Performance
Researchers combine athlete journeys with sport psychology to explain how training culture, identity, stress, and coaching can produce overtraining.
The surroundings of an athlete do two different things. They push the athlete to train more, and they also change how much rest that athlete needs. In the authors' account, the risk comes from both together, not from the training load alone.
In the authors' composite case of a professional athlete, worn-out slogans from a tough sport culture become the athlete's own inner voice. Add money pressures and traditional harsh practices, and the athlete keeps pushing past breaking point. This is a case built from interviews, not clinical evidence.
Harsh coaching and a parent who is too involved can push a young athlete into training patterns that last after the athlete changes sport. The authors place part of the cause in other people's behaviour, not only in the athlete's choices.