How Can Sports Psychology Help Athletes?

It’s no secret that the best athletes are physically talented — they have impressive aerobic and anaerobic capacities, can shoot perfect free throws, and they can perform at the highest of intensities for hours on end.

But the very best athletes also know how to best perform mentally. They can silence the noise and play as if they are the only person in the stadium, on the pitch, or on the golf course.

Research shows that mental training in sports psychology can improve results more than physical training alone [1]. In fact, it’s changed the lives of many athletes, whether breaking through mental barriers, coming back from injury, or improving their performance.

With this in mind, in this blog post we discuss how sports psychology can help athletes.

Sports psychologists can:

  • Reduce performance anxiety and increase athlete confidence
  • Provide athletes with mental skills to deal with stressful situations
  • Help athletes return after injury 

What is sports psychology?

Sports psychology is all about the mind — it’s about developing mental fitness and resilience, and learning skills such as visualisation and effective goal setting to maximise an athlete’s performance.

In the last few years, there’s been a boom in sports psychology — every professional sports team has at least one, and some, have a whole team of psychologists on hand to provide mental skills training, support, and education to their athletes.

Athletes who train in both the physical and mental aspects of their sport are likely to achieve better results than an athlete who only trains on the field.

What do sports psychologists do?

Okay, now that you know what sports psychology is, what do sports psychologists actually do, aside from helping athletes get the most out of themselves?

Sports psychologists:

  1. Help athletes mentally prepare for competition
  2. Teach effective goal setting techniques
  3. Develop attention and focus
  4. Break through mental barriers 
  5. Improve self-confidence and reduce anxiety
  6. Help athletes return after injury

Help athletes mentally prepare for competition

Competition is tough, both mentally and physically. That shouldn’t be a surprise to athletes or coaches.

If an athlete’s mind is not in the right place, their physical performance may suffer.

Sports psychologists work with their athletes to prepare them mentally for competition.

But this isn’t something that happens overnight. 

Let’s say you have an athlete who gets tense, anxious, and feels overwhelmed when taking a set piece such as a free throw in basketball. A psychologist could work with the athlete to develop a ritual to calm their nerves and silence the noise — this might include deep breathing exercises, cues such as relaxing their shoulders, or imagery to visualise the shot before taking it.

Want to see this in action? Watch Jonny Wilkinson perform his pre-kick ritual below:

Working with a sports psychologist is often very personalised — there is no one size fits all approach. Instead, it’s about working on an individual athlete’s strengths and weaknesses.

Teach effective goal setting techniques 

All athletes have goals, whether you’re competing for an Olympic gold medal, want to break a 5k personal best, or win your basketball league tournament.

And we can all use effective goal setting techniques to improve self-confidence, performance, and the overall likelihood of success.

Sports psychologists and coaches should work with athletes to set goals using the following principles [2]:

  • Set specific goals that lead to better performance (vs. easy goals)
  • Short-term goals should move the needle towards long-term goals
  • An understanding that goals affect performance (effort, direction and attention, motivation, and strategy development)
  • Feedback regarding process is crucial when working towards goals
  • Goals must be accepted by the athlete 

Related: What Qualities Make A Great Sports Coach?

Develop attention and focus 

It’s natural for athletes to feel increased anxiety under pressure — it’s those moments before a freekick, a set piece, the closing moments of a game, or the final 100 metres of a 5,000-metre race.

A sports psychologist can help athletes regain focus and lessen their anxiety, allowing them to maximise performance.

Furthermore, some athletes might perform well, but struggle with attention and focus during training, perhaps preventing them from reaching that “next level.” 

Athletes can work alongside a sports psychologist to improve their motivation, attention and focus during those oh-so-crucial moments. 

Break through mental barriers

Athletes use mental coaching to break through barriers that may inhibit peak performance.

For example, an athlete may choke under high pressure regularly, fear task or performance failure after a specific event, or experience severe anxiety to the point where their performance is severely hindered. 

Sports psychologists employ mental skills training techniques to break through these mental barriers [1], alleviating anxiety and providing athletes with the tools to face their unique challenges head-on.

And the best part is, you don’t need to be an elite athlete to benefit from sports psychology and mental training.

Improve self-confidence and reduce anxiety

Working with a psychologist can help athletes improve confidence and optimise focus for performance.

Using certain mental exercises, athletes can recall how they felt during past performances, and can even practise certain skills and techniques to work on their mental game. Often, this includes the visualisation of particular scenarios and sports outcomes.

Psychologists administer a mix of mental skills, including [3]:

  • Self-talk
  • Attentional control
  • Goal setting
  • Imagery/visualisation 
  • Activation and relaxation

If you’re a coach and you want to start using mental skill training with your athletes, you can read our how to create a mental training program for athletes guide.

Help athletes return after injury

Returning from a sports injury is no easy feat. — many athletes push too hard too early and only make it worse.

And then there are other athletes who seemingly come back from the impossible. Take Chris Froome’s horrendous crash at the dauphiné back in 2019, for example. He fractured his right femur, elbow, and several ribs after hitting a wall at over 33 mph during a training ride — he was later airlifted to hospital.

Team Ineos did not renew his professional contract, and for many cyclists (and athletes), that would be the end of their careers. But not Froome.

And that’s only one example. There are others too, including Peyton Manning, who had multiple neck surgeries; Tiger Woods suffered from a double stress fracture in his left tibia; and Tom Brady who tore both the ACL and MCL in his knee.

All of these athletes returned back to their sport after going through rehabilitation with physiologists, doctors, and psychologists.

Why is sports psychology so important?

Sports psychology can help athletes reduce performance anxiety, come back from injury, break through mental barriers, and ultimately make them a more well-rounded and better athlete.

Prime your athletes for performance with Rewire

If you’re a coach, you can use Rewire for teams to prime your athletes for performance. 

With as little as 5 minutes of daily use, on average, athletes experience 70% less stress, 30% more focus, and a 30% increase in readiness to perform.

Athletes gain access to mindset recovery protocols based on science to improve their mindset and recovery, and to prepare them for training and competition.

And as a coach, you gain a comprehensive understanding of their “readiness scores” to determine their training load.

“As a professional athlete, I’ve known firsthand the importance of training the mind and body to push the limits of performance. Rewire’s latest platform makes mental strength training more accessible to athletes everywhere with easy-to-use tools to help them reach their goals.”

— Kyle Korver, NBA All-Star & Assistant GM for the Atlanta Hawks.

Book a consultation 

LEARN MORE

References:

  1. Kumar, P. and Shirotriya, A.K., 2010. ‘Sports psychology’a crucial ingredient for athletes success: conceptual view. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 44(Suppl 1), pp.i55-i56.
  2. Locke, E.A. and Latham, G.P., 1985. The application of goal setting to sports. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 7(3), pp.205-222.
  3. Röthlin, P., Horvath, S., Trösch, S., Holtforth, M.G. and Birrer, D., 2020. Differential and shared effects of psychological skills training and mindfulness training on performance-relevant psychological factors in sport: a randomized controlled trial. BMC psychology, 8, pp.1-13.
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How to Create a Mental Training Program for Athletes

Improve your athletes’ mental game and develop a competitive edge by implementing a mental training plan.

Michael Phelps once said, “I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.” 

This quote from the Olympic swimmer — and most celebrated Olympian of all time — is a fantastic introduction to mental training and how it can improve confidence and mental strength.

Mental training tools, such as effective goal setting, visualisation, self-talk, and progressive muscle relaxation, can be used to maximise physical and psychological performance.

Some of the very best athletes — Phelps included — used psychological skills training to improve performance. And in this blog post, we’ll explain how you can create a mental skills training program for your athletes to help them stay focused when it matters most.

Please note: I am not a sports psychologist. I am simply relaying the literature in an easy-to-understand way to help you create a mental training program for your athletes.

How do athletes train mentally?

Athletes who follow a mental training program usually focus on one skill or psychological strategy a day. 

For example, during the week, they might practise a mix of skills to improve their mental game, including self-talk, visualisation, goal setting, and activation. 

If an athlete struggles to deal with the intense pressure of competition during a particularly stressful situation (such as a freekick in football), they can visualise this and practise other mental exercises to improve confidence and performance.

While this obviously looks different for every athlete and sport, coaches should create mental training programs to address athlete weaknesses while also honing in on their strengths.

So how do you start?

To begin, coaches should perform a needs assessment with their athletes — this helps identify any potential psychological strengths (and weaknesses), and areas that may be detrimental to performance. 

Ask your athletes to note down both physical and psychological skills they think are needed to perform well in their sport.

An example mental training program for a cyclist

Let’s use the example of a cyclist. They might mention skills such as:

  • Climbing ability
  • Descending ability (and confidence when doing so)
  • Core strength
  • Power output 
  • Cornering
  • Teamwork
  • Getting into an aero position 
  • Good communication with the team

Once you’ve got these noted down, athletes rate (on a scale of 1 to 10) how good they think they are at each skill.

Also, ask your athletes if they have any strengths or weaknesses in their sport. For example, they may say they are good at climbing, but worse at descending.

If they rate their descending ability a 4, for example, then mental skills can be used to improve their confidence and technique on those descents. 

Visualisation can be used to practise choosing the right line, putting the weight over the bike correctly, and braking in advance of the corner. This can help build up confidence without actually being on the bike.

During this needs assessment, it’s important that it’s a collaborative effort between coach and athlete — this makes it more likely that they’ll stick to the program.

For more data, coaches can ask athletes to complete the test of performance questionnaire (TOPS). This will also reveal other psychological strengths and weaknesses in training and competition.

Now with a list of strengths and weaknesses, alongside physical and psychological skills, you can begin collaborating with your athletes to create an effective mental training program.

Decide what mental skills to include in the program

The results from the TOPS questionnaire also show what mental skills the athlete is good at and others which can be improved.

This provides a great foundation for you to combine skills that they have not yet utilised (or are not very good at), and skills that they want to improve in their sport, e.g. descending ability.

Mental skills include [2]:

  • Self-talk
  • Emotional control
  • Goal setting 
  • Imagery (also called visualisation)
  • Activation
  • Relaxation
  • Negative thinking 
  • Attentional control 

If the imagery and self-talk scores were low (i.e. not used before), then we can add these to a mental training program to focus on those weaker areas such as descending, cornering and getting into an aero position.

The athlete will now be improving mental strength and physical training, applying a new skill to their performance.

You can also use mental skills they have previous practice with (and feel confident using) to complement their training and skill learning.

Be sure to ask the athlete what they want to improve and what mental skills they think would benefit their overall performance. Remember: the process should remain collaborative. 

Self-talk 

For self-talk, ask athletes to note down any negative self-talk they experience during training, competition, or when practising a skill.

Let’s say, for example, when approaching a descent, they feel scared, out of control, and as if they’re going to run off the road.

You can implement a script to replace negative thoughts with positive self-talk. 

Below are some examples of how this cyclist would begin using positive self-talk during training, and, eventually, competition. 

Negative self-talkPositive self-talk
I feel scared when descendingI’m confident at descending 
I feel like I’m going to run off the roadI’ll choose my line and stick to it
I’m worried I’ll grab the brakes in the cornerI’ll break in a straight line before the corner

Imagery

Imagery, or visualisation is similar to self-talk. And in our example, you could ask your athlete to imagine themselves descending.

What technique are they adopting? Where do they position themselves on the road? How does it feel leading up to the corner? Do they hit the apex? What about exiting the corner — do they accelerate quickly by putting more power on the pedals?

And while you should visualise the successful performance of the skill, it may also be beneficial to imagine what could go wrong, and other ways it could go. However, to begin with, we recommend mastering successful skill performance before exploring other visualisation outcomes.

Relaxation

And finally, let’s say our cyclist feels intense pressure during competition. If this was the case, it might be useful to practise relaxation techniques. This could include focused deep breathing, positive self-talk, progressive muscle relaxation, and other techniques which are good mental training tools to have in your toolkit. 

No mental training program will be the same

When designing a mental training program for your athletes, it’s important to know that no two plans should or will be the same.

Athletes have unique strengths and weaknesses, some may have experience with mental skills training, and others might be starting from scratch.

But no matter what level an athlete is playing or competing in, mental training can help them improve physical (and mental) performance [1]. 

Coaches can use Rewire to build mental fitness 

As well as creating a mental training plan for your athletes, coaches can use Rewire for teams to further improve mental fitness and mindset recovery.

Athletes get access to evidence-based protocols from neuroscience and sports psychology, and actively practise self-talk, visualisation, guided breathing exercises, and more. 

Coaches can also track athletes’ readiness scores to tailor their physical and mental training for each athlete to maximise performance. 

“If you’re just relying on trying to sharpen your mental game while you’re out training, you might not always have the opportunity or you may wear your body down too much. With Rewire, you have a controlled environment and structure so that you can choose when you want to add mental training to your workouts and you can do it as often as you’d like.” – Laura Kline (Elite Ultra Runner & Endurance Athlete)

Find out how Rewire can improve mental fitness for your athletes.

FAQs

What is a mental skills training program?

A mental skills training program contains psychological exercises such as self-talk and visualisation to improve physical skills, whether that’s a free throw or a cycling descent.

How do you train mental training?

To start, begin practising easy-to-implement skills such as positive self-talk and visualisation. Note down areas of your sport you want to improve and use mental skills to optimise physical and mental performance.

How do athletes become better mentally?

The best athletes are highly resilient. Often, this is a result of mental training exercises such as visualisation, self-talk, and effective goal setting. You can do the same to improve your performance.

References:

  1. Holmes, P.S. and Collins, D.J., 2001. The PETTLEP approach to motor imagery: A functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. Journal of applied sport psychology, 13(1), pp.60-83.
  2. Röthlin, P., Horvath, S., Trösch, S., Holtforth, M.G. and Birrer, D., 2020. Differential and shared effects of psychological skills training and mindfulness training on performance-relevant psychological factors in sport: a randomized controlled trial. BMC psychology, 8, pp.1-13.
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How to Build Mental Toughness in Youth Athletes

Help youth athletes build a healthy relationship with hard work and mental toughness — here’s what you need to know.

Mental toughness is a term thrown around in abundance in the world of sports. Many people believe that those who display the highest levels of mental toughness will come out on top — they will succeed. 

Although the term is almost as popular as Michael Jordan in his prime, very few people know what it actually means. After all, it is a very subjective term — people have their own definitions of what mental toughness is.

David Goggins will give you a different definition than Michael Jordan, and LeBron James will describe it differently to Tiger Words.

At Rewire, we prefer the definition of mental toughness as a personal capacity to produce consistently high levels of subjective or objective performance despite everyday challenges and stressors, as well as significant adversities [2]. 

Typically, mental toughness is only applied to adults and professional athletes. But what about youth athletes — should they build mental toughness to improve performance? Here’s everything that you need to know.

Related: The Science Behind Mental Toughness

Mental toughness for youth athletes 

If youth athletes can learn mental toughness from a young age, they can then apply this not only to sports, but to life.

Sport is a powerful vehicle for building positive habits, beliefs, and developing discipline.

But how should coaches and parents build mental toughness in the youth? Read on to find out. 

Maximum effort 

Great coaches should encourage maximum effort in youth athletes. However, where many coaches go wrong is by punishing or withdrawing support when the athlete does not perform to their expectations.

Instead, their maximum effort is a better gauge of performance — working hard each session will instil the importance of hard work.

Coaches should show encouragement and praise hard work to reinforce this behaviour. It’s not only a lesson that pays dividends in sports, but also in life.

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” — Michael Jordan

Encourage mistakes — they are a part of learning 

We all make mistakes — it’s a part of human nature. But as a coach for young athletes, you should not discourage mistakes as they are a necessary part of learning and improving from our experiences.

If you’re a coach, allowing your athletes to make mistakes can prove difficult — you don’t want to hurt their confidence, but equally, you want them to improve and learn valuable lessons.

So, how can you encourage learning from mistakes? For optimal learning, you can increase training difficulty to the point where youth athletes make mistakes approximately 15% of the time [5]. 

If you increase the difficulty of training, whether learning a new skill or attempting to hit challenging splits too often at too hard a difficulty, then the cons will likely outweigh the pros, perhaps resulting in a frustrated athlete.

It’s all about finding a healthy balance between success and learning from mistakes to become a better athlete.

I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams

Build a solid foundation by emphasising sports to be fun 

As a coach, you want your athletes to succeed. But at a young age, it’s important for sports to be fun — this encourages a balance between physical fitness, psychological well-being, and lifelong lessons and learning [4]. 

Children and youth athletes participate in sports to have fun. If, at an early age, they do not enjoy sports, they might be less likely to continue participation in that sport (and others).

Coaches and parents should prioritise sports participation to be fun. All too commonly, parents and coaches skew the goal implicitly or explicitly in the hopes of a scholarship, that the child will become a professional athlete, or as a parent, to achieve unfulfilled childhood dreams [1].

For example, imagine a twelve-year-old showing up to training twice a week and being told to run as fast as they can twelve times around the track. That’s not a fun session — and while they may do it, if they are not having fun, they’re less likely to go back.

But if you can build a foundation for the athlete, prioritising fun with hard work sprinkled throughout, the athlete is more likely to stick with the sport, learn valuable lessons along the way, and perhaps even avoid burnout. That’s a big win in our book.

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually, it will subside, and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” — Lance Armstrong

Create a healthy training environment

To get the most out of a youth athlete, coaches and parents should foster a healthy training environment.

As previously stated, training should be fun. It doesn’t mean it can’t include difficult aspects, but first and foremost, it needs to be fun. The training environment needs to reflect that — incorporate games into training, be there after training and competition if your athletes want to talk to you, and create a place that kids and youth athletes look forward to coming to.

And if a child wants to do multiple sports, encourage them to. 

There’s a whole debate surrounding multiple sport diversification vs. early sport specialisation in one sport. But ultimately, being told they can only do one sport may increase their risk of burnout, injury, and other risk factors [3]. 

Besides, trying other sports is also fun! And this is the ultimate goal for youth sports — it is also likely to encourage mental toughness.

 “Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance and beautiful silence.” — David Goggins 

Key takeaways  

Developing mental toughness from an early age can help youth athletes push through pain, learn from their mistakes, and ultimately become better athletes. But the benefits span far beyond sports — they also transfer to life, teaching self-discipline, hard work, and not giving up.

To build mental toughness in youth athletes, coaching and parental figures should:

  • Teach the importance of hard work and effort
  • Keep training fun and exciting 
  • Create a healthy training environment
  • Do not discourage multi-sport participation 

And if you’re looking to take it a step further, you can try the Rewire neuro buttons and neuro training app — create a fun cognitive game for youth athletes. This helps train mental toughness and is a great tool for youth athletes looking to compete at the highest level.

Want to know more about how Rewire can improve your athlete’s mental toughness? Book a free consultation call with our team today!

References

  1. Brenner, J.S. and Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, 2007. Overuse injuries, overtraining, and burnout in child and adolescent athletes. Pediatrics, 119(6), pp.1242-1245.
  2. Gucciardi, D.F., Hanton, S., Gordon, S., Mallett, C.J. and Temby, P., 2015. The concept of mental toughness: Tests of dimensionality, nomological network, and traitness. Journal of personality, 83(1), pp.26-44.
  3. Gustafsson, H., Kenttä, G. and Hassmén, P., 2011. Athlete burnout: An integrated model and future research directions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4(1), pp.3-24.
  4. Merkel, D.L., 2013. Youth sport: positive and negative impact on young athletes. Open access journal of sports medicine, pp.151-160.
  5. Wilson, R.C., Shenhav, A., Straccia, M. and Cohen, J.D., 2019. The eighty five percent rule for optimal learning. Nature communications, 10(1), p.4646.
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What Qualities Make A Great Sports Coach?

A great coach has several unique traits — here’s what they are.

Coaches play a fundamental role in mentoring the next generation of athletes. And the skills learnt don’t end on the pitch — they also include life skills such as self belief, and many other important qualities.

Naturally, some coaches are better than others. That’s why the very best coaches mentor the greatest athletes. Think: Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Eliud Kipchoge… the list goes on. But how do coaches go from being good, to great? What makes some sports coaches that much better than others?

And how can you become a more successful coach?

Related: What Separates a Good Coach From a Great Coach?

That’s what this blog post is all about. We explain key traits and qualities of great sports coaches. If you’re a coach, there are definitely a few takeaways you can use to improve your coaching further. There’s something for everyone, whether you coach youth athletics, track and field, or professional sports.

Here’s why some sports coaches host better coaching sessions, and are generally more successful.

What are the qualities of a great coach?

So, what makes a good coach? What qualities do some coaches have that others do not?

  • An expert understanding of their sport
  • Effective communication
  • Good coaches have the willingness to share knowledge 
  • Commitment, discipline, and passion

An expert understanding of their sport

Many of the great coaches were also athletes in the same sport.

For example, Phil Jackson won an NBA title with the New York Knicks as a player in 1973; Kenny Dalglish, a professional footballer player for Liverpool, Celtic, and Scotland, later went on to manage Liverpool, and Wayne Gretzky, arguably the greatest professional hockey player of all time, was also head coach at the Phoenix Coyotes.

While it’s not a requirement that the best coaches also be players, their first-hand athlete experience can certainly lend itself to a better understanding of the sport that they coach and how their athletes operate.

Athletes who turn into coaches can pass on their knowledge, from training techniques to mental preparation leading up to a big game. They can better relate to their athletes — they know what works, what it feels like to be a player, and what it takes to reach the highest level, especially if they achieved great success as an elite athlete.

Great coaching and effective communication go hand in hand

The importance of effective communication is coaching 101. But being able to state goals and expectations and deliver feedback clearly is a fundamental component of being a great coach.

But as you already know, communication is a two-way street. It takes two (or more) people to have a conversation. A great coach listens to their athletes — they know how they feel about training, if they’re experiencing any niggles or pains, and also share their goals so the coach can help them reach their full potential. It’s all about mutual respect.

Likewise, coaches should also look out for the well-being of their athletes. This includes an awareness of burnout — they should know the key signs to support their athletes and should be able to provide recovery advice if needed.

In recent years, burnout (and general injury awareness) has become one of the most important qualities in a successful coach.

Athlete feedback and communication are a part of the coaching process

There are countless stories of coaches not listening to their athletes, and this happens not only in grassroots sports, but also at the elite level. 

Take Mary Cain, for example—she was the fastest girl in America until she joined the Nike Oregon Project under the supervision of Alberto Salazar. In a touching piece for the New York Times, Cain describes how her coach and coaching team did not listen to her needs, encouraged her to lose an unhealthy amount of weight, and even drove her to the point of having suicidal thoughts.

This is a perfect example of what not to do as a coach. A coach should do quite the opposite: they need to support their athletes, listen to their concerns, have open conversations with their athletes and actually listen to what they are saying.

The role of a coach is to support their athletes — this needs to be the number one priority. This is the big picture — everything else, in theory, should fit into place if you prioritise this correctly.

Successful coaches can identify unique strengths and weaknesses

Also in the domain of effective communication comes the sub topic of strengths and weaknesses. We all have them as athletes. Whether you’ve got better technique but poor form in the final 400m, or a solid aerobic engine but a lack of awareness on the field.

A good coach can identify these areas (especially weaknesses) and communicate these in the right way and with the right attitude.

If an open line of communication and respect is evident, athletes will be more open to feedback. And ultimately, that’s what makes for great athletes.

Good coaches should consistently strive to build effective communication with their athletes. It will also lead athletes to ask more questions, express feedback, and make for a better and more productive coach-to-athlete relationship in the future.

Good coaches have the willingness to share knowledge

A great coach not only tells their athletes what to do — what sessions to perform and when to take it easy — but they tell their athletes WHY they are doing it.

Sharing their knowledge provides athletes with a reason to do what they are doing. It adds context to those gruelling workouts — if an athlete knows that it’ll make them faster, they are more likely to commit to their training fully.

This is especially true with individual sports, such as track and field events. A lot of training is done solo — if there’s ever the need for a little added motivation, it’s when you’re tackling an interval session alone on the track.

Top coaches use this as a tool to build self belief in their athletes.

Commitment, discipline, and passion 

A great coach has an infectious energy — they share their commitment and passion on the track, on the field, and in the locker room. 

Athletes want coaches who can motivate and inspire them — this is an especially useful trait during challenging training sessions and intense competition.

A passionate coach can talk about their sport for hours. They often show great discipline and commitment to each of their athletes, going above and beyond to support them. Many coaches even coach in an unpaid or volunteer role — these are the coaches who really love what they do, supporting the youth and grassroots athletes, in particular.

Of course, you can be a paid coach with commitment, discipline, and an infectious passion for your sport. But having these three traits can make a world of difference for your athletes. 

Coaches can use Rewire to improve athlete performance 

If you’re a coach, whether you train older adolescents or adults, you can use Rewire to gain a better holistic understanding of your athletes. For example, you can measure their daily readiness, identify trends in performance, assess recovery and fatigue states, and even recognise physiological, cognitive, and emotional domains which may affect performance.

Rewire for Teams provides coaches with the tools to make informed coaching recommendations while supporting the health and wellness of their athletes.

Rewire is the best tool for coaches and practitioners — you can take your coaching a step further with new insights to support your athletes more holistically. Successful coaches use it and so can you.

Book a free consultation today to learn more about how Rewire can help your team.

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How to Recognise Burnout in Youth Sports

Here’s how to recognise burnout to prevent a mix of physical and emotional stressors. 

Burnout in youth sports might just be more common than we think — with young athletes wanting to be professional football players, gymnasts, swimmers, runners, and everything in between, it can be difficult to find the line between “hard work” and “overtraining.” 

So, it likely comes as no surprise that it’s very common for young athletes to specialise in one given sport from an early age. Besides, it makes the most sense if they want to turn professional, right? Kind of — more on this below.

Whether that’s gymnastics, swimming, tennis, or running, for example, the physical and emotional costs of specialising in one sport are often quite large. Early sport specialisation requires increased training hours and may expose youth athletes to increased social isolation, including less time with family, increased stress and anxiety, and the big one: burnout.

Yep, burnout — hello again, old friend. 

But understanding burnout in youth sports is not as simple as reducing the time or dedication spent towards one given sport — it’s much more complicated than that. For instance, other factors may result in burnout, including increased school demands, a lack of recovery, success from an early age, low self-esteem, the list goes… These burnout risks are taken from Gustaffson and colleagues — although less is known about burnout and youth sport, we should still take these into consideration.  

So, this blog post will highlight what we do know — we’ll provide a quick burnout definition, we’ll touch on early sport specialisation, how to prevent burnout in youth athletes, and how to recognise the signs of burnout sooner rather than later.

What is burnout in youth sports?

We’ve covered athlete burnout in previous blog posts, but before we discuss how to recognise the signs of burnout — and how to prevent it — we need to provide a quick definition.

Burnout is often described as a lasting experience of physical and emotional exhaustion. 

For example, youth athletes who encounter burnout may feel unmotivated to train and are likely to experience a reduced sense of self-accomplishment. And most notably, the physical and emotional drain may lead to the young athlete quitting and withdrawing from their sport, as suggested by a 2007 study.

Early sport specialisation vs. early sport diversification 

Let’s start with what is thought to be the biggest risk factor for burnout in youth athletes…

Early sport specialisation involves a youth athlete focusing — or as instructed by a coach — on one sport. The two main sports culprits that come to mind are swimming and gymnastics. Although, it can be virtually any sport out there, from tennis to ping pong. 

The main problem, however, is the risk factors that come with specialising in one sport. And yes, you guessed it correctly, burnout is a part of it.

Anyways, risk factors of early sport specialisation may include:

  • Excessive training 
  • Balancing school/work demands becomes difficult and energy draining 
  • Lack of recovery between training sessions
  • Social constraints 

These risk factors are taken from the integrated model of athlete burnout. Other risk factors around various personality, coping, and environmental factors exist, too. But the above factors appear the most relevant for youth sports.

So, this poses the question: should youth athletes specialise from a young age, or should they play a mix of sports (sport diversification)?

Well, this debate has been going on for years. But researchers have provided guidelines to prevent overtraining and burnout. These guidelines are as follows:  

  • Keep workouts interesting — add games and keep it fun.
  • Allow at least 1 to 2 days a week for rest — participation in other activities is allowed.
  • Add longer scheduled breaks from training every 2 to 3 months — focus on other activities or cross-train to prevent a loss of skill and/or conditioning.
  • Teach athletes wellness and how to be in tune with their bodies — this will help reduce overtraining and the risk of injury. The Rewire app has numerous mindset recovery sessions that can help young athletes sleep better, improve focus and concentration, and even enhance recovery. 

A few tips on how to recognise burnout 

Burnout and overtraining go hand in hand. And although the research on youth athlete burnout is not as well publicised, we can take research from the adult population to help recognise common overtraining and burnout signs, as suggested in a study by the National Library of Medicine.  

Overtraining and burnout signs to look out for include:

  • A loss of appetite 
  • Muscle soreness 
  • Difficulty sleeping/sleep disturbances
  • Muscle twitches
  • Decreased motivation
  • A lack of concentration
  • Decreased self-confidence 
  • Common colds, sniffles, and coughs

These are a few of the main signs of overtraining in athletes. Recognising these early and introducing rest, recovery, and a period of less intense training is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of burnout and overtraining syndrome. 

To summarise  

Increasing awareness of the risk factors associated with burnout and overtraining in youth sports is key to preventing burnout. 

Coaches, parents, teachers, and others should have an understanding of what causes burnout to reduce the risk. Also, those in a coaching position should strive to keep workouts fun and interesting, allow a minimum of 1 to 2 days of rest a week, and should schedule longer breaks from training every 2 to 3 months — perhaps during seasonal holidays, to further reduce the risk of burnout.

And finally, the argument against early sport specialisation should not be ignored. 

If a young athlete does not want to specialise in one sport, then they shouldn’t exclusively focus on that one sport. Instead, coaches, parents, and teachers may wish to consider encouraging multiple sport participation. Sport diversification keeps things fun and interesting, and may lead to enhanced skill development. And all the while potentially reducing the risk of burnout.

If you’re interested in reading more about burnout, you can read our blog post on athletic burnout and stress.

If you’re a coach reading this, check out Rewire for Teams – our platform that helps coaches train their athletes more effectively by prioritising mental wellness and preventing burnout. Book a free consultation here


References:

Brenner, J.S. and Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, 2007. Overuse injuries, overtraining, and burnout in child and adolescent athletes. Pediatrics, 119(6), pp.1242-1245.

DiFiori, J.P., Benjamin, H.J., Brenner, J.S., Gregory, A., Jayanthi, N., Landry, G.L. and Luke, A., 2014. Overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports: a position statement from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. British journal of sports medicine, 48(4), pp.287-288.

Gustafsson, H., Kenttä, G. and Hassmén, P., 2011. Athlete burnout: An integrated model and future research directions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4(1), pp.3-24.

Gustafsson, Henrik. “Burnout in competitive and elite athletes.” PhD diss., Örebro universitetsbibliotek, 2007.
Winsley, R. and Matos, N., 2011. Overtraining and elite young athletes. The elite young athlete, 56, pp.97-105.

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