Burnout In Sport Psychology

Burnout in Sport

Sport Psychology: Theory and Practice – Chapter Twenty.

Article: Interaction of athletes’ resilience and coaches’ social support on the stress- burnout relationship: a conjunctive moderation process.

Discussion:

Burnout is a state of physical and psychological exhaustion that follows staleness. Both staleness and burnout are characterised by poor performances and psychological disturbances, of which depression is the most common. (Potgieter, 2006)

According to Potgieter (2006), burnout is not a sudden occurrence and he therefore states that there are different stages of burnout:

1. Emotional withdrawal, indifference, and general dissociation from the sport environment.

2. Decreased feelings of personal achievement, the

As a sport psychologist it is important to know various ways in which they can help prevent burnout in athletes. Potgieter (2006), states the following factors on how to reduce burnout from occurring: monitoring the athlete, variety in practice sessions, to deal effectively with post competition tension, social support, athlete input, control, revision of goals, psychological interventions, prolonged rest and lastly timeouts. This article is also trying to get across to sport psychologists to alleviate stress and burnout. The article mentions how coaches should allow their kids to attend educational programs teaching life skills and time management. The article aims to build athletic resilience by reducing risk factors and stressors (Masten and Reed, 2002). Ferrante (1991) also propose that a service provision model which offers coaches, tutors, counselling, learning centres, student health and builds resilience can be used by sport psychologists as a method to assist with burnout. This support system may help athletes to reduce risk factors in their life such as over training and injury or other life crisis’ such as interpersonal difficulties. The article will help sport psychologists understand the importance of enhancing athletes protective factors such

Given these findings, the authors believe that more effort is needed to educate athletes, coaches, and injury treatment professionals about the beneficial effects of mental skills, and how they could be incorporated into rehabilitation programs. Sport psychology professionals can play a significant role in education and treatment of athletes. Practical ways in which mental techniques can be integrated into rehabilitation should be examined and tested in the field. Additionally, since athletic trainers and physiotherapists are in a unique position to teach mental skills to athletes during injury rehabilitation, it becomes even more imperative that these professionals receive training on the basic principles of sport psychology and how best to implement mental skills to injured athletes. (Arvinen-Barrow, 2015) According to Potgieter (2006), there are several guidelines for practicing imagery: believe in the process, practice regularly, seek a relaxed and quiet atmosphere, use all the senses, maintain a real life tempo, imagine a specific venue, imagine from an internal and external perspective, be realistic and positive, imagine with purpose and know when to use imagery. These are all important aspects that a sport psychologist has to know and be able to incorporate in an athletes’