Learning from sport burnout and overtraining

Do you have experience of dedicated sport or fitness training – either as a participant, a coach or as a parent supporting your child? Are you interested to find out how some individuals may be adversely impacted by their commitment to training?In this free course Learning from sport burnout and overtraining, you will meet a number of sports people who have become successful in their sport as a result of their dedication to training. You will also encounter others who have suffered psychologically and fallen out of love with their sport.This ‘burnout’ may be caused by a range of different contributing factors that you will explore from different perspectives. In doing so, you will gain a deeper understanding of the physical and mental aspects of sport such as athletic identity, overtraining and perfectionism.Throughout this course, you will study sports people who have experienced overtraining, which is often a pre-cursor to burnout, but who have successfully returned to later career success. By the end of the course you will also have a better understanding of your own work or training situation and the balance between physical and emotional stress and recovery.The course is introduced by sport psychologist Kate Goodger. She is one of the most experienced performance psychologists in British Olympic sport having worked with athletes at seven Olympic Games and has researched burnout extensively.   TranscriptEnrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation – which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.

• Introduction and guidance
• Introduction and guidance
• What is a badged course?
• How to get a badge
• Acknowledgements
• Session1Session 1: What is burnout?
• Introduction
• 1 Case study: Jonathan Trott
• 1.1 Jonathan Trott: the TV documentary
• 2 How does the research literature describe burnout?
• 3 Case study: Ellie Simmonds
• 4 The drip, drip, drip effect of stress
• 5 Gould’s research into tennis
• 6 What can you learn from burnout?
• 7 This session’s quiz
• 8 Summary of Session 1
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session2Session 2: Perspectives of burnout
• Introduction
• 1 Case study: Elinor Barker
• 2 Four main perspectives of burnout
• 3 How can you measure burnout?
• 4 Fifteen factors influencing burnout
• 5 The sport psychologist’s viewpoint
• 6 This session’s quiz
• 7 Summary of Session 2
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session3Session 3: Exploring identity and overtraining
• Introduction
• 1 Identity: what do burned out athletes say?
• 2 Case study: Steve Magness
• 3 What is your identity?
• 4 Overtraining and burnout
• 5 The physiology of overtraining
• 6 The fine line between overreaching and overtraining
• 7 Learning from the physiology
• 8 This session’s quiz
• 9 Summary of Session 3
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session4Session 4: Insights into overtraining
• Introduction
• 1 Individual vs. situational influences
• 2 Insight: recovery is training
• 3 Insight: the health risks of underrecovery
• 4 Insight: less is more
• 5 Insight: a medical assessment
• 6 Insight: surveillance or support?
• 6.1 The reliability of monitoring
• 7 This session’s quiz
• 8 Summary of Session 4
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session5Session 5: What role does motivation and perfectionism play?
• Introduction
• 1 Why is a sense of control important in motivation?
• 2 Case study: Victoria Pendleton
• 2.1 Pendleton’s expectations: motivational climates in sport
• 2.2 Needs supportive coaching
• 2.3 Pendleton and the psychiatrist: a decade later
• 3 Perfectionism: a double-edged sword?
• 4 Case study: Jono Kitto
• 5 Two types of perfectionism: which is a hindrance?
• 6 This session’s quiz
• 7 Summary of Session 5
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session6Session 6: Coaches and burnout
• Introduction
• 1 Case study: Ian Braid
• 2 The role of emotional labour
• 3 Case study: Andy (athletics coach)
• 4 Past caring: depersonalisation
• 5 Case study: Molly (figure skating)
• 6 This session’s quiz
• 7 Summary of Session 6
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session7Session 7: Managing those on a burnout path
• Introduction
• 1 A tailored response to burnout
• 2 Preventing overtraining
• 3 Needs supportive coaching
• 4 Creating a mastery motivational climate
• 5 A short recap: the three preventative strategies
• 6 Parental involvement and early specialisation
• 7 Fostering a broad identity
• 8 Tips for parenting children in sport
• 9 This session’s quiz
• 10 Summary of Session 7
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session8Session 8: Reducing burnout using psychological strategies
• Introduction
• 1 The range of strategies
• 2 Managing setbacks: the self-compassion strategy
• 3 Case study: John Bergland
• 4 Goal setting for reducing burnout
• 5 Goal setting for athletes experiencing burnout
• 6 The social support strategy
• 7 Categories of social support
• 8 Helping athletes feel supported
• 9 Bringing it all together: how can you help manage burnout?
• 10 This session’s quiz
• 11 Summary of Session 8
• Where next?
• Tell us what you think
• References
• Acknowledgements