Having a passion for sport can protect an athlete from burnout, as long as they're not obsessive about it, confirm researchers.

Tom Curran, of Victoria University in Melbourne, and colleagues, report their findings in a recent issue of the Journal of Sports Sciences.

Being driven by the best you can do is more productive way to strive that drive driven by fear, a sports psychologist says. (iStock)

"Obsessively passionate athletes invest hours and hours of training and there's no doubt that as a consequence they are likely to be great great sportspeople," Curran, who specializes in sport and exercise psychology, tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"But there's a lot of baggage that comes with obsessive passion that means that those people who carry it are more likely to have high levels of stress, anxiety, depressed mood and eventually things like burnout."

Burnout is a term sports psychologists use to describe a syndrome in which athletes lose all interest in their sport, fail to meet their goals, and have constant fatigue and depression, says Curran, who himself experienced a kind of burnout.

"I played tennis to quite a high level," he says. "I started out loving the game and ended up absolutely hating it and it was really interesting to me as to why that was the case. I wanted to understand what was going on to undercut the enjoyment."

Some research has found that personality characteristics such as perfectionism can increase the chance of burnout.

But Curran was interested in looking at the impact someone's motivation — what drives someone's passion — for playing sport had on burnout.

"Professional sportspeople obviously exhibit a high degree of passion for their support — but for some it goes well and for some it goes wrong," says Curran. "Why is that?"

2 types of passion

Curran says there are two types of passion and they can have very different effects.

Someone who has a "harmonious passion" for their sport likes the activity, enjoys doing their best at it, but doesn't let it take over other aspects of their life.

By contrast, someone who has an "obsessive passion" for their sport tends to feel compelled to do it and allows the sport to take over their whole life.

To look at the impact of these two kinds of passion on burnout, Curran and colleagues surveyed 173 young people who were training to be professional soccer players in the UK.

The survey probed the 13 to 18-year-old players' level of passion and whether it was harmonious or obsessive.

It also looked at whether the players' psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness were being met.

Harmonious passion 'protective'

Previous research has suggested that obsessive passion makes burnout worse but a definite link on that score was not found in this study, says Curran.

However, the survey did find a link between harmonious passion and low burnout rates amongst players.

"We found that harmonious passion had a negative relationship with burnout," says Curran."It the kids reported high on harmonious passion, they reported low on athlete burnout."

Players with high harmonious passion scores also reported high scores for having their psychological needs met.

Curran concludes this suggests a mechanism by which harmonious passion could protect against burnout.

"When kids are harmoniously passionate they feel more autonomous, they feel more competent and they feel more related, and as a result they demonstrate lower levels of burnout."

Offer unconditional support

Curran says obsessive passion results from a complex interaction between personality and the environment.

While athletes who are perfectionist are more likely to become obsessively passionate, he says other factors also play a role.

"If kids feel like they are only good at sport when they get positive feedback that's when they become more obsessive. They only feel good when they please others and feel high levels of stress when they don't," says Curran.

He says coaches and parents can encourage the development of harmonious passion in young players.

"It's really important that the support is unconditional on whether they win or lose and that it's all about the effort, it's all about trying hard," says Curran.

This is important in encouraging ongoing involvement in sport as a profession or simple as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Curran says many successful sports people are driven by harmonious passion and it does not detract from performance.

"We're not saying that athletes don't need to have that drive but if you're driven by fear or the need to sustain your sense of self worth then that can be counterproductive," says Curran.

"If you're driven by the best you can do, that's a much more productive way to strive."