So many things can be behind the anxiety. As a parent bejng supportive and asking your child what you can do to help support them and if they can tell you what causes the anxiety is huge. The reality is though parents are often the #1 biggest cause of child athlete's anxiety, yet so many are in denial about it. They think they are just doing what the kid wants and don't believe they push or whatever but they don't realize some of the tiny things they do cause it. It can be the look they get jn their face after a bad play, it can be the car ride home and the talk or energy happening there, it can be comments about their coaches or other players, it can be signing them up for something without asking, it can be trying to "encourage" them to "do more", the list is endless because the reality is parents, even great well meaning parents, are the cause of the overwhelming majority of the anxiety in their kids, it just is what it is. Learning how to manage it and lessen it are key components. There are outside factors too like school grades, peers, coaches. Or even internal pressure because of what they want for themselves. So finding the root cause and being supportive on their terms is huge.

Biggest problem in youth sports is the monetization of children which feeds about a dozen other problems including the poor behavior in the stands of parents and others in addition to.other things. Everyone is trying to keep up with the joneses... I could type on this for hours

@Jay Farmer in American society right now I don't see a way out other than moving to another country that is good at the sport but doesn't have the same monetization structure ....lol

To me their is no right answer. It really is a combination of age and their own drive like Kelli said. I do think there are huge differences though depending on if your child is 5, versus 10, versus 13, versus 17 and thr level of play they are at and the level of team commitment and their goals etc... so many factors. My youngest son would go in our basement at 2 years old and strap.on his older brothers roller blades and be down their for 4 or more sometimes almost every day while his siblings were at school just making up hockey games. No one ever once told him to, no one even helped him get the blades on, for him he was just playing and being creative and imaginative and having the best time, he didn't even realize he was actually (in hindsight) practicing hockey skills. And he still does it to this day at age 20. When he started actually playing hockey at 4 years old he'd probably already had in essence thousands of hours of practice and was better than most 10 year olds. Casual acquaintances would say things like "he's such a natural" and I'd say "Thank you, you are kind" but in reality there was nothing natural about it, he just chose to spend thousands of hours kn his own playing hockey games with his brother or by himself because it was fun but it was also hidden practice so really he wasn't natural he just had alot of practice already despite only being 4 years old. Now he's 20 and he's got certain opportunities and goals so he works really hard and constantly but even he gets tired and a little burned out so I remind him to take a month give or take off and do "nothing" (hockey or workout related).after the season. People are so afraid yo take time off but the body and brain not only need rest but the brain especially processes the sport during that time off in the background and they actually do get better by not playing practicing once they reach thr older ages.of competitive play so sometimes less is more. A bit of a tangent but hopefully a few good nuggets on there.

Complicated issue. Some other western countries have started making social media illegal for those under 16 years old which is interesting to note. Definitely a family and individual decision.