The development of an athletes' career transition support programme: a case study

Citation

Park S, Tod D & Lavallee D (2011) The development of an athletes' career transition support programme: a case study. In: Serpa S, Teixeira N, Almeida M & Rosado A (eds.) Sport and Exercise Psychology: Human Performance, Well-Being and Health - Proceedings of the 13th FEPSAC European Congress of Sport Psychology. 13th European Congress of Sport Psychology, Madeira, Portugal, 12.07.2011-17.07.2011. Madeira, Portugal: Institute of Sport of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, IP-RAM, p. 233. http://www.fepsac2011madeira.com/

Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore the process understanding an athletes' career transition programme development, including (a) the views of the people involved in a national organization for supporting athletes' career transitions, and (b) how these people from the organization address the important psychological factors associated with athletes' career transitions in the programme. A case study method was used, and multiple sources of data (documents, individual interviews, and video files) were collected over 10 months. Interview transcripts were thematically content analysed, a case story was written based on other data sources, and previous literature was used to guide to interpret findings from the original data. Results indicated that participants had positive attitudes toward providing athletes support (e.g., obligation, duty of care), perceived several potential limitations and risks to sustainment (e.g., funding cut, athletes' negative perceptions for retirement, and limited resources), and considered a marketing performance agenda as a solution. The programme contained two major areas to support athletes' psychological issues, including focusing on developmental perspectives (e.g., balance of life, transferable skills) and trying to be both proactive and reactive in supporting athletes (pre and post-retirement support). The present findings indicate the potential benefits of athletes support for both providers (organizations) (e.g., performance enhancement, keeping a thletes in sport longer) and athletes (e.g., performance enhancement, developing life skills). These benefits could help to encourage other organizations to develop athlete support programme.