Sources and Consequences of Athletic Burnout among College Athletes

It has been shown that it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to develop one’s talent in any field, including athletics (Ericsson, 1996). Given the amount of time, sacrifice, and effort needed to become an expert athlete, it is not surprising that researchers have been interested in examining burnout in competitive athletes (see: Cresswell Goodger, Gorely, Lavalle, Gould & Dieffenbach, 2002, for detailed reviews). While burnout has been defined in several ways, it can generally be viewed as a physical, social, and emotional withdrawal from a formerly enjoyable activity as a result of chronic stress and motivation concerns that is typically characterized by feelings of emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, and depersonalization/devaluation. In this review, research and theories on burnout in athletes are examined for the purposes of identifying sources of and consequences of burnout in collegiate athletes. Future research directions are identified as well as implications for protecting the health and welfare of student athletes.