‘A toxic culture of overwork’: The graduate student mental health crisis

Re:‘A toxic culture of overwork’: The graduate student menta... by icelancer on Sunday March 17, 2019 @03:29AM (#19412733)

> From what I understand, successful professional athletes tend to train very hard during dedicated practice hours (something like 30 hours per week), but then have rich lives outside their training, get enough sleep every night, etc.

I train hundreds of professional athletes. The majority of them do not have rich lives outside of their training. Most of them have very unbalanced lives that center around their sport, training, and everything to do with it. Most relationships fail inside pro sports for several obvious reasons.

Most have some form of mental health issues.

We watch them on TV and we expect greatness, but as long as it is not us paying the cost to get there, we don't mind.

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Re:‘A toxic culture of overwork’: The graduate student menta... by jacobolus on Sunday March 17, 2019 @03:35AM (#19412753)

Thanks for the reply. How much do the athletes you train practice?

Do you think the exclusive focus helps their performance at their sport?

Do you think competition selects for people with mental health problems, or causes mental health problems?

Is there a noticeable difference between athletes who burn out in a few years vs. the ones who have long careers?

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Re:‘A toxic culture of overwork’: The graduate student menta... by icelancer on Sunday March 17, 2019 @03:40AM (#19412772)

> Thanks for the reply. How much do the athletes you train practice?

Some 30 hours a week in the off-season. Additionally, many have off-season jobs to make ends meet. Pro sports isn't all what it's cracked up to be. Not all of them play on TV.

> Do you think the exclusive focus helps their performance at their sport?

Likely.

> Do you think competition selects for people with mental health problems, or causes mental health problems?

Yes.

> Is there a noticeable difference between athletes who burn out in a few years vs. the ones who have long careers?

Genetic ability first, preparation second. If you are an extremist, you might get preparation to exceed your genetic lottery ticket. But I've only seen that happen once.

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