Burnout (Physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress)

Burnout 

(Physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress)

If you want to become a champion and avoid burnout, sometimes LESS IS MORE. 

The rule of thumb is very simple here: GO SLOWER, ARRIVE SOONER.

The pressure of being a successful athlete entails non-stop activity of games, practice and physical conditioning.

Burnout is a response to chronic stress of continued demands in a sport or activity without the opportunity for physical and mental rest and recovery. Burnout is a syndrome of continual training and sport attention stress, resulting in staleness, overtraining and eventually burnout. Many athletes experiencing burnout report feeling trapped by circumstances of sports participation. The athlete first starts feels stale or overwhelmed, but is encouraged by coaches, strength staff, athletic trainers, teammates or parents to push through symptoms of overtraining and potential burnout to continue with a demanding schedule in order to feel a part of the team, maintain their starting position or keep their scholarship.

   Burnout affects 

  varying demands on their physical ability and time management

The athlete feels as if their performance is being hampered by the demands of participation and the inability to rest and recover

  The athlete starts experiencing subtle signs and symptoms of physical and mental burnout

 Burnout takes place and the physical and mental toll on the athlete impacts their lives and performance on and off the field, perhaps even discontinuing sports participation

Signs and symptoms of burnout 

 Leveling off or diminished performance or conditioning, including strength and stamina losses, chronic fatigue

  Physiological signs such as having a higher resting heart rate and blood pressure

  Cognitive issues such as difficulty in concentration or diminished work in school, forgetfulness

  Illnesses as a result of suppressed immune system

  Low self-esteem, increased anxiety and depression as a result of falling short of sport demands

Athletic trainers can help in identifying and preventing burnout in athletes through an awareness of the signs and symptoms, and in communication with coaches and strength staff to monitor the athletes for overtraining, which is a large contributor of burnout. After the physician exam and any testing prove negative, consideration should be given to modifying the activity to permit more athlete rest and recovery. If physical causes for signs and symptoms of burnout are negative, consideration should be given to referring the athlete for a psychological evaluation and care.

Coaches and strength staff should be educated on burnout and consider modifications to workouts both in terms of intensity and length of time in order to preserve optimal levels of performance and to prevent burnout.

Burnout is a very real and underreported state that many athletes experience. Knowing the signs and symptoms of escalating burnout, along with an appreciation how burnout occurs, are important steps in prevention and treatment of this situation, and may well prevent the start or worsening of a mental health disorder in an athlete.

Response to chronic stress

Burnout is considered a response by a young athlete to chronic stress in which he or she ceases to participate in a previously enjoyable activity, withdrawing from the sport because they perceive it is not possible to meet the physical and psychological demands of the sport. 

Burnout is considered by experts to be part of a spectrum of conditions that includes overreaching and over training syndrome.

 Functional overreaching is defined as intense training that leads to a period of decreased performance which results in full recovery after a rest period.

ü  over-training syndrome is a series of psychological, physiologic, and hormonal changes that result in decreased sports performance.  It is characterized by:

 an additional stress or not explained by other disease.

Although it is difficult to determine the extent of over training/burnout in children and adolescents, due in part to the lack of standard terminology used in different studies, it is believed to occur in about 30% to 35% of adolescent athletes.

burnout not always cause

 Youth sports attrition is a complex phenomenon influenced by a variety of personal and situational variables.  

The most common variables are..

 time conflicts and interest with other activities (most common reason for dropping out of sport, either permanently or temporarily)

lack of playing time,  lack of success,  lack of skill improvement,  lack of fun,  boredom; and  injury.

Risk factors

There are multiple risk factors for young athletes developing over training/burnout

                 Environmental

 Extremely high training volumes
 Extremely high time demands
 Demanding performance expectations (imposed by self or significant   others)
  Frequent intense competition
  Inconsistent coaching practices

           Personal characteristics

   Perfectionism
   Need to pleases others
   Non-assertiveness 
   Uni-dimensional self-conceptualization (focusing only on one's athlete involvement)
   Low self-esteem
   High perception of stress (high anxiety)

  WARNING SIGNS OF BURN-OUT

          PHYSICAL FATIGUE – Athletes who are well on the way to becoming burnt out seem to feel tired almost all of the time. They train feeling tired, go to bed exhausted and when they wake up in the morning they don’t feel refreshed. Because they continuously overwork their bodies and never allow themselves to completely recharge, they carry around a base level of exhaustion that consistently interferes with their practices, competitions and day-to-day living. Despite being in great physical shape, the burnt-out athlete consistently complains about a lack of energy and limited endurance whenever he/she trains.
     CHRONIC INJURIES –the burnt out athlete is always more vulnerable to sustaining new injuries and turning old ones into chronic injuries. When you continue to play through an injury or pain, you are far more likely to aggravate the existing injury to the point where it becomes more serious. If you never adequately rest your body, it will never have a chance to fully heal. As you continue to re-injure yourself, the injured part of your body becomes weakened and sets you up to have chronic problems there. For example, if you come back too fast from a bad ankle sprain, you are much more likely to re-sprain that same ankle again. Subsequent sprains will continue to stretch the ligaments out around the ankle, insuring that you will continue to have more problems with it.

LOSS OF MEANING – The burnt out athlete continually struggles with questions like, “what’s the point?” and “why am I doing this?” He/she has difficulty finding meaning in continuing to practice and play.

          DIFFICULTY FOCUSING - The athlete struggling with burn out has difficulty maintaining his/her focus of concentration. In practice this athlete is mentally “all over the place” and as a result, performs at a very low level.

PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS -. On the surface what seems like a basic performance problem is really a symptom of the larger problem of burnout. 

      BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS – Sometimes an athlete’s behavioral problems with teammates and/or coaches are nothing more than a symptom of being burnt out. Perhaps the athlete displays a bad attitude, is overly negative or constantly instigating conflicts on the team. These kinds of outward problems frequently mask the athlete’s struggles with burnout.

     CAUSES OF BURN-OUT

         NOT ENOUGH REST – The main cause of burnout is very simple and basic: NOT ENOUGH REST. When you over-work physically and do not allow your body and mind an adequate chance to “chill” and recover, then you will be embarking down the road to burn out.

TOO MUCH PRESSURE - Another element that fuels burnout is too much competitive pressure. Too much pressure makes what you’re doing too serious.you will lose your perspective and stop having fun. Once the fun leaves your sport it will take your desire and intensity with it and when that happens, you are well on your way to being cooked.
  If you want to avoid burnout as an athlete, then you have to understand the need for balance in your sport. You can’t simply put yourself on automatic and train hard all the time, Operating on this “more is better” principle will eventually wear you down both physically and mentally. What this means is that you need to slow down a little in your pursuit of your goals by adding regular periods of rest or time completely away from training. Driving yourself non-stop as if you’re under a time deadline will not get you to your goals any faster. In fact, pushing yourself in this way will actually slow you down in your pursuit of your dreams. If you’re out of balance you will be more likely to injure yourself and this will really throw off your training schedule. Don’t ever think that you can’t afford to take time off to rest. The fact of the matter is that you can’t afford NOT to take time off.

  Remember, if you want to become a champion and avoid burnout, sometimes LESS IS MORE.

 The rule of thumb is very simple here: GO SLOWER, ARRIVE SOONER.

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