Athletic Retirement Theory

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

This project was conducted with 6 mentees and 6 mentors over a 9-month long period. The start of the research project was not jumping straight in with sports coaching, but relationship building. The mentors had weekly meetings with their mentees to hear about their lives and just talk to them informally so the mentee would feel comfortable around their mentor before they moved to the next step in the project: using narratives. The mentors slowly starting incorporating sports stories into their meetings as a method of preparing the mentees for the physical activity portion of the project, which is the sports. By the end of this process the mentor and mentee had played a game-of-the-day, whether that be table tennis or badminton or any other sport, sat down to discuss the game, and relate the game to real-life situations to show how sports can be used for life skills development and goal setting. They also showed how sports can be used for good sportsmanship

Over the years, we have seen colleges and universities benefit extremely from their sports programs. Every year a great team brings tremendous amounts of revenue for their university. However, as these universities increase their finances, their athletes are falling behind financially, academically, socially and personally creating a huge burden upon them. College/university athletes practically work overtime for their academic institutions. While many perceive student athletes as living ‘the life’ because of sports, the reality remains that they suffer from social, personal, academic and psychological stress. They constantly live their lives by strict schedules to avoid falling behind in their multiple responsibilities .Student athletes face various pressures, yet they are not frequently rewarded; therefore their academic institutions should reward them financially, beyond scholarships for their participation in collegiate sports.

Once athletes retire they are forgotten about, their career is done and essentially a part of them is gone. Unfortunately, with all the structure that has allowed them to be so successful also comes dependence. When that structure is taken away what happens to their eating and exercise habits? These questions are important to the division 1 intercollegiate football athletes because it has been stated that collegiate athletes “have an identity on the playing surface. They have busy regulated lives. In many cases they enjoy a variety of privileges that accompany their athletic status. Unfortunately, this focus on athletics may also inhibit development of important life skills and the acquisition of varied life experiences that can be useful in career and personal planning,” (Sowa & Gressard, 1983 p. 236-239). Essentially athletes are finding the retirement process to be a painful and personally disruptive, (Pearson & Petitpas 1990, p.7-10, Werthner & Orlick 1986, p.337-363) because they are unprepared for the transition and how to deal with it.

In order to comprise the ATM, the author completed a comprehensive literature review examining transition out of sport. The literature review began in November of 2015. Specific key words and topics included: athlete, injury, unanticipated retirement, forced retirement, career counseling, career planning, wellness models, models of wellness, wheel of wellness, career-ending injury, athletic identity/loss, transition out of sport, athlete wellness models, holistic wellness models, role of social support, models of career planning, theories of career planning, wellness models for athletes, transitional programs for athletes, Bronfenbrenner’s social ecology model, group therapy for athletes, support groups for athletes, and mentorship/accountability

As I reflect on my life, I can’t imagine my life without sports. Sports is my passion and the one thing that keeps me sane and happy. This assignment has showed me the love I have for sports and how it consumes my whole life. My whole life revolves around it. As I am sitting down writing this paper, I am listening to an interview about a former Florida Atlantic University football player who is now dealing with life after the NFL. His name is Christian Milstead, a 2015 Exercise Science and Health Promotion graduate. After the 2015 NFL draft, Milstead was invited to take part of the Green Bay Packers rookie minicamp. Unfortunately, he wasn’t one of the 300 people who made it on a NFL roster. Milstead, however, life is going great. Of course, he would love to be playing on Sundays, but he is enjoying life as a Personal Trainer Director for one of LA Fitness locations in South Florida.

State anxiety occurs during competition and decreases performances but interventions can decrease cognitive and somatic anxiety (Prapavessis, Grove, McNair, & Cable). Athletes can also attain anxiety when they do not see their coaches as competent. For example, if a coach were to tell a soccer athlete to do this and then they get hurt they would not trust them and be anxious doing any other directions (Myers, Beauchamp, & Chase, 2011). Since coaches are able to reduce an athlete’s anxiety then, coaches have the ability to create a positive atmosphere and in this study student-athletes had an overall positive view of their coaches' ability to develop autonomy-supportive team climates (Noble & Forester, 2016). According to researcher’s anxiety may be a predisposition but state anxiety is heavily influenced by the motivational climate, more specifically ego environments athletes reported increases in anxiety over the season (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007). When athletes enter state anxiety many have coping methods, and PPR may influence performance through lowering the athlete’s anxiety (Hazell, Cotterill, & Hill, 2014) or even self-talk (Miles & Neil, 2013), but the success of using these techniques would depend on the situation. However, some research suggests that regardless of competition (good or bad) and sport (long duration/short duration) athletes reported an equal number of experiences and implemented coping strategies (Nieuwenhuys, Vos, Pijpstra, & Bakker, 2011). With this conflicting research on how it effects athletes, there is research that states giving athletes CSAI-2 or sports oriented questionnaires can help both parties understand each other (Hall & Kerr,

This proposal aims to highlight three major concerns for African-American athletes who are preparing to transition out of sports or have done so already. These major highlights will shine on how the Black athlete identifies within his culture and sport, second, how academic expectations can reflect ‘preparation’ for transitioning out of sport, and lastly, understanding the athlete’s readiness to transition out of their athletic identity. Also, the research will highlight social and educational implications that need solutions.

Athletes narrowed their interests to one or two sports during the Specializing Years (Bush, Salmela, 2001). This decision was often made around the age of thirteen and was influenced by encouragement from parents, coaches, and the enjoyment they experienced within their sport (Bush, Salmela, 2001). Practice became more structured during this time but fun and excitement remained a central piece to prevent athletes from blistering out (Bush, Salmela, 2001). Interestingly, the parents in all four families put more importance on achievement in school than sports (Bush, Salmela, 2001). The parents were also able to provide for their children and did not expect them to work outside their home (Bush, Salmela, 2001).

Sports allows them to interact with other players, and coaches. This helps them develop social skills through teamwork. Other benefits include developing emotional control, discipline, academic improvement, and weight control (Holt et.al.2011). Studies have found that participation in sports is not only linked with “enhanced self-concept” (Marsh 1993), and improvements in shyness including anxiety (Findlay and Coplan 2008). Inclusion in sports has also been shown to help reduce “thoughts and intentions regarding suicide”

This study will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Athletic Transitional Model (ATM), on athletes who have recently transitioned out of sport. The ATM is a career-planning program designed for athletes who are transitioning out of sport and need assistance integrating into civilian society. Fifty former National Collegiate Athletic Association, Division I athletes will be used in this study. The athletes will be randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The experimental group will be treated with the ATM and the control group will be treated using a generic form of narrative therapy. Results will be analyzed using a three level ANOVA (pre-, post-, and follow-up). Results will ideally indicate that the ATM reduced negative transitional symptoms in athletes, improved athletes’ occupational

Mike Tyson, a renown worldwide boxer, made over $400 million dollars in the span of his boxing career. However, before his retirement from the sport, Tyson had declared bankruptcy in 2003. Tyson was known to spend his match earnings on materialistic wants like jewelry, limousines and even a Siberian Tiger. Currently, Tyson has many debts to owe to many different people and companies. As he works with his bankruptcy lawyers, he will continue to decrease his debt as much as he can. The problem that Mike has and along with numerous other professional athletes is that they struggle financially and emotionally after they retire. It’s becoming notorious in the sport’s world that athletes’ lives seem to decline post-retirement. However, some know

Career transitioning and retirement for athletes with high athletic identities has been acknowledged as a potentially vulnerable and problematic phase. Specifically, individuals may encounter unique psychological challenges as they adjust to life after sport. Park et al. (2012) found that 70% of the studies they reviewed included participants, who expressed career transition challenges or negative emotions, including feelings of loss, identity crisis, and distress. With increased understanding of the psychological and emotional experience of retiring collegiate athletes, mental health professionals can provide the appropriate support and guidance required for more adaptive transitions out of sport. The importance of maintaining adequate mental

Social support groups act as a lifeguard as adolescent cope with these new demanding situations. Negative effects can occur if the social support fails to help build confidence to tackle challenging circumstances. Youth may have a tendency to give-up or develop a lack of confidence to cope with challenging situations such as in sports. Many sport activities include acquiring new skills, interacting with others, making tough decisions and becoming very competitive, these situations bring a new level of stress for adolescent. Therefore, it is very important to have a support system that will assist the adolescent in feeling good about their activities, whether in sports or in academics (Oswalt, 2010).