The development of an Athlete Career Transition Support Programme: A case study

• DOI: 10.53841/bpsqmip.2012.1.13.11
• Publication Date: 2023-01-12T18:37:31Z
• Authors: Sunghee Park; David Lavallee; David Tod
• Keywords: career transition; 4. Education; 0502 economics and business; 05 social sciences; FoR 1106 (Human Movement and Sports Science); support programme; athlete

The aim of this study was to explore the development of an athlete career transition programme focusing on psychological intervention strategies. A case study method was used, and multiple sources of data (documents, individual interviews, and video files) were collected for 12 months. Interview transcripts were analysed by theoretically informed thematic analysis and previous literature was used to interpret findings from the original data. Results indicated that 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). Examining gaps and links between athletes and organisations in delivering programmes and identifying organisational influences were recommended as future research directions.