Psychological burnout and its relationship to personal characteristics among coaches of the Middle Euphrates football clubs

Abstract

The coach's mission is one of the most difficult tasks, and coaches must have personal and psychological characteristics that qualify them to lead their teams and players and enable them to deal with club administrations and fans and bear the psychological pressures they are exposed to, which allows them to make sound and accurate decisions. Although the phenomenon of burnout is not new to sports activities in general and football in particular, and is caused by the many pressures that those concerned with this game are exposed to, especially coaches, due to the heavy burdens that fall on them, and thus coaches are the most vulnerable to this phenomenon, especially those who are devoted to this game. Therefore, coaches must have personal traits that are consistent with the requirements of the game, and their lack of positive specifications may expose them to psychological pressures that may negatively affect their work performance and perhaps their social and health status, which may lead them to the phenomenon of burnout and thus leave the coaching profession. The research aims to identify the degree of psychological burnout enjoyed by football coaches and personal characteristics in the clubs of the Middle Euphrates, in addition to identifying the nature of the relationship between the degree of psychological burnout and the personal characteristics of the research sample. The researchers used the descriptive approach (survey studies) to suit the nature of the research problem. The researchers used the scale prepared by (Reiner Martens) for psychological burnout, which was translated by Osama Kamel Rateb, and this scale contains ten paragraphs prepared for the purpose of measuring the phenomenon of psychological burnout. The researchers also used the Cattell test for personal characteristics, which is one of the comprehensive and accurate tests that measures sixteen personality traits, which allows understanding the personality of the coach. The research sample included 16 coaches from some football club coaches in the governorates (Babylon, Karbala, Najaf, Qadisiyah). The researchers concluded the following: Most coaches are exposed to the phenomenon of psychological burnout, as their percentage reached 75% of the total sample. Most of the personal traits of football coaches are concentrated in the middle of the scale and rarely lean towards the right or left. It became clear that there is a correlation between some traits such as shyness, anxiety and conscientiousness with the phenomenon of burnout among football coaches.