Coach and Athlete Burnout - West Virginia University

Burnout 85
comprehensive, taking into account situational and personal variables and the athlete’s
appraisal of stress.
Other stress-based models have been presented to explain burnout.
Silva (1990) presented a stress-based model that used training stress syndrome as a
theoretical foundation to understand burnout (see Figure 3). He contended that
participation in competitive athletics introduces physical and psychological training stress
upon an athlete. In coping with these stressors athletes adapted positively or negatively.
With positive training stress principles of overload are utilized, pushing athletes to adapt
at higher output levels using effective coping and problem solving strategies. These
positive improvements result in training gains. Conversely, negative training stress
occurs when athletes adapt poorly to the increased stress or overload conditions. Factors
related to this adaptation include insufficient rest patterns, boredom, and conflict. When
negative adaptation occurs to training stress, responses occur along a regressive
psychophysiological continuum. The training stress syndrome explains this continuum.
The first stage, staleness, is considered to be the initial failure of an athlete’s mechanisms
to psychologically and physically adapt to training stress. The next stage, overtraining,
occurs after the body repeatedly fails to cope with what has become chronic training
stress. There are observable changes in an athlete’s sport performance and mental
orientation. If nothing is done to address staleness and overtraining, burnout becomes a
likely result and is the final stage in the model. According to Silva, burnout is
characterized as an exhaustive physical and psychological response to frequent,
unsuccessful attempts to cope with extreme training and competitive stressors.