An Analysis of Burnout in Islamic Republic of Iran National Team Swimmers: A Qualitative Study.

Poster Presentation
Paper ID : 1502-12THCONG
Oral / Poster Presentation File: 1502-12THCONG.jpg 
Authors
1Dep of Sport Psychology,Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Tehran University
2Dept. of Motor Behavior and Sport Psychology, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University
Abstract
Along with the positive aspects, a wide range of negative phenomena also occur in sports, and among the negative aspects, burnout has increased among athletes. Burnout is defined as a state of fatigue or failure due to factors that cause an athlete to fail. Burnout is defined as a psychological syndrome consisting of three dimensions of emotional-physical exhaustion, decrease in the feeling of success, and value decreases in sport. Burnout is a response to chronic stress of continued demands in a sport or activity without the opportunity for physical and mental rest and recovery. Burnout is a syndrome of continual training and sport attention stress, resulting in staleness, overtraining and eventually burnout. Many athletes experiencing burnout report feeling trapped by circumstances of sports participation. The athlete first starts feels stale or overwhelmed, but is encouraged by coaches, strength staff, athletic trainers, teammates or parents to push through symptoms of overtraining and potential burnout to continue with a demanding schedule in order to feel a part of the team, maintain their starting position or keep their scholarship.
Method: In this qualitative study, phenomenological method was used. The study subject consisted of 7 male swimmers who were members of Islamic Republic of Iran swimming team. Semi-structured and in-depth interviews were used for data collection and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The most important causes of burnout in the swimmers of the Iranian national team are successive stress, persistent fatigue caused by back-to-back competitions, lack of scheduling for the tournament, repeated injuries, evaluation by self and others in the tournament results, lack of social support from the officials, Coach and family, over-training and lack of variety in training and camp conditions, coaching style, poor perceived competence, and improper recovery. According to the findings, athletes can be prevented by eliminating the causes of this factor from burnout. In addition, appropriate psychological interventions and the promotion of positive relationships in teams among athletes, officials and coaches, and the improvement of positive emotions among athletes also appear to be effective.
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