The development of an athlete career transition programme: A case study

Abstract

First paragraph: The study of career transitions in sport has developed considerably over the past 30 years. As a result, researchers (e.g., Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994) revealed that the quality of athletes’ career transition is closely related to their life skills development, identity issues, and pre-transition planning. In addition, researchers (e.g., Fleuriel & Vincent, 2009) have consistently highlighted the obligation of national governing bodies (NGB) in assisting athletes in career transition, because of the delay in athletes’ life skills development and high degree of athletic identity that may be caused by their high commitment to sport performance. However, the development of programmes and the detailed strategies of the psychological interventions have not been widely examined in the study area. Examining the process of athlete support programme development may be useful to understand organizational staff attitudes toward supporting athletes’ career transitions. The present study may contribute to study area by identifying organizational staff views on, and attitudes towards, supporting athletes’ career transitions and ideas to encourage sport organizations to assist athletes’ subjective well-being both during and after their sport careers. In addition, the findings from the current study might reveal the gaps and links between academic research findings and practical programmes in assisting athletes’ psychological issues (e.g., athletic identity) during their career transition process.