Compose a 2250 words assignment on burnout in sport and its prevention. Needs to be plagiarism free! One of my most vivid memories of childhood was my fascination for watching candles being lit up. I derived unexplainable pleasure as I patiently watched a candle staying aglow amidst the gushing wind and burning through until all the paraffin wax had been melted while only the wick remains aflame and slowly dims till the last glow burns out. At times, some of the candles I watched died out sooner than all the wax can melt. In my own little way, I felt frustrated when a candle burned out halfway. These were my crudest and earliest perceptions of burning out. About a decade and a half ago, however, as I heard an old country tune by Neil Young bellowing out the lyrics “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”, I have a firmer grasp of the burnout issue and I told myself that probably, Michael Jordan shared Young’s conviction. Who could ever forget former Chicago Bulls’ supercharger Michael Jordan leaving basketball in 1993 at the height of his career and popularity, because of burnout?

Findings from a number of research studies showed that the burnout problem is real and escalating. The Gustafsson (2007)&nbsp. study of a total of 980 athletes from 29 different individual sports and 6 team sports divulged that the percentage of athletes who exhibited high levels of burnout was found to be between 1 and 9 percent, while those suffering from severe burnout was from one to two percent. Research conducted by Hughes&nbsp. (in Rice, 2007) of 534 Gaelic football players aged 16 to 24, classified the participants based on three age levels : the minors, who comprised the 16 – 18 years old level. the&nbsp. U-21 and college level, who consisted of those 19 – 21 years of age. and the young senior inter-county players, who are made up of those 22 – 24 years of age. Results showed that close to 10 percent of the study participants, the majority of whom are in the 22 -24 age, the range was in the advanced stages of burnout and draws little fulfillment in their sport.