Competitive sport : when does it become unhealthy?

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate whether body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating habits are prevalent among competitive Maltese athletes. It also sought to explore training frequency and duration among the same sample in an effort to understand if Maltese athletes are affected by the overtraining syndrome. A quantitative approach was used by distributing a non standardized questionnaire to one hundred and fifty athletes of varying ages and from a wide range of sporting disciplines. The sample in this study was made up of 96 males and 54 females (N = 150). All the athletes in the sample were National competitors, first division team players or athletes at the top level locally in their sport. The results obtained show that most of these athletes are highly motivated to succeed in their respective sport. It has also been shown that for the most part, the athletes believe in adhering to a healthy daily eating plan, nevertheless, some signs of over consciousness insofar as body image is concerned were evident. This finding was more prominent in the female athletes. Furthermore, the study shows that a large number of the athletes, both male and female are psychologically stressed if they miss a training session which leads them to suffer guilty feelings. The behaviour of some of the athletes towards training could imply that certain overtraining symptoms are present. From these findings, it is evident that a deeper understanding of the symptoms leading to these disorders is vital. A serious necessity for coaches to recognise traits and intervene affectively together with the knowledge to deal with athletes psychologically as well as physically is imperative.