By Inês Borba and Eric Martin
(March 5, 2025)

My high school coach used to say that “in the long term, the athlete who wins is not the one who trains the most, but the one who trains the best.” I did not fully realize how true that statement was at the time, as I was focused on training more and more to get to the top. Today, however, I am extremely grateful for my high school coach’s long-term approach. This approach not only allowed me to keep improving in college instead of having an exponential improvement in high school followed by a plateau in college, but it also allowed me to keep having fun and loving the sport. Even after eight years of high-level competition, I do not see myself leaving my sport anytime soon.

The “more is better” school of thought in sport is leading to burnout in high school athletes. This philosophy emphasizes intense training, early specialization, and a high volume of practice and competition. The term burnout has a wide range of meanings in popular culture; nevertheless, athlete burnout has been defined by Raedeke (1997) as a multidimensional, cognitive-affective syndrome characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation. The best way to support your athletes in the sport environment is through burnout prevention rather than reacting to burnout after it has already happened. Therefore, you, as a coach, play a significant role in preventing your athletes from burning out. This article will overview common causes of burnout and provide some steps in how you, as a coach, can help prevent athlete burnout.

Overtraining

My first college coach used to say, “stress + rest = growth.” This equation means that to improve in your sport, you need to balance the right amount of training stress with the right amount of rest (often referred to as periodization). For coaches, after completing a training period, allowing athletes time to rest and recover will enable them to adapt and become stronger, thus enabling the athletes to push harder in the future. Without this rest, athletes might experience overtraining, which can lead to physical and mental burnout.

Overtraining occurs when there is too much training stress coupled with too little recovery (Lehman et al., 1999). Overtraining can be especially relevant when athletes are facing other non-sports stressors. When athletes exhibit increased fatigue and a decline in performance, they are seen as being in a state of overreaching. This state is still reversible, with rest and recovery ranging from a few days to a few weeks. However, if athletes are not allowed to recover properly, they can develop overtraining syndrome. Evidence suggests that the only way to recover from overtraining syndrome is with prolonged rest and time away from the sport, which can take months or even years (Meeusen et al., 2013). Therefore, it is crucial to recognize the signs of overreaching before it moves toward overtraining syndrome early and prioritize athletes’ health by allowing them to take time to recover fully.

To address overtraining, here are some coaching strategies:

• Develop appropriate training loads based on athletes’ age, physical maturity, and skill level.
• Monitor individual athlete training responses, fatigue, and feeling states. 
• Incorporate recovery periods in training cycles.
• Educate athletes about the importance of recovery and recovery strategies/tools, including sleep, a healthy balanced diet, and proper hydration.
• Consider non-sport stressors your athletes might be facing when planning your training programs (e.g., academic finals).
• Provide resources and strategies for athletes to cope with sources of stress beyond their sport. This could include mindfulness, meditation, time management skills, social support, and professional help from a psychologist or counselor.

Psychosocial Sport Stress

Another possible cause of burnout is psychosocial sport stress. Psychosocial sport stress refers to the stress experienced by athletes due to social and psychological factors, such as performance expectations, social interactions, life events, and training and competitive demands. Athletes experience psychosocial stress when they perceive that there is a mismatch between the demands they face in their sport and their capacity to cope with those demands.

These perceptions of high demands can come from external sources (e.g., coaches, parents, college recruiters) but also from within the athlete (e.g., pressure to win and worry about outcomes). As a college distance runner, I have been dealing with my high-performance expectations. Earlier this season, I discussed with my coach, and he helped me realize that with success comes expectations – and with high expectations comes added pressure. My goal should not be about reducing the pressure. Instead, it should be about building the capacity to embrace the pressure that comes with success. The pressure to meet these expectations can be intense, but it can also be a powerful motivator when approached with the right mindset, such as a positive mindset and mental toughness (Keen, 2021). Therefore, as a coach, you should not aim to eliminate pressure situations for your athletes, but instead, you can help your athletes by offering resources on coping with the demands of the sport.

Some examples of how to help your athletes deal with sport stress include:

• Focus on the process instead of the outcome by emphasizing individual growth, learning, and effort over winning or achieving specific results.
• Teach coping resources that include relaxation techniques and mental imagery skills.
• Build self-regulation skills like goal setting, self-monitoring, emotional regulation, time management, and self-talk.
• Encourage athletes to build a social support network, within and outside the team, such as family and school friends.

Sport Entrapment  

When athletes feel trapped in their role of being an athlete, burnout can occur. Sport entrapment occurs when athletes feel like they have to keep participating in their sport, even if they no longer find it enjoyable or fulfilling. They feel they “have to” stay involved rather than “want to” stay involved. Various factors can lead to this situation, including external pressures, the fear of disappointing others, or feeling like they have invested a significant amount of time and effort, leading to a perception that there are no alternatives besides staying in their sport. Evidence shows that athletes who present an adaptive commitment (e.g., “I get to participate”) instead of a constrained commitment (e.g., “I have to participate”) have a lower burnout risk due to high levels of passion and intrinsic motivation (Williams, 2020). Therefore, it is essential to deal with sports entrapment to preserve an athlete’s mental health and overall well-being.

To avoid an athlete feeling trapped, here are some coaching strategies to follow:

• Assist athletes in realizing the advantages of their participation in sports that they may not notice or fully appreciate. For example, physical health, mental, emotional, and social benefits, personal development, and academic and career benefits. 
• Ensure that the practice is enjoyable, exciting, and fulfilling.
• Encourage athletes to maintain non-sport interests and hobbies.
• Encourage athletes to build a social support network, and ensure that coaches, parents, and peers are sources of support and not pressure.
• Help build a healthy athletic identity and promote athletes’ development beyond sport.

Lack of Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence

Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) posits that people are motivated by three psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When these needs are satisfied, individuals are more likely to experience self-determined motivation, resulting in enhanced well-being and personal growth and lower burnout risk. Therefore, coaches can prevent athlete burnout by providing choices in their sport, helping them develop the necessary skills to succeed in the sport, and providing an environment for social connections.

For coaches, here are some specific strategies to enhance motivation and avoid burnout:

• Create an environment that emphasizes effort, learning, accomplishment, and enjoyment of the sport.
• Provide athletes with a clear explanation for your decisions, so they can comprehend the reasons behind your specific approach.
• Allow athletes to make some choices in their practice and competition (when appropriate).
• Build a supportive coach-athlete relationship.
• Integrate team-building activities and promote outside social activities to build connections within the team.

Athlete burnout is a multifaceted challenge. Recognizing the early signs of burnout and putting strategies in place to reduce its likelihood of occurring can allow coaches to have a significant impact on preserving the well-being and performance of their athletes. The goal of a coach is to cultivate individuals who can demonstrate resilience amongst challenges and succeed in both their personal and athletic lives, rather than solely focusing on producing successful athletes. By prioritizing mental and physical health, coaches can help athletes maintain their passion for the sport and achieve long-term success.

References

Keen, L. (2021, July 15). The Psychology of Pressure in High Performance Sport. Welldoing.org. https://welldoing.org/article/psychology-pressure-high-performance-sport 

Lehmann, M., Foster, C., Gastmann, U., Keizer, H., & Steinacker, J. M. (1999). Definition, types, symptoms, findings, underlying mechanisms, and frequency of overtraining and overtraining syndrome. In Overload, performance incompetence, and regeneration in sport (pp. 1-6). Boston, MA: Springer US.

Meeusen, R., Duclos, M., Foster, C., Fry, A., Gleeson, M., Nieman, D., … & Urhausen, A. (2013). Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: Joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). European Journal of Sport Science, 13(1), 1-24.

Raedeke, T. D. (1997). Is athlete burnout more than just stress? A sport commitment perspective. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 19(4), 396-417.

Sapp, M. (2022). Keeping the Sparks Aflame: Preventing and Addressing Burnout in High School Student-Athletes | Association for Applied Sport Psychology. https://appliedsportpsych.org/blog/2022/07/keeping-the-sparks-aflame-preventing-and-addressing-burnout-in-high-school-student-athletes/

Williams, J. M. (2020). Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US). https://bsu.vitalsource.com/books/9781260390926