Career transitions in sport: European perspectives

Abstract

Background and purpose Sport psychologists have, since the 1970-1980s, focused their attention on the concept of transitions faced by athletes. While originally described in terms of anecdotal evidence of the process of retirement from high-level competitive and professional sports, the concept of transitions has, during the past decade, become a well delineated topic of study among the sport psychology community. This introductory article provides an overview of the major developments within this thematic field of research, as well as a description of the pallet of interventions used with athletes in transition. In conclusion, avenues for further research and future developments in working with athletes are proposed. Methods Use was made of the references on the topic of career transitions faced by athletes in highlevel competitive and professional sports -a number which has steadily grown during the past decade -including journal publications, thematic books, conference symposia and workshop abstracts, position statements and publications by a special interest group on career transitions in sports. Results and conclusions Analysis reveals that the concept of transition is currently viewed in a holistic, life-span perspective which spans the athletic and post-athletic career and which includes transitions occurring in the athletic career as well as those occurring in other domains of athletes' lives. This "beginning-to-end" approach is illustrated with a developmental model on transitions faced by athletes at athletic, individual, psychosocial, and academic/vocational level. At the level of interventions, analysis suggests that the focus in interventions with athletes in transition has shifted from the use of traditional therapeutic approaches to cope with the possible traumatic experience of the termination of the athletic career, to that of career transitions and athlete life skill programs aimed at providing support and education to athletes making athletic and non-athletic transitions. Finally, suggestions for future conceptual developments include the need to extent the available knowledge on, among others, the characteristics of specific transitions (e.g., non-normative transitions, in-career transitions), on the influence of sport-, gender-or cultural-specific factors in the quality of the transitional process, as well as on the user-friendliness and applicability of sports career transition interventions and programs across the range of athletes.

Sport Transitions as Epiphanies

“…Research in understanding athlete career transitions in sport has commonly focused on preventing negative transition in order to assist elite athletes (e.g., Pearson & Petitpas, 1990), either transitioning out of/within sport (cf., (Sinclair & Orlick, 1993;Stambulova, Stephan, & Japhag, 2007;Wylleman, Alfermann, & Lavallee, 2004; or adjusting to the differences of contextual and structural differences of new competitive levels, often on elite tracks (e.g., Bruner, MunroeChandler, & Spink, 2008;Debois, Ledon, Argiolas, & Rosnet, 2012). This work is important as findings have indicated that negative transitions are often associated with detrimental sport participation outcomes from a sport development perspective.…”

Análisis de las barreras percibidas por los deportistas de élite españoles para acceder a los estudios

“…El desarrollo de una carrera deportiva de alto nivel, exige, en general, una década de plena dedicación para obtener la experiencia necesaria en un deporte donde se competirá de cinco a diez años (Wylleman, Alfermann, y Lavallee, 2004). divide la carrera deportiva en diferentes etapas especí cas: iniciación, aprendizaje, comienzo de la competición, competición al máximo nivel y retirada deportiva.…”

Perspectiva ecológica na determinação de percursos desportivos contrastantes em jovens futebolistas

“…Os resultados relativos à presença do sistema escolar na vida desportiva dos jovens não apresentaram uma ligação negativa con rmado na literatura por P et al 52 e não corroboram as a rmações de W et al 68 e W e L 69 de que jovens atletas envolvidos no desporto de competição têm di culdade de conciliar estudos e vida desportiva, também em contexto europeu [70][71] . Em contraste com estudos anteriores que associam os clubes sociais de bairro com pouco incentivo ao estudo, os jovens do COP percecionam a importância que os outros (pais, diretores, treinadores) atribuem à escola, veri cando-se um maior comprometimento com a escola.…”