Athletic Burnout in expert sport

Categories: Health Psychology Sports

Essay, Pages 6 (1254 words)

Views

767

Engagement in sport provides an excellent source of pleasure for the majority of professional athletes and enhances the general well-being of individuals. Nevertheless, in today's multi-million dollar sport industry, there is a considerable amount of pressure for an athlete to execute and succeed in expert sport (Hackfort & & Huang, 2005). They are needed to keep their optimum physical condition in order to carry out to their greatest ability, and numerous specialists understand the value of training hard and constantly working at their abilities to enhance them.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ Athletic Burnout in expert sport ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

In addition to excelling in physical condition, mental strength and determination are qualities that are instilled in professional athletes at a young age to reduce mental barriers that might limit their performance. However, if a professional athlete is not able to balance multiple physical and psychological stress factors at equilibrium, many effects might develop which avoids athletes from functioning at a peak state. As a repercussion to this extended chronic stress, the athlete suffers from burnout (Schaufeli & & Buunk, 2003).

Prof. Finch

Verified writer

Proficient in: Health

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Specifying Burnout

Athletic burnout is acknowledged as a growing mental problem that is increasingly ending up being a major consider adversely impacting the efficiency of professional athletes throughout a broad spectrum of sporting disciplines. Burnout is a psycho-physiological reaction that is characterized by physical and psychological fatigue triggered by excessive and perpetuating tension (Silva, 1990; Dale and Weinberg, 1990). It happens when athletes feel overwhelmed and are not able to fulfill continuous needs resulting in decreased sport performance, a decreased sense of accomplishment, and a decrease in participation (Silva, 1990; Dale and Weinberg, 1990; Gustafsson, 2007).

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper

Topic

Deadline: 10 days left

Number of pages

Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"

Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

This internal response normally inflicts athletes that ineffectively attempt to fulfill excessive training and competitive needs through high inspiration and castle in the airs (Silva, 1990). Once impacted, this stress reaction triggers burned-out professional athletes to experience decreased interest and a reduction of interest and enjoyment in sports they previously loved, triggering them to leave (Cresswell & & Eklund, 2003).

Depression, feelings of helplessness, and social withdrawal are few of many affective, cognitive, and behavioural consequences of burn out (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998). Burnout consists of multiple factors that contribute to its occurrence, thus it is found to be multidimensional (Tenebaum, Jones, Kitsantas, Sacks, & Berwick, 2003). While social interactions and training pose as major factors in burnout, burnout is also characterized by failure in adapting to stressful situations (Raedeke & Smith, 2004). Burnout is noted to be an ongoing, latent process that results in unsuccessful attempts of diminishing stress. (Silva, 1990). Stress is caused by social interactions, sport performances, physical demands, and internal and external demands; internal being unrealistic goals set by the athlete, and external demands being conflicts with others (Tenebaum, Jones, Kitsantas, Sacks, & Berwick, 2003). However, not all athletes who experience stress will burn out.

Effects of Burnout

Burnout is a complex phenomenon that manifests over a prolonged period of time (Smith, 2007). Because of the detrimental effects burnout has on an athlete’s performance and overall well-being, early detection is crucial (Smith, 2007). Acknowledging and addressing early symptoms can prevent burnout as well as major breakdowns. Symptoms include increased anxiety, depression, helplessness, sense of failure, inability to concentrate, chronic fatigue, insomnia, hyperactivity, abandonment of activities, and boredom (Schaufeli & Enzman, 1998). Although there are many symptoms of burnout, a person usually does not show all of them (Burisch, 2006).

Prevention and Intervention

Strategies for preventing burnout emphasize techniques that help athletes control stress and adjust to the conditions of sport participation (Coakley, 1992). This includes focusing training on improving all critical capacities which will increase the overall stress tolerance, and eliminating psychological and social stressors (Kellman, 2010; Hooper & Mackinnon, 1995). The basic assumption understood by psychologists is that there is a correlation between recovery and stress; as stress increases, increased recovery time is necessary (Kellman, 2010). However, burnout is amongst the repercussions that may form when there is an imbalancement between these two variables. Therefore to prevent burnout, athletes must learn to manage stress, set boundaries to prevent overextending, adopt healthy lifestyle habits, incorporate a balanced diet, and get proper exercise.

When action is not taken to prevent burnout and the athlete is pushed beyond their limit, it is important to take the necessary steps for the athlete to recover. The amount of time needed for an athlete to recover from burnout depends on several variables including the severity of the burnout, amount of social support given to the athlete, and the individual’s capacity to recover with the help of professional medical support such as a sports psychologist, nutritionist, and other personnel (Lehmann, Foster, Gastmann, Keizer, & Steinacker, 1999). Seeking medical and social support, cutting back on commitments, and re-evaluating priorities are crucial in order for an athlete to fully recover.

Psychotherapeutic approaches such as group therapies that are focused on changing the ways in which an individual perceives and deals with situations are also recommended (Salmela-Aro et al., 2004). Intervention programs have about 80% success rate with depreciating burnout, and may include online counselling, cognitive behaviour training, relaxation techniques, psycho-social skill training, communication training, and relaxation training (Awa, Plaumann, and Walter, 2009). However, the most effective way to combat burnout is to postpone the activity, or take time off, in order to fully improve the state of mind and overall well-being of the individual (Kellman, 2010).

References

Awa, Wendy L., Plaumann, Martina, Walter, U. (2009) Burnout Prevention: A review of intervention programs. Patient Education and Counselling Burisch, M. (2006).
The Burnout Syndrome: A Theory of inner Exhaustion. Heidelberg: Springer Medizin Verlag. Cresswell, S. L., & Eklund, R. C. (2003).
The athlete burnout syndrome: A practitioner’s guide. New Zealand Journal of Sports Medicine, 31, 4–9.
Coakley, J (1992).
Burnout among adolescent athletes: a personal failure or social problem? Sociology of sport journal (SSJ), 9, 271-285 Dale, J. & Weinberg, R. (1990). Burnout in sport: A review and critique. Applied sport psychology, 2, 67-83 Gustafsson, H. (2007).
Burnout in competitive and elite athletes. (Doctoral dissertation). Örebro university bibliotek. Gustafsson, H., Hassmen, P., & Podlog, L. (2010).
Exploring the relationship between hope and burnout in competitive sport. Journal of Sports Sciences, 28(14), 1495-1504. Kellmann, M. (2010).
Preventing overtraining in athletes in high-intensity sports and stress/recovery monitoring. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20(Suppl 2), 95-102. Lehmann, M., Foster, C., Gastmann, U., Keizer, H., and Steinacker, J.M. (1999)
Definition, types, symptoms, findings, underlying mechanisms, and frequency of overtraining and overtraining syndrome. Overload performance incompetence and regression in sport. New York: Kluwer Academic Raedeke, T. D., & Smith, A. L. (2004).
Coping resources and athlete burnout: An examination of stress mediated and moderation hypotheses. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 26, 525–541. Salmela-Aro, K., Nataanen, P., Nurmi, J.E. (2004).
The role of work-related personal projects during two burnout interventions: a longitudinal study. Work Stress; 18, 208- 300. Schabracq, J. A. M. Winnubst, & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), The handbook of Work and Health Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 383-425). Chichester: Wiley & Sons. Schaufeli, W. B. & Enzman, D. (1998).
The burnout companion to study & practice. London: Taylor & Francis. Schaufeli, W. B., & Buunk, B. P. (2003).
Burnout: An overview of 25 years of research and theorizing. In M. J. Silva, J.M., (1990).
An analysis of training stress syndrome in competitive athletics. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2, 5-20. Smith, M. L. (2007).
The relationship of event performance, anxiety intensity and interpretations, and the development of burnout in collegiate swimmers. West Virginia University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 101. Tashman, L. S., Tenenbaum, G., & Eklund, R. (2010).
The effect of perceived stress on the relationship between perfectionism and burnout in coaches. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 23(2), 195-212. Tenenbaum, G., Jones, C.M., Kitsantas, A., Sacks, D.N., Berwick, J.P., 2003.
Failure adaptation: psychological conceptualization of the stress response process in sport. Int. J. Sport Psychol. 34, 1-26.