When you enter the top tier of competitors in your swim career, it's natural to want to train as much as possible to better your times and increase endurance. But constantly pushing yourself at the pool might not be the best way to improve. Swimming burnout can affect even professional swimmers. Constantly spending time at the pool and completing the same drills and tasks can lead to feeling unfulfilled and tired. By knowing the signs of burnout, you can learn to treat the problem and prevent it from derailing your progress.
Symptoms
The symptoms of competitive swimming burnout can be both psychological and physical. You might feel constantly tired or heavy, and also can become obsessed with swimming. One of the most obvious places burnout manifests is in performance. Worse times, injuries and issues in the pool can be signs that you need a break, as can sudden weight loss or not functioning well in other areas of your life.
Causes
Competitive swimming burnout can be caused by myriad issues, but mostly the condition boils down to too much: Too much training, too much competing and even too much preoccupation with your swimming techniques and times. When you're training for an upcoming event or competition, it's only natural to want to train harder to improve your performance, but overdoing the training process can be exactly what causes burnout and subsequently poorer performance in competition.
Prevention
You can avoid burnout by switching up your training tactics. Doing the same thing day after day can put you into autopilot mode, in which swimming no longer excites or fulfills you. By training in a different body of water, using games for your workouts or finding a new training partner, you can switch up your training so that you're present at each practice. Knowing the signs of burnout and when to take a timeout also can help you prevent it.
Treatment
If you've already noticed that swimming burnout is affecting you in the water, take a day or two off from training. Enjoy hobbies and interests outside of the pool and take time away from your swim team and coach. Taking a one- or two-day break can help you to refocus your efforts so that when you come back from training, you're confident and happy to be there. Make friends at swim meets and through your swim team so that competitive swimming doesn't make you feel isolated or alone and learn to manage stress effectively so it doesn't affect your times in the water.
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