Althlete Burnout

A study has found that few New Zealand athletes are at risk of burnout.

Research into burnout amongst 343 New Zealand Acadmey of Sport athletes has found that 93.59% of respondents were not experiencing high levels of all three symptoms associated with burnout - exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and devaluation of their sport.

However, 6.41% of athletes did report high levels of all three symptoms, suggesting those athletes are at risk of burnout, suggesting that for these athletes sport does not appear to be a positive experience.

Athlete burnout has been an issue in sport since the early 1980s and research has exmained the physical and psychological causes of the syndrome. A greater risk of injury and illness has been associated with athletes experiencing burnout, a consequent of which can early dropout form sport.

In the current study, as predicted, it was also found that athletes who felt most competent and who believed that they had input/control over aspects of their sport (i.e., autonomy), also had more postive reasons for participating in their sport (e.g., participating to satisfy themselves and not coaches, parents, administrators or peers), and felt the benefits of their sport were personally important and/or enjoyable.

Some suggestions for facilitating perceptions of autonomy and competence amongst athletes, taken from overseas research, are:

Decision making
Provide a clear rationale for important decisions; provide choices with boundaries (i.e., choose 1 of 2 or 3 options); provide athletes with opportunities to lead initiatives and make decisions.

Feedback
Provide feedback that provides information but is not controlling; avoid bullying and coercion.

Goal achievement strategies
Set long-term ("dream big") and short-term goals; make sure all goals have a plan for achieving the goal; track progress towards goals and celebrate success.

Athletes' definition of success
Encourage athletes to compare their current performance with their previous performances (process focus) as well as with their opposition (outcome focus); emphasise the control athletes have over effort and performance versus outcome.