Assessment of the transition from junior-to-senior sports in Swedish athletes

Abstract

The objectives of this study were (1) to explore the Transition Monitoring Survey (TMS) for assessing athletes' transition from junior-to-senior sports, (2) to describe the transition from junior-to-senior sports in Swedish athletes based on the TMS data, and (3) to explore how the transition variables contribute to the athletes' perceived degree of adjustment to the senior level and to their sport and life satisfaction. The TMS was developed based on career development/transition frameworks and previous qualitative research on the transition from junior-to-senior sports. Altogether 416 participants organized in three samples were involved in this exploratory study. The study illuminated the strong points of the TMS as a theoretically based and culturally adapted instrument, but it also shed a light on some deficits of the TMS that should be eliminated in its further use in transition research.

Transições no processo de desenvolvimento de atletas do basquetebol feminino

“…e presence of injuries was also observed in the development of Brazilian 14 , American 16 and Swedish 18 athletes, from team and individual sports, showing that injuries are common in sports scene, whether they present major or minor gravity.…”

“…However, the transition period can turn into crisis if the athlete is not able to manage the demands of transition, which can request assistance or psychological intervention 1 . The analysis of investigations around the transitions present in the athletic development demonstrated the authors' recent initiative to address this issue in national reality 3,10 , which reinforces the socialized literature by international studies conducted over the past two decades 7,[11][12][13][14][15][16] and indicates the relevance of the phenomenon studied for understanding the sports development process. erefore, this study aims to investigate the transitions present in the development of athletes belonging to a prominent club in the formation of women's basketball players, in order to understand the phenomenon and contribute to the expansion of studies on the subject.…”

“…To overcome the instability caused by di erent sports transitions, athletes often seek support in social relations throughout life. Despite the stress generated by the transitions be strongly in uential in a sports career, the social support provided to athletes, whether in terms of emotional support or advice on sports issues, has been recognized as essential for them to face the everyday athletic barriers 9,16 . In addition, the positive emotional support arising mainly from parents seems to have strong in uence in this process, as it increases the chances of athletes progressing to higher stages of their careers 12 .…”

“…When athletes begin their participation in adult competitions or start to train with colleagues of this category, they enter a phase that requires correspondence with a group of new requirements in order to remain successful in sport 16 . A research that investigated the sporting career transitions of Swedish individual sports athletes revealed that personal resources, as a process of coping, motivation, self-expectations and personal skills, become crucial to overcome negative transitions 16 .…”

“…Transitions faced by athletes throughout their sports careers reveal, increasingly, the importance of managing the demands of social life, lifestyle and studies with the harder demands in sports context 16 . In this perspective, it has been believed that the task of concealing sport and other important demands of life becomes fundamental for athletes to progress (or not) toward new transitions in their carreers 7,11 .…”