Motivation and Burn Out in Elite Level Athletes

Burn out is a common problem in the sports world that is greatly studied and widely debated. It is very common for young athletes to reach the point of burn out when they have been pushed to compete in only one sport and must focus all of their attention on it. Something that is often overlooked is the problem of burn out in the elite adult athletes. Professional athletes spend all of their time working on one sport, year around, trying to improve their skills and maintain the highest level of focus and competition.

Studies in psychology are often difficult as the results are derived from what people say. It can be difficult to get the true cause of the problem or the correct answer as people do not always express their exact feelings well in words. That being said, all of the following research was collected from athletes who were asked to do their best in being honest with their feelings on motivation and burn out as researchers want to do everything they can to help athletes maintain motivation and reach their full athletic potential, while still achieving personal satisfaction. Athletes need to know that even the top level competitors in their sports have had thoughts about quitting, and coaches need to know what the best things to say are when they are facing athletes on the verge on burn out. All of these things become even more difficult when you take in to account the fact that every person will experience the sport, practice, coaching and competing differently.

Numerous articles examine the problem of burn out from many angles and use several different methods. Studies found that the mental and physical fatigue of the continuous training was a major problem that must be addressed. Elite athletes are often expected to put at least 40 hours each week into their sport, just as many normal people do with their job. The studies examine all factors that could contribute to burn out before it occurs, when it is happening, and after the burn out has pushed the athlete to the point of leaving their sport. Overall, the goal of any study of burn out is to prevent it. Motivation in sports must be individualized to keep people performing at a high level and burn out prevention must also be individualized. Coaches have a very difficult task in keeping athletes on task and hungry for constant improvement when they have dedicated their lives to a sport.

A theme among many of these articles is the use of the self determined motivation continuum. This is a scale that can be created and individually tailored to meet every athlete. The studies use this continuum to compile their data over time and track changes in personal motivation and attitudes towards the sport. Lemyre, Treasure, and Roberts used this method when tracking motivation within elite level swimmers. Forty four male and female swimmers were surveyed every week and asked to record the positive and negative effects they felt from practice and competition. This data was plotted every third week to determine each athlete's self determined motivation to continue competing in their sport. The data showed, like many of these studies, that athletes in the same conditions were often times experiencing very different feelings towards their sport. All of the studies have shown that athletes who do not let the negative things effect them as highly are more satisfied with their sport. Coaches could perhaps benefit from this knowledge if they were able help their athletes downplay the effects of a bad practice or competition. It also mean that coaches should stay more positive with their reinforcement.

In a paper by Gustafsson, Hentta, Hassmen, Lundqvist, and Durand-Bush, I read about was a study of three elite cross country skiers who eventually left their sports because of burn out. It was specifically examining the process of burn out in endurance athletes. Burn out is a common problem in cross country skiing as the sport requires long training hours that can easily approach 25 hours per week (Gustafsson, H., Kenttä, G., Hassmén, P., Lundqvist, C., & Durand-Bush, N. 2007). The method of the study was to use qualitative interviews as well as quantitative data. Two interviews were performed on each subject to clear up any questions that remained after an initial look at the data before all results were compared. Data showed numerical identifiers that made it much easier to compare the results against the other subjects.

Results showed the subjects experiencing burn out at different times and for many of the same and a few different reasons. They all stated that lack of recovery time was a major contributor to their burn out. This makes you wonder if they really had insufficient time to recover or if they simply did not enjoy the training that was done while their body was still tired. Each of the athletes had individual reasons for their burn out that were unique to their peers which makes it possible that they could have experience burn out even if their common factors were controlled. Injury, social pressure and expectations, and lack of control were stated as individual reasons for burn out from the subjects. These things can all be viewed as personality factors from the people, and could be interpreted differently due to the nature of the interview process.

Another article, which was authored by Lemyre, Hall, and Roberts focused once again on winter sports athletes. A much larger group (141) was selected for this study and it focused on the relationship between social cognitive motivational variables. The study also proposes an interesting idea that the burn out is not something that can be avoided, it is something that some athletes are predisposed to reach at some point (Lemyre, P., Hall, H., & Roberts, G., 2008). The study that was conducted was similar to the first in that it was an interview survey with open room for further explanation by the subjects. The survey was given at two different times and all data was collected and analyzed.

All of the studies were similar in their methods and findings. In this case, they found that perfectionist qualities were a major factor that could lead coaches to predict a burn out in their athletes. Also, it was concluded that athletes who were not able to cope with stress often could not continue to perform in their sport as the elevated stress will almost also lead to performance that decreases and a continual downward cycle begins. Possible drawbacks to these first two studies were the method of obtaining the data. Asking the athletes to pick a number on the scale related to psychological questions could lead to confusion and inaccurate data. This study also self acknowledged that further research would be better if the data could be collected several times during the season to develop a more complete time line and burn out profile for each athlete.

Another case, that slightly contrasts the burn out studies, Mallett and Hanrahan looked at what sets the elite athletes apart and keeps them from reaching the point of burn out that other athletes have been known to face when professionally doing one sport all year. Their study examined five male and five female elite track and field athletes from Australia. They were all athletes who had either competed at the Olympics or world championships in recent years.

This smaller subject group is similar to the one used by Gustafsson, Hentta, Hassmen, Lundqvist, and Durand-Bush. Small study groups can have some advantages as you able to spend more time with each of the participants. This allows for more depth in the surveying of information and the researchers get more one on one time with each subject to better understand them as individuals. However, this could be a limiting factor for the survey if all of the subjects have similar views. This skewed data then becomes less useful as it does not represent populations as a whole, as many of these studies are intended to do. Coaches and athletes need relevant data from these studies so they can know what must be done to prevent burn out in their sports.

It was similar to the other studies in that the main method of gathering data was to interview and survey the athletes about their personal motivation. Once again, the interviews were conducted with quantitative data, such as ranking categories from one to ten, as well as qualitative options to add extra information on several questions. They study found that common themes were the subjects being highly motivated for personal success and having their sport be a central part of their lives. Goal achievement was also discussed and how it relates to personal perception. These athletes have all found recent success on a national level their motivation was all very high.

This high level of achievement could be examined to help eliminate burn out in other athletes. It is possible that their coaches have been doing a better job with goal setting that is more attainable. If athletes are able to achieve their smaller goals, they will be able to build that success to larger goals in the long run. This process of building success is something that can prevent burn out in many cases and it is plausible that it could even be used to bring athletes that have been burned out back to a sport. We all need to see success in the things we do to want to continue doing them. It is up to the coaches and the athletes to find the perfect middle ground where the goals are within in reach to keep the athlete's drive, but not have them be so far out of reach that a person would want to simply quit.

In Athlete Burn Out in Elite Sport, Lonsdale, Hodge, and Rose contrasted some of the other studies slightly by looking only at the self determining factors that contributed to the athletes burn out. They wanted to go away from the perspective that the coaches or other supporters were somewhat to blame and see what factors within the athlete's personal state of mind were contributing. Their study focused on a large group of around 200 elite Canadian athletes who were all in their early to mid twenties. The study used methods similar to the others to decide if the athlete's self-determined motivation mediated relationships between basic needs satisfaction and athlete burnout. (Lonsdale, Hodge, Rose, 2009)

I like the methods of this study because it was a contrast to what seemed to be a very consistent theme in the other studies. The theories on the burn out coming mostly from the training load that is enforced by the coaches would lead you to think that it is possible that the athletes would have remained in the sport had it not been for the influence of those coaches. I believe that it is far more likely that the athletes self determined motivation is a major factor to the burn out in athletes, as is suggested by the Lonsdale, Hodge, and Rose study. The sense of accomplishment is usually a major factor that is listed in each study as a primary reason for burn out and this study acknowledges it as being something that can be controlled internally. Athletes who are able to maintain a more positive outlook can feel accomplishment from their smallest achievements and will be able to continue more consistently in a sport without wanting to quit.

From these studies we can conclude that even the highest level achieving athletes sometimes feel like they should stop competing in their sports. This burn out can come from too high of perfectionist qualities that they have within, or from all of the external pressures to perform from coaches, fellow athletes and the public. High training loads, and lack of time off in the off season are also major contributors to athletes wanting to walk away. These studies focused on the problem being prevalent in elite athletes, but it is also a problem that exists largely in our youth sports and can contribute to the disliking of exercise that many adults possess.

Athletes can help themselves avoid burn out by staying positive. As with many things in life, your attitude is something that can completely change how you see a situation. It is also important for the athlete to keep a balance in their life. If too much is riding on their sport, there will be no where to turn when things do not end how they want them to. Coaches are a huge part of helping this problem. They are the ones who are able to provide the best motivation to the athletes and keep them on the right track. A great coach is one who understands their athletes, and is able to see the coming signs of burn out and take the necessary steps to prevent it. Coaches could benefit from these studies by using some of the survey methods to determine when an athlete is feeling frustrated with the sport and determine how to get them back on track. Some believe that burn out is predisposed in some athletes. Based on the data that was collected by these researchers, I believe that burn out can be prevented with the proper amount of time and education.

References

Gustafsson, H., Kenttä, G., Hassmén, P., Lundqvist, C., & Durand-Bush, N. (2007). The process of burnout: A multiple case study of three elite endurance athletes. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 38(4), 388-416. Retrieved from SPORTDiscus database.

Lemyre, P., Hall, H., & Roberts, G. (2008). A social cognitive approach to burnout in elite athletes. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 18(2), 221-234. Retrieved from SPORTDiscus with Full Text database.

Lemyre, P., Roberts, G. & Stray-Gundersen, J. (2007). Motivation, overtraining, and burnout: Can self-determined motivation predict overtraining and burnout in elite athletes?. European Journal of Sport Science, 7(2), 115-126.

Lemyre, P., Treasure, D., & Roberts, G. (2006). Influence of Variability in Motivation and Affect on Elite Athlete Burnout Susceptibility. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 28(1), 32-48. Retrieved from SPORTDiscus with Full Text database.

Lonsdale, C., Hodge, K., & Rose, E. (2009). Athlete burnout in elite sport: A self-determination perspective. Journal of Sports Sciences, 27, 785-795. Retrieved from PsycNET database.

Mallett, C., Hanrahan S., (2004). Elite athletes: Why does the 'fire' burn so brightly? Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Vol 5(2), 183-200. Retrieved from PsycNET database.