Student athletes often have to manage sport practices, schoolwork, sports games, and social lives. All of these responsibilities can lead to feelings of burnout. Burnout is an issue that develops when an athlete is under stress and pressure to perform better each time. Difficulty sleeping, lack of motivation, or quitting the sport altogether are all signs of burnout.
A cause for the experience of burnout can be not having enough time for social lives outside of sports and school. Athletes can also unknowingly overwork themselves with their personal motivation to perform at a higher level. According to the article ¨ Burnout in Athletes” https://www.nata.org/nata-now/articles/burnout-athletes, these types of athletes apply more personal demands on themselves or are fully consumed by sports participation as a way to fulfill their identity as an athlete.
Junior Elias Huerta has been wrestling since eighth grade and joined the school wrestling team as a freshman.
¨I was putting in a lot of practice and hard work, and I still wasn’t seeing the results I wanted. I was losing tournaments, and I would come home and have homework to do, and I felt like my grades were dropping,” Huerta said.
Practice and discipline are good for success to play at a higher level, but overworking an athlete, such as excessive practices and doing beyond what their bodies can handle, can cause more harm than good.
Junior Joseph Castanon has played football for five years and joined the high school team as a freshman. During the summer, he had football practices in order to prepare for upcoming games.
¨During summer workouts, they have us run a lot, and then we do weight room, we’re just mentally super focused on practices and upcoming games, ¨Castanon said.
Not only does athletic burnout affect their performance on the field, but it can also affect their mental health and performance in the classroom. This can be shown as struggling to concentrate in class and grades dropping.
¨It just made me not want to be in the classroom, it made me feel like I’d rather be anywhere else but in the classroom,” Huerta said.
Coaches can help with burnout and help schedule rest days, create different training routines, and monitor their athletes’ mental health. All these factors can create a healthier environment for athletes.
There are also ways to prevent students from burnout, like prioritizing rest and remembering recovery days are just as important as training, while maintaining a balance between sports, friends, school, and home life.
