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 to the National Collegiate Athletics Association, 47 percent of athletes have experienced burnout symptoms, 72 percent of athletes have experienced staleness, and 66 percent stated that they felt overworked in their collegiate athletic experience (Kaufman). This rampant problem is reducing the performances of athletes and even causing some athletes to completely quit his or her sport. In order to mitigate this problem, stress reduction strategies should be further introduced into the services for athletes. I propose that humor should be used as a stress reliever in order to reduce the number of burnouts today. Athletes are experiencing burnout at accelerated rates due to excessive levels of stress. …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 before. In addition to the physical requirements, athletes must also endure mental pressures. They are expected to do well on a regular basis, continually improve, and beat opponents. These expectations are created not only by the coaches, but also by the athletes themselves and fans. For example, coaches expect their athletes to be a good representation of the coaches’ ability (Humphrey, Yow, and Bowden 20). Another source of stress is internal, as the athlete has personal motivation for success in order to maintain his or her scholarship (Soloman). Many schools do not offer multiyear scholarships, but instead offer yearly scholarships that can be renewed. These renewable scholarships enable universities to cut scholarships if the athletes do not perform well or become hurt along with a myriad of other reasons. Therefore, athletes put stress upon themselves provide themselves with stress because of the need to succeed. A less obvious but still prevalent source of stress for some athletes is the fans. For the
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 to the National Collegiate Athletics Association, 47 percent of athletes have experienced burnout symptoms, 72 percent of athletes have experienced staleness, and 66 percent stated that they felt overworked in their collegiate athletic experience (Kaufman). This rampant problem is reducing the performances of athletes and even causing some athletes to completely quit his or her sport. In order to mitigate this problem, stress reduction strategies should be further introduced into the services for athletes. I propose that humor should be used as a stress reliever in order to reduce the number of burnouts today. Athletes are experiencing burnout at accelerated rates due to excessive levels of stress. …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 before. In addition to the physical requirements, athletes must also endure mental pressures. They are expected to do well on a regular basis, continually improve, and beat opponents. These expectations are created not only by the coaches, but also by the athletes themselves and fans. For example, coaches expect their athletes to be a good representation of the coaches’ ability (Humphrey, Yow, and Bowden 20). Another source of stress is internal, as the athlete has personal motivation for success in order to maintain his or her scholarship (Soloman). Many schools do not offer multiyear scholarships, but instead offer yearly scholarships that can be renewed. These renewable scholarships enable universities to cut scholarships if the athletes do not perform well or become hurt along with a myriad of other reasons. Therefore, athletes put stress upon themselves provide themselves with stress because of the need to succeed. A less obvious but still prevalent source of stress for some athletes is the fans. For the