Are you experiencing BURNOUT or is your child going through it?

We’re all susceptible to it. No one is immune. Let’s talk about how to work through burnout because recognizing it & beating it are part of mastering the mental game!

Burnout is not an indication of being weak or that it’s time to quit your sport, but you need to know how to deal with it.

Burnout often looks like this:

• Low energy in something you used to enjoy
• Little motivation; training feels monotonous
• Physical & emotional exhaustion
• Bad attitude
• Feel stuck or in a plateau
• Stressed or anxious over technique

How you respond to feelings of burnout is the difference between quitting & finding fun in your sport again!

KNOW THIS: experiencing a plateau in training is NOT burnout. This is common. Best way to overcome this is to reset your expectations & increase focus.

So many concentrate on the outcome & this big goal they want to achieve, but being about the process helps tremendously with avoiding burnout. Be about your effort & how to reach the goal, or what you can adapt to allow your brain to perceive control.

Burnout often comes from these situations:

• Feeling like you HAVE TO train, compete, eat right
• Feeling obligated to compete for someone else (value is placed on success in the sport unintentionally)
• Setting unrealistic goals
• Extremely concerned about mistakes, judgement, & not being good enough
• Defining how you see yourself based on your performance
• Feeling like you HAVE TO measure up to what is expected of you

How do you start to overcome burnout?

You need to be aware of “over training” Can you train more deliberately & purposefully?

We know overtraining often creates injuries, but we forget it also creates burnout. Sometimes coaches & parents advise their athletes to do more & most of the time doing “more” isn’t better. Train smarter, not harder – yep, it’s more than a cliché phrase.

Revisit ‘why you compete” in your sport.

Make a list of why you do it, why it’s worth it, what you want to accomplish, if the sacrifices are worth the glory, & just what you sport does for you. Sounds trivial, but writing this WHY LIST down actually allows the brain to “toughen up & push through” on hard training days.

We think we know why, but thoughts consume our brain space, but seeing our why written out gives us clarity, frees up space, & helps us check in on our current situation vs 5 yrs ago.

Rest & recover.

Athletes hate this one, BUT recovery should be scheduled in. Rest resets the brain & the body. There is such a thing as under resting.

Take naps, fuel properly, always be hydrated replace potassium, magnesium, & vitamins, do the stretching, the foam rolling, the mental exercises. Do the recovery – that’s part of the training, not an afterthought.

Make sure practice & competition isn’t your entire life.

You need balance. Simple, but 71% of athletes quite their sport at 13 yrs old because they start so young & compete every weekend. It’s all they know & then they get tired of it.

You can be obsessed with getting better or competing at the next level & STILL HAVE BALANCE. This actually allows your sport to be sustainable.

Live by this: quality of practice not quantity.

Find a coach who supports this philosophy. You will be more invested in the way you train & you actually end of reaping the benefit.

Have variation in your training.

Whether it’s in your strength training, PT exercises, private lessons, days per week, drills you do, conditioning, songs to motivate you, what you’ll focus on that day, gamify practice – how many times in a row did you compete something, what’d you earn, how’d you control emotions, etc. Build in variety to avoid monotony.

Make a list of things you like to do for fun.

How often are you doing stuff on here? Schedule fun. Yes for real. We’re constantly trying to improve or keep up with competition, that we forget to make time for fun – fun that isn’t related to your sport, even if it’s still fun, so that it remains fun.

Aim to do one recharge thing every day.

This is crucial. It doesn’t have to take up much time. Its purpose is to reset, relax, & have something to look forward to. Maybe you only have 10 min, set a timer, but give yourself time to recharge your mental battery for your training/school/work.

What do I do sometimes: impromptu dance party, throwing balls with my dogs, reading, watching funny videos, researching vacations spots, FaceTiming my nephew. I think we tend to view “recharging” activities as wasting time, but in reality, this makes us feel like we have choice & autonomy can prevent burnout.

Guess what? Maximize the Mind teaches athletes how to overcome burnout.