Coaches Must Recognize the Signs of Overtraining in Athletes
Overtraining is the most common form of burnout in sports. Luckily, unlike other forms of burnout, overtraining burnout is temporary. Once a coach or athlete identifies it, changes to an athlete’s routine can quickly help them recover and get back to normal.
Just like it sounds, overtraining is when an athlete trains too much without allowing adequate time for rest. Often, this is the result of an athlete wanting to stay at their peak for one big event after another. Consequently, they sacrifice rest and as a result train at their peak for too long. But it’s impossible for an athlete to peak for an entire season.
Peaks become plateaus, and plateaus ultimately end in valleys. I like to call these valleys of perpetual fatigue. It’s these valleys of perpetual fatigue that makes overtraining the root cause of unexplained drops in an athlete’s performance. Moreover, an unexplained drop in performance is the penultimate sign of burnout.
When the stakes are high, instincts say “no days off” is the right mindset. It could be a prolonged play-off run, a series of matchups against rivals, or the pursuit of a ranking or scholarship. It could even be all this back-to-back-to-back that drives an athlete to think “no days off” is the only choice. Indeed, for elite athletes is seems that these life changing events are always right around the corner.
The Early Signs of Overtraining
However, taking “no days off” doesn’t make you more prepared for high stakes events, it makes you less prepared once you cross the line of overtraining. So, it can be a game changer if a coach can identify the early signs of overtraining as an athlete pursues their goals. It’s in the early detection of overtraining that gives athlete’s the best opportunity to still be able to peak at the right times.
With that said, here are the primary signs of overtraining that coaches must recognize and monitor.
- An unexplained drop in the athlete’s performance when training routines have not changed otherwise.
- A noticeable change in the athlete’s memory.
- The athlete repeatedly makes bad decisions around time management or practice habits.
- A sudden loss of self-motivation or the athlete needs to be pushed more than normal.
- The athlete begins to show no self-control in their diet, sleeping, or limiting guilty pleasures.
The best thing a coach can do once they suspect overtraining is to force the athlete to take a week off for rest. Various studies show that athletes won’t lose conditioning, muscle memory, or strength after as much as two weeks of rest. In fact, these studies show that several days of rest after intense training will actually improve performance.
In short, if peaking at the right time is the goal, rest must be part of the process. Moreover, planned rest is better than forced recovery.