Desperate to quit: A narrative analysis of burnout and recovery in sports coaching

3 This study investigated how the experiences of two elite coaches' contributed to and shaped 4 their stories of burnout and withdrawal from high performance coaching. The coaches whose 5 narratives we explore were both middle-aged head coaches, one in a major team sport at the 6 highest club level, and one in an individual Olympic sport at international level. Through a 7 thematic narrative analysis, based on in-depth interviews, the stories of the two coaches are 8 presented in four distinct sections: antecedents, experiences of coaching with burnout 9 symptoms, withdrawal from sport, and the process of recovery and personal growth. These 10 narratives have implications for high performance coaching, such as the importance of role 11 clarity, work-home inference, counselling, mentoring, and social support as means to 12 facilitate recovery, and the need for additional research with coaches who have left sport, to 13 gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complete burnout-recovery process. 14