Statistics indicate that the overwhelming majority of NCAA Division I college athletes will not continue in their sport professionally (NCAA, 2019). Therefore, there is a need to develop a deeper understanding of the variables that influence college athletes’ psychological health and well-being as they transition to retirement. The present study gathered detailed information about 15 former NCAA Division I college athletes’ retirement experiences four to five months post retirement. The findings suggested that the former college athletes had varied retirement experiences ranging from negative to positive. All college athletes who reported having a successful retirement transition described having at least one identified support group, stated they accomplished their athletic goals, indicated they had started pursuing other interests, and identified some positive aspects about their lives since retirement. Alternatively, the college athletes who reported having an unsuccessful retirement transition revealed they did not accomplish most of their athletic goals and struggled to identify any positive aspects about their lives since retirement. The findings of this study highlight the diversity in college athletes’ retirement experiences that can occur. Although there is still much more to ascertain about athlete retirement, this exploration into college athletes’ retirement experiences offers practical implications for athletes, coaches, practitioners, and those who want to provide support for a retiring athlete.
Coach turnover is frequent, especially in collegiate sports in the United States. To date, however, there is limited research on how coach turnover might affect student-athletes. Accordingly, we aimed to qualitatively explore how coach turnover might influence student-athletes' psychosocial states and team dynamics in collegiate sports. Eleven athletic teams at a Midwestern Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association institution having undergone coach turnover during the past four years participated in the study. Four coaches and 21 student-athletes representing both individual and team sports, as well as two administrative staff members, participated in semi-structured interviews (coaches and administrators) and focus groups (student-athletes). Inductive data analysis revealed four first level themes: coach style and background, athlete affective states, team dynamics, and program culture. Our analysis suggested that, depending on their gender and coaching style, coaches might have a positive or negative impact on athletes' affective states (e.g. positive and negative affect), team dynamics (e.g. cohesion; athlete leadership), and the program culture. Thus, practitioners might facilitate the positive impact of coaching turnover by assessing whether the new coach is a 'good fit' at the individual (micro), team (meso), and environmental (macro) level of analysis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.