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Understanding coach burnout as a relational process: an autoethnographic case from high-performance trampoline.
Subaru Shintani1, Masaaki Sugita2, Jun Mizushima1
1Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan.
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
|June 1, 2026
Summary
Coach burnout is a gradual process of accumulating responsibilities and expectations, not a sudden breakdown. Understanding this temporal and relational aspect is key to supporting coach wellbeing in high-performance sports.
Area of Science:
- Sport Psychology
- Occupational Health
- Coaching Science
Background:
- Burnout is a significant issue in high-performance sports.
- Existing research often views burnout as an endpoint, overlooking its developmental nature.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the experience, interpretation, and response to burnout in a high-performance trampoline coach.
- To conceptualize burnout as a temporal and relational process within elite sport systems.
Main Methods:
- Autoethnographic case study design.
- Retrospective dialogic interviews and sustained reflexive engagement over an Olympic cycle.
Main Results:
- Burnout developed gradually due to accumulating relational responsibility, organizational expectations, and scrutiny.
- Commitment became binding, reducing interpretive flexibility and agency.
- Strain symptoms were normalized, delaying recognition; the pandemic disruption revealed accumulated strain.
- Responses included partial withdrawal and identity reconfiguration, not decisive recovery.
Conclusions:
- Coach burnout is a temporal and relational process of internalized responsibility.
- Addressing organizational and relational conditions is crucial for coach wellbeing in elite sport, beyond individual coping strategies.
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