ABSTRACT
After analyzing data from fifteen in-depth interviews with young former athletes, all but one from individual sports, Coakley concluded that burnout was grounded primarily in the organization of the high performance sports in which these young people had played. Burnout occurred when the young people felt they had lost control over their lives and had no chance to develop and nurture selves apart from the sport they played. This combination of having no control and having a unidimensional identity was associated with high levels of stress and a decline in the fun which the athletes experienced in their sports. As stress increased and fun decreased, they burned out. Therefore, burnout was connected with how sport programs were organized and how sport experiences were connected with developmental issues during adolescence. When being a young athlete interferes with developing desired identities apart from sports, and precludes establishing the autonomy and independence so important during adolescence, burnout is likely. Coakley concludes that burnout is best prevented by finding ways to empower athletes in high performance sports and to change the social organization of the sport contexts in which they train and compete.
