The Reason And Recovery Of Athlete Burnout In Chinese Elite Swimmers

With the development of Chinese swimming team, athlete burnout has been the most important factor which confines elite athletes’ achievements. In order to discover the characteristics of athlete burnout in Chinese elite swimmers, provide effective guidance to decrease burnout syndrome, the present research interviewed ten athletes and five coaches in Chinese national swimming team. All the interviews were interpreted into texts word by word for inductive content analysis. The results showed:(1) the reason of burnout of elite swimmers consisted of environmental factors and psychological factors. Environmental factors included training, organization and life factors, and psychological factors included worry about career, champion effect, lack of confidence and lack of passion. (2) the recovery measures of burnout of elite swimmers were used from coaches and athletes. Coaches provided social supporting, changed stimulus, improved athlete’s feeling of control, and athletes themselves treated burnout positively, avoided properly, seek support and found external factors. Through the analysis of research results, we found some characteristics of burnout in Chinese elite swimmers. From the perspective of burnout reasons, we found that physiological fatigue of athlete and organizational factors played important roles in the influence on athletes’ burnout. The psychology causes of swimmers had their own characteristics, which are worry about career, champion effect, lack of confidence, and lack of passion. From the perspective of burnout recovery, we found that athlete engagement, mental toughness and gratitude, social supports, and feeling of control were crucial to improving the recovery of burnout. Finally, from the perspective of eliminating imbalance between external requirements and athletes resources, research put forward some control measures for coaches, parents and athletes to reduce athlete burnout. Specifically, coaches could adjust training plan, change training method, set up right motivations and goals, and give athletes autonomous rights. Parents should help athletes to participate in diverse training, to gain different experience. Athletes should recognize own stress condition and grasp the method of stress management.