for years. Pressure builds for parents, and sports get more expensive and exclusive. Many families are starting to use them to show off fancy equipment and lessons as a social status booster. Families are feeling obligated to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars every season, and continue the spending for off season training. The high cost of equipment being pushed on the family as opposed to the sports team they are on already limits what children in poverty can participate in.
— Mornilva, Glenbard North High School
So when is the right age to get a personal trainer? For these teenagers, the debate is all but settled.
I believe anyone under the age of 13 is too young to have a personal trainer, and I say this because they have to naturally develop their own love for the game before fully committing to it by getting a personal trainer, as personal trainers cost a hefty amount of money most of the time, and it’s a time-consuming thing to do. Anyone above the ages of 14 is where I believe it starts to become reasonable to get a trainer, as they may have been in their own sport long enough to decide whether they want to commit to it or not.
Child athletes should not have trainers before high school. Having a trainer has the potential to distract kids from school and refocus their efforts almost completely into sports.
I think 10 is a good age to start getting a personal trainer. Most kids are not sure if they want to continue the sports they play at 7 or 8 years old. Around 10 years old is when kids tend to start taking their favorite sport seriously.
I don’t really think any age is too young. I personally am going to involve my kids in sports when they start being able to walk. I do sports and want them to also. That starts their career for them and I believe they would thank me when they’re older.
I think an appropriate age for a child to have a personal trainer varies based on maturity and personality. For example, if there’s an 8-year-old with the determination and attention span to focus and with enough maturity to understand how to absorb and apply the advice given by a trainer, I see no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to have a personal trainer. On the other hand, if a teenage athlete seems to be immature, cannot focus on the training, and doesn’t seem to apply corrections or advice given by their trainer, then it seems like they aren’t going to benefit from having a personal trainer and shouldn’t have one.
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