Burn out

The engine sputters and dies. The weary, rusty wheels forcefully push themselves to their limit, shaking with tension and weight from the heavy weight of the old, sad engine. This isn’t the little engine that thought “I think I can.” This is the weary engine that has had enough. Welcome to the burn out world.

Yes, a bit of a gloomy start to the usually cheerful blog you find here at Seminole HP tennis. But, still an important topic that touches junior players and professional players all the time; burn out does not discriminate. Something that is important to define right off the bat is the difference between burn out and tiredness. Yes, everyone is going to feel tired. Most competitive tennis players rarely go a day without playing through some sort of pain, whether it be simply sore muscles or tendonitis or more dilapidating injures like stress factures or nerve impingement. Often one of the most resilient of athletes, tennis players have to deal with no offseason; while the basketball team is resting, we’re still on the court. Time for football? Still time for tennis. So, it’s easy to see how, much like the engine analogy in the beginning, a tennis player can grow weary, of, well, tennis. Burn out is completely different from tiredness. It is a more mental aspect of tennis that comes with being on the court day in and day out. Sometimes burn out strikes when you play too often; your body gives in and so does your mentality. Sometimes burn out strikes with tournament losses and wins. You can feel burnt out if you feel like your working hard on the court but the results are not translating yet. Sometimes everything outside of tennis affects you, bringing you into a tailspin of emotion.

Burn out is tough, but you are tougher. It takes a team of support to get out of it, though. Family support, coach support, and most importantly, self-support, helps you get into tennis again and out of the burn out stage. Oftentimes the best remedy to burn out is rest. Finding something different in the game also helps; play with a new partner—go to a tournament alone to gain perspective as to how much your support system does behind the sidelines to help you with your game.  Focus on the positives (hard to do, and easy to say, I know), and slowly but surely, the wheels on the train will start to churn with their normal power and strength as before.   

Remember, your emotions are the slave to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions (Elizabeth Gilbert).