E2: The Challenges of Being a Junior Athlete

For our second episode of the podcast we wanted to explore the trials and tribulations faced by junior athletes and their progression through the sport. To provide wider perspective we invited to join us in the studio our friend Max Dorey.

Max was a very successful junior level athlete at U15 and U17 level and was able to provide a very interesting insight into the ways his performances as a 13-16 year old shaped his peers perception of him and changed his life.

We asked him about whether he faced ego issues as a result of suddenly being one of the main guys on the domestic junior circuit as well as drawing from Dajon for the Jamaican take and whether many of their junior success stories also had ego issues.

Listen in to this podcast as we also went on to talk about overtraining, and why the sport loses it’s athletes somewhere between U17 and U20 level and how emotional maturity and the sense of instant gratification plays a role in leading to many athlete’s exits out of athletics.

Do junior athletes do the sport for the love and competitiveness or rather for the temporary glory that can come from being a schools champion? Listen into this episode to hear our takes on junior to senior progression and either reflect looking back as a senior athlete now or take on board as a junior athlete hearing it from someone who has been there and learnt key lessons from his experiences!