Issue 021

January 2007

By James Barraclough

The three main causes of withdrawal from sport (either voluntarily or enforced) are burnout, overtraining and injury. The three obviously also have links to each other – for example overtraining can lead directly to injury or burnout. I will be looking at how they can arise and what can be done to prevent them or minimise their effects.

Burnout

Firstly, burnout has been described as something brought on by continued exposure to stress associated with a certain activity. It can lead to physical, mental and emotional exhaustion and therefore causes a decreased level of functionality, in other words, poor performance. Research into burnout has shown that it can lead to chronic fatigue, poor sleep patterns, depression and increased vulnerability to illness due to a depleted immune system.

For professional athletes in any sport, burnout is a constant danger, particularly if they try to compensate for a lack of form by overtraining, or if they have few other interests outside their sport. When looking at stress in performers, it appears that to be involved in an activity in the first place an individual needs to feel they are making a ‘gain’ in terms of the rewards (e.g. money / trophies / confidence / respect) they gain from participation against the costs involved (e.g. time spent / anxiety brought about through physical and mental input).

Giving yourself a pat on the back

It would therefore seem to be important that an athlete makes sure that they are constantly getting rewards either through others or giving themselves a ‘pat on the back’ occasionally, especially as those most susceptible to burnout appear to have perfectionist tendencies - simply put, this means that no matter how well they perform, they always think they can do better, or believe that there performance was poor when in fact it may have been excellent. It is therefore extremely important that these athletes can deal with mistakes during their training/fights effectively to enable them to move on and not dwell on minor points.

Everyone makes mistakes; it is how you deal with them that separate the average from the elite. In this case it is important that good self-talk and thought re-structuring skills are learnt. These have been discussed in previous issues, but essentially mean that any negative thoughts are translated into positive ones, and any mistakes are quickly corrected via imagery and forgotten about. It is also necessary to develop good goal-setting skills i.e. you set yourself certain goals to achieve each week in training (for example improving concentration) according to whatever is the biggest priority, and you stick with that goal until it has been reached. You then give yourself a mental “congratulations” for getting there and set yourself a goal to tackle your next priority. It is also a good idea to see these little victories (and ones in the cage) as being down to your hard work and ability, but also to see any defeats as being down to other factors such as poor strategy or a lack of form. As the saying goes “form is temporary, class is permanent”.

Quality not quantity

Overtraining (combined with other stressful life situations) can lead to burnout and injury, so it is important to notice the warning signs before they get too much. It appears obvious to say that overtraining is counter-productive, as it can lead to staleness and a lack of motivation. The increased workload on your body also makes you more likely to become injured or ill, meaning time out from the sport and therefore putting you back behind where you would have been if you had paced yourself better (i.e. through goal-setting). So therefore, it is the quality, not quantity, of training that is important.

Other ways to prevent overtraining are to become involved in alternative activities (such as coaching or further education) and to take ‘active’ rather than passive rest. This may be massage, sauna, swimming, cycling or other sports not too similar to MMA. It may also be sensible to deal with any other stressors that are causing you to spend too much time training. These may be controllable (e.g. money worries), in which case a logical solution should be reachable with a bit of thought, or uncontrollable (like the break-up of a relationship), in which case relaxation exercises (such as centering or progressive muscular relaxation) can be employed. If necessary you can brainstorm all these problems on paper, as I do with my clients, so that it is down in a written form.

Recovery time

Injury is thought by some to be a similar process to that of grieving, in that it can lead to depression, anger and frustration. We have looked at a few ways of trying to avoid it by not overtraining, but if it does occur, there are ways we can try and reduce its impact. Again, goal setting can help motivation towards recovery in terms of where you should be at certain points. Self-talk and relaxation skills can also be very helpful.

Another tool that can be used, both to avoid overtraining and keep you sharper during your time off through injury, is imagery. This can provide a supplement to training to avoid over-exertion, or whilst injured can help maintain the ‘memory’ of your MMA skills. It is also important to share any problems with the relevant people (your coach, sport psychologist or physiotherapist). It is never good to go it alone in these circumstances.

The above skills should be learnt and practiced in everyday situations as well as in your training / fights so that they become automatic. To give you another saying “the best form of cure is prevention.” What you need to keep in mind is that overdoing it can possibly lead to the end of your career altogether, so remember to pace yourself and above all enjoy it. No matter at what level you participate, sport should still be about having fun.