Career transitions in sport

Abstract

First paragraph: In 2000, an extensive literature search on the topic of career transitions in sport generated over 220 references - a number which was ten times higher than the references available in 1980 (Lavallee, Wylleman, & Sinclair, 2000). The interest in this area has been reflected in the international scholarly co-operation promoted by the Special Interest Group on Career Transitions (SIG-CT) initiated in 1993 (Wylleman, Lavallee, & Alfermann, 1999) and which brought the theme of career transitions to the forefront at many international congresses ( [Alfermann, 1998], [Alfermann, 2000], [Alfermann & Stambulova, 2001], [Stambulova, 1997], [Wylleman, 1995], [Wylleman & Alfermann, 1997], [Wylleman et al., 2001], [Wylleman & Schilling, 1997] and [Wylleman & Stambulova, 1999]). For example, no less than 22 papers related to the topic of career transitions were presented during the past 10th World Congress of Sport Psychology in 2001! This co-operation has also been supported by the Managing Council of the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC) and has resulted not only in a FEPSAC Position Statement on Career Transitions (FEPSAC, 1999) but also in a volume of the FEPSAC Monograph Series (Wylleman et al., 1999).