Reducing Burnouts in Collegiate Athletics
Athletics in the collegiate athletic atmosphere keep creating better and better athletes. Faster. Stronger. More agile. But at what cost? Over the years, coaching styles or techniques have not significantly changed. The athletes are better because they work harder and longer. This attitude to keep pushing further is commonplace, especially in high caliber athletics such as the collegiate atmosphere. Despite the good intentions to become better and more competitive athletes, the increased effort has reached a peak that is leading to extensive athletic burnouts. A burnout in essence is induced by stress and is (occurs?) when an athlete withdraws from a specific sport due to a newfound lack of interest. It is characterized by “perceptions of emotion and physical exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, and sport devaluation” (“Athlete Social Support, Negative Social Interactions, And Psychological Health Across A Competitive Sport Season” 619). This psychological state has become very common at the collegiate level. According …show more content…
The stress taxes athletes both mentally and physically. It attacks the athletes in all aspects of their lives. Athletics in college today require an extraordinary time commitment in addition to the mental commitment. Athletes are expected to go to practices multiple times a day on top of earning a college degree, which is in itself difficult. According to a survey conducted by James Humphrey, when asked for some sources of stress, most athletes listed academic pressures as a primary source of stress (41). In addition to these two required activities, athletes are supposed to maintain a social life, sleep enough to physically recover from workouts, and still make time to satisfy their insatiable hunger. With all of these time commitments and only twenty-four hours in a day, athletes are stressed more today than ever
Athletics in the collegiate athletic atmosphere keep creating better and better athletes. Faster. Stronger. More agile. But at what cost? Over the years, coaching styles or techniques have not significantly changed. The athletes are better because they work harder and longer. This attitude to keep pushing further is commonplace, especially in high caliber athletics such as the collegiate atmosphere. Despite the good intentions to become better and more competitive athletes, the increased effort has reached a peak that is leading to extensive athletic burnouts. A burnout in essence is induced by stress and is (occurs?) when an athlete withdraws from a specific sport due to a newfound lack of interest. It is characterized by “perceptions of emotion and physical exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, and sport devaluation” (“Athlete Social Support, Negative Social Interactions, And Psychological Health Across A Competitive Sport Season” 619). This psychological state has become very common at the collegiate level. According …show more content…
The stress taxes athletes both mentally and physically. It attacks the athletes in all aspects of their lives. Athletics in college today require an extraordinary time commitment in addition to the mental commitment. Athletes are expected to go to practices multiple times a day on top of earning a college degree, which is in itself difficult. According to a survey conducted by James Humphrey, when asked for some sources of stress, most athletes listed academic pressures as a primary source of stress (41). In addition to these two required activities, athletes are supposed to maintain a social life, sleep enough to physically recover from workouts, and still make time to satisfy their insatiable hunger. With all of these time commitments and only twenty-four hours in a day, athletes are stressed more today than ever