Career pathways in high performance sport include a number of emotionally resonant transitions. Sport systems must be able to effectively support the athlete’s endeavors to negotiate such challenges. This study investigated qualitatively the experiences of Olympic athletes who took part in a three-tier, post-games career transition support program. The aim of the program was to increase athletes’ coping resources to successful negotiate the post-Olympic period. Ten athletes who participated in the program were recruited to participate in semi structured individual interviews. Directed content analysis was employed to identify key themes in the data. Athletes perceived two components of the program as particularly helpful, the normalization of the emotional and psychological challenge of the post Games period and the use of problem focused coping to redirect athlete focus to the future. The findings from this study provide a preliminary framework for the planning of future post-Games career transition support programs.
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Siobhain McArdle, Phil Moore, and Deirdre Lyons
Fleur E.C.A. van Rens and Edson Filho
, 2018 ). Career transitions to contemporary circus are thus common amongst athletes, and gymnasts in particular. However, little is known about the lived experiences of circus artists, as few systematic studies have considered this performance domain ( Ross & Shapiro, 2017 ). Given that practitioners in
Patrick H.F. Baillie and Steven J. Danish
Transition out of a career in sports has been suggested as being a difficult and disruptive process for many athletes. An early and enduring identification, familiarity, and preference for the role of athlete may cause its loss to be a significant stressor for the elite, Olympic, or professional athlete. The purpose of this paper is to describe the various aspects of the career transition process in sports, beginning with early identification with the role of athlete and continuing through retirement from active participation in competitive sports. Athletes are often poorly prepared for the off-time event of leaving sports, and traditional theories of retirement may not be suitable. People associated with athletes (coaches, peers, management, family members, and sport psychologists) and athletes themselves need to be aware of the potential for difficulty during their career transition.
Adson Alves da Silva, Gabriel Lucas Morais Freire, José Fernando Vila Nova de Moraes, Leonardo de Souza Fortes, Rodrigo Gustavo da Silva Carvalho, and José Roberto Andrade do Nascimento Junior
accomplishment. Significant correlation: * p < .05, ** p < .01—Pearson’s correlation. Table 4 shows the significant results ( p < .05) of the coping regression on the burnout symptoms in professional and amateur athletes who were in the career transition phase. The results indicated that coping strategies
David Lavallee
The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of a life development intervention on career transition adjustment in retired professional athletes. Intervention (n = 32) and control groups (n = 39) were recruited for this study, both of which contained recently retired male professional soccer players. Data were collected on measures of career termination adjustment and coping with transitions, and the intervention group also participated in a life development intervention package. Results revealed significant postintervention treatment group differences on career transition adjustment in favor of the life development intervention, while significant within-group differences on career transition adjustment over time were also achieved for the intervention group. Results are discussed in relation to the personal and developmental costs of pursuing performance excellence.
Sine Agergaard and Tatiana V. Ryba
With rising globalization and professionalization within sports, athletes are increasingly migrating across national borders to take up work, and their athletic and nonathletic development is thereby shaped and lived in different countries. Through the analysis of interviews with female professional transnational athletes, this article contextualizes and discusses arguments for developing an interdisciplinary framework to account for lived experiences of the close intertwining between transnational migration and career development in professional sports. By combining our psychological and sociological perspectives, we identify three normative career transitions for transnational athletes. First of all, transnational recruitment that draws on social networks as well as individual agency. Secondly, establishment as a transnational athlete that is connected to cultural and psychological adaptation as well as development of transnational belonging, and thirdly, professional athletic career termination that for transnational athletes is connected to a (re)constitution of one’s transnational network and sense of belonging.
Leonardo Ruiz, Judy L. Van Raalte, Thaddeus France, and Al Petitpas
themes were derived from the data: (a) athletes’ hopes and dreams, (b) stress, (c) faith, and (d) career transitions. Athletes’ Hopes and Dreams When reflecting on their hopes and dreams, these professional baseball players discussed two main areas, their hopes that they would play Major League Baseball
Kevin Patton and Melissa Parker
them to other PETE leaders. Participants recurrently commented on the importance of these relationships, networks of friends, and institutions/communities of doctoral students when committing to a career transition. Similar to McEvoy et al. ( 2019 ), participants shared a sense of being “let in” to the
Carolina Lundqvist
At some point, elite athletes will undoubtedly find themselves in a situation when their active elite career is finished. Career termination is one of the various naturally occurring transition phases elite athletes encounter, and career transitions often affect several parts of life at different
Monna Arvinen-Barrow, Kelsey DeGrave, Stephen Pack, and Brian Hemmings
transition. The process of career transition has typically been accompanied by changes in athletes’ self-perception, emotions, and relationships with those around them (e.g., Morris, Tod, & Oliver, 2015 ), and as such, are likely to have a significant impact on the athlete and their life beyond the
