5 A short recap: the three preventative strategies

Take a moment to pause and reflect on the three preventative strategies for burnout you have covered so far:

1. The first was aimed at preventing overtraining and underrecovery through encouraging time off and monitoring.
2. The second was needs supportive coaching (coaching style, language and behaviours) drawing from Self-determination theory.
3. The third was to create a mastery motivational climate aimed at encouraging expectations and goals related to improvement, effort and collaboration. This strategy draws from Achievement goal theory and is particularly suited to help manage the negative aspects of perfectionism (Lemyre et al., 2008).

These are all useful preventative strategies that can be employed by coaches (in particular) but also parents. The next set of strategies you will encounter focuses more on the steps parents can take to prevent overtraining and burnout in their child athletes. These include the strategies of reducing parental involvement and expectations (including avoiding early sports specialisation), fostering broad identities, and developing children’s healthy relationship with sport.