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Adaptation is defined here as the end point in a process, when people respond in a positive manner to hardship, threat, and challenge, including monumental sport tests, such as international tournaments. Recently, there have been formal research investigations where adaptation has been considered as a provisional framework, with a more formal structure of pathways. Sport scholars have studied Olympic and professional athletes, provided support for a theoretical framework, and identified provisional substrategies for each pathway. In this article the authors situate adaptation within a larger discourse of related interventions, including coping and self-regulation. Subsequently, adaptation is proposed as a comprehensive intervention strategy for elite athletes during monumental sport environments.

This study addresses the development of adaptation techniques in one northern Canadian region based on the views of 14 National and International elite coaches. Respondents were from nine different sports and averaged 17.1 yrs of accumulated coaching experience (Range: 8-30 yrs). Data were gathered chronologically using structured open-ended questionnaires, focus groups, and afterwards, follow-up in-depth semi-structured interviews. Content was analyzed to uncover emergent themes. The respondents indicated that elite coaches from their region learn adaptation by (a) cooperating, (b) reframing positively, and (c) coping with their limitations. Further, the respondents elucidated how they use geographical limitations to teach two context specific adaptation skills to aspiring athletes and coaches: (a) psychological adaptation and (b) physical adaptation. Generic coaching strategies across geographical regions are questioned and suggestions regarding elite coaching in small communities are provided.

In this paper, the authors share how a career assistance program was developed, implemented, and evaluated with a Swedish elite handball team. Within this case study, the initial version of the career assistance program’s content was created based on the career-long psychological support services in a Swedish handball framework and the first author’s applied experiences. During implementation, the head coach was terminated unexpectedly, and the team appeared in a crisis. This transitional situation led to modification of the career assistance program to help the players cope with changes. Eighteen players took part in eight workshops dealing with various aspects of their sport and nonsport life (e.g., performance, training, lifestyle, recovery, and future planning) with crisis-related issues (e.g., coping with uncertainty) incorporated. Mixed-methods evaluation revealed the players’ perceived increase in personal resources (awareness and skills) and decrease in stress and fatigue. Reflections on working in applied sport psychology from a holistic perspective in a dynamic real-life setting are provided.

This study was aimed at capturing the components comprising shared mental models (SMM) and the training methods used to address SMM in one athletic program context. To meet this aim, two soccer coaches from the same collegiate program were interviewed and observed extensively during practices and games throughout the 2009–2010 season. In addition, documents (e.g., players’ positioning on free kicks sheet) from the soccer program were reviewed. The data were analyzed inductively through a thematic analysis to develop models that operationalize SMM through its components, and training. Game intelligence and game philosophy were the two main operational themes defining SMM. Moreover, four themes emerged for SMM training: (a) the setting, (b) compensatory communication, (c) reinforcement, and (d) instruction. SMM was embedded within a more comprehensive conceptual framework of team chemistry, including emotional, social, and cognitive dimensions. Implications of these conceptual frameworks are considered for sport psychologists and coaches.

The study of adaptation in elite sport delineates the adjustment strategies of amateur and professional athletes during career transitions (e.g., promotion, relocation). Fiske (2004) recently identified 5 core motives as the vehicles to adaptation: belonging, understanding, controlling, self-enhancement, and trusting. The goal was to verify and contextualize these core motives with 2 respondent groups of professional athletes from the National Hockey League. The groups consisted of those experiencing rookie adaptation and veteran adaptation. A total of 58 athletes were divided into groups representing the Canadian mainstream, Canadian Aboriginal culture, and Europe. There were 175 newspaper articles that were retrieved using online and library resources. The similarities and discrepancies in and across groups provides insight into this hard-to-reach population.

Olympic-medal performances represent peak accomplishments in athlete development. Seanor, Schinke, Stambulova, Ross, and Kpazai identified environmental factors in a high-performance Canadian trampoline sport environment that developed decorated Olympic medalists. The current intrinsic case study was authored to further highlight the idiosyncrasies of a high-performance trampoline environment (re)presenting stories garnered from this localized Canadian sport environment. Through guided walks, a mobile method of conversational interviews, three contextual experts who are engaged in the development of Olympic athletes provided tours of their sport environment. Each contextual expert’s guided walk played out uniquely in relation to his or her ascribed role (i.e., Olympic coach, assistant coach, and Olympic champion). Three main themes were identified through interpretive thematic analysis: creating lift (subthemes: facility design, sport-culture paragons), providing a tailwind (subthemes: establishing athlete–coach partnerships, team interactions), and soaring onto the Olympic podium (subthemes: preparing athletes to be untethered, competitive collaboration). Each theme is presented through three portrait vignettes, with discrete vantages derived from each contextual expert to illuminate the context from idiosyncratic ascribed roles within the environment. These stories create a rich (re)presentation of a high-performance sport environment through the interplay of the contextual experts’ narratives, their surrounding context, and their Olympic-podium accomplishments.

Elite gymnastics sport culture is presently under global scrutiny. Largely ignited by the highly publicized case of serial sexual abuses in USA Gymnastics, multiple national gymnastics teams have disclosed stories of athlete abuse. Our author team utilized media data to investigate the serial sexual abuses that occurred on the Brazilian Men’s Gymnastics Team. Using media data to conceptualize athlete maltreatment is novel and facilitated our holistic interpretation of athlete maltreatment across multiple levels of athletes’ developmental systems. The authors traced the media coverage temporally and identified four overarching themes: (a) uncovering the case (subthemes—the Brazilian sport context; the Brazilian men’s gymnastics context; the club context), (b) before abuse was identified (subthemes—the coach–athlete dyad: before disclosure; the athlete: a lost childhood; social connectivity: isolation; the gymnastics system: mechanisms of abuse), (c) when abuse was recognized (subthemes—the coach–athlete dyad: athlete resistance; the athlete: identifying the impact; social connectivity: building connections; the gymnastics system: consequences of abuse), and (d) the legacy of abuse (subthemes—the coach–athlete dyad: ongoing abuses; the athlete: cyclical victimization; social connectivity: expanding connections; the gymnastics system: after abuse). Utilizing media data facilitated our culturally contextualized interpretation of athlete abuse to present tailored recommendations for practitioners.