Disengagement From Organized Sports
Involuntary retirement from
sport generally occurs as a result of injury, being deselected from a team or loss of eligibility (Ogilvie,
1984). Weinberg and Gould
(1999) report that in todayÕs sport environment, one may be terminated from a
team, traded to another team, lose there eligibility when one graduates from
high school or college, become seriously injured, transfer to another school,
or the team itself may be disbanded.
When such disengagement occurs, a host of behavioral problems may
interfere with the process of retiring gracefully from organized sport. The purpose of this article is to
address the issues of disengagement from organized sport and provide
recommendations pertaining to what can be done to better prepare athletes for
the retirement process.
At some time or another,
retirement from competitive athletics will occur. It may be due to one's
inability to continue to play because of arthritis, or it could be the result
of terminating a high school sports career with no prospect of participating in
college athletics. Whatever the case may be, retirement from competitive
athletics will occur with all sports enthusiasts. Many times, it happens
suddenly, without warning. The careers that athletes so painstakingly trained
themselves in for five, ten, maybe fifteen years could be terminated in an
instant.
There are various movements addressing the
disengagement process by organizations such as the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) and the CHAMPS/Life Skills program that supports the
academic progress of the academic-athlete in their pursuit of intellectual
development and graduation. Since
there is a high number of college athletes who will not participate at the next
level of competition, programs such as these have been said to help prepare
athletes for the next step and pursue career goals (The NCAA News, 2003). These
programs address the athleteÕs developmental needs based on their year in
school. The emphasis in CHAMPS/Life
Skills program is to focus on "life after sports" and how the lessons
that were learned in sports can be applied to life in general. Some other organizations
include Lifeaftersport, Gamesover, Players-Own and the Positive
Transitions for Student-Athletes (PTSA) program. The PTSA program focuses on the career development and
college sport retirement transition.
The PTSA disengagement model is grounded in reality therapy that teaches
college athletes self-responsibility for addressing retirement rather than
focusing on "what could have been" (Stankovich, Meeker, & Henderson,
2001).
The PTSA model used in
counseling college athletes utilizes the athleteÕs transferable skills as a tool
to assist them in building skills and abilities that can be used beyond
sports. The program is fit into a
ten-week course and addresses identity exploration, goal setting and an
exploration of career issues such as professional networking. The results of this program have
been shown to increase the confidence and readiness of college athletes to
disengage from sports. Pearson
(1990) indicates that the presence of a program that addresses Òlife after
sportÓ can provide a responsive, resource-rich support system needed to ease
the impact of anticipated or unanticipated transitions.
Other than a few noteworthy
programs, little attention continues to be paid to the disengagement process in
our overall sport society. Why is so little
attention being paid to athletes prior to and after the athlete disengages from
sport? There are two general
reasons: 1) The athlete may be of
little concern to the sport establishment after his or her sport career is
over, and 2) the AthleteÕs consideration of termination issues can be highly
threatening to most who have built their personal identity around their
sport. For many athletes, the
dream of continuing to a higher level of competition or for lasting another
season may be so realistic that the prospect of being forced to disengage from
sport is blocked-out or distorted from their thoughts.
The Athletic Identity
The identity of an athlete is a major part
of who the athlete is. When one
disengages from sport, this transition changes almost everything about the life
that the athlete has come to know.
The physical skills and talents that develop over time have given the
athlete a special relationship to sport.
Praise and abundant support from family, friends, media, and their
community plays a significant role in the developing bond and the athletic
identity. Eventually, the
sense of self-worth and status becomes closely tied to athletic success in
sport. The athleteÕs involvement
more than satisfies some of the most basic human needs such as recognition,
approval, accomplishment and validation from others. Public adoration, at all levels of competition, grants the
athlete a high degree of social status.
Webb (1998) emphasizes that the time and
commitment to the athletic identity is so strong that by the time they reach
high school, successful athletes may have internalized this identity, and it
supersedes some of the other necessary social needs. As a result, the athletic identity may tend to dominate role
of the individual self-concept.
OneÕs personal identity begins to shift developmentally once the athlete
enters the college years (Pearson & Petipas, 1990). When athletes receive so many intrinsic
benefits from being successful, they tend to develop a natural instinct to want
to hold on to that source of support and identity. As the personal identity becomes defined as being an
athlete, it is obvious that problems can occur long before the disengagement
process begins. Eventually when
retirement denies opportunities to foster and maintain that identity, athletes find
that they lack the flexibility necessary to redefine their self-concept (Web,
Nasco, Riley & Headrich, 1998) and they are hesitant to seek help through
counseling (Brewer, Van
Raalte, Petipas, Bachman, & Weinhold, 1998).
The perception of an athleteÕs eventual
termination from sport should be predicted and controlled internally during the
athleteÕs disengagement process.
When athletes perceive and exercise control over their retirement, a
more positive psychological adjustment of retirement may occur (Webb, Nasco,
Riley & Headrick, 1998).
If disengagement is attributed more internally, with a strong sense of
knowing why an athlete has disengaged from sport, this will greatly impact how
the athlete responds to career termination and help them with the transition
out of sport (Williams, 2001).
Our athletic society has been shaped and
organized to help us be intrinsically involved in athletics, but there are few
organized entities that help athletes find a constructive way out of
athletics. When one analyzes the
positive values of making an athletic team or playing for the Òhome townÓ
school, it's no wonder why being an athlete can be such a fulfilling
experience. Being an active
athlete takes on meaning when he or she is engaged in sport competition. Athletes become physically conditioned,
take on new shape and feel good about their physical strength, fitness and the
way they look. Socially, they
learn new ways of communicating with others. And mentally, they learn how to be competitive.
In the peak of the glory days, when
athletes feel they have a command of all the elements that make them feel
successful and meaningful, the rug may be pulled out from under them, and they
may be forced to retire. Gauber
(2007) recently noted that the NFL Commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, said,
"the biggest challenge many of our players have is looking ahead for the
rest of their lives. They have
everything, in a sense. In the
NFL, they've achieved their dream of playing at the highest level. They have a
lot of money, but it comes to an end quicker than most of them can even
imagine."
Gauber (2007) further states
that for many retired athletes there is only one thing that matches the
intensity of the game, it is the feeling of despair when itÕs over. A survey of 1,425 former NFL players
showed that 18 percent of the former players experienced severe emotional
problems during their first year out of football. Almost every former NFL player interviewed said they felt a
significant letdown after leaving the game. Most alarming was the fact that 96% of the subjects surveyed
felt that they had received no counseling from the league to help them with the
adjustment to life after football.
Many players said they experienced some form of depression. Since 1980 seven former NFL players
have committed suicide! That is
higher than the number for the other three major sports combined during the
same period. Though the taking of
a life seems rather extreme, it reinforces the fact that adjusting to life
after athletics is to be taken seriously, and may take many former players
months, and sometimes years to fully adjust to life after sports.
In a testimony given from an athlete in
counseling at the Lifeaftersport agency:
Going from "on-field stardom" to "sideline
has-been" is brutal. No more autographs, applause, million-dollar
contracts, front-page photos, and product endorsements. Retirement is more than
the end of a job – it feels like death.
Retirement happens to all people in
business or industry, but the difference with occupational retirement is that
it happens at an age when one is mature and at the end of their career
cycle. It generally occurs as a
planned part of terminating a career.
When business executives are fired from
jobs before their retirement age, they simply move to a different location and
find another job related to the experiences and training they had in the
past. Athletes are rarely afforded
this kind of opportunity. When
eligibility is used up in high school or college, there is no other team to
join. When one is terminated from
a basketball team in college, there is no other college team to play on. There are no more crowds to play in
front of and there are no other places to move to in order to resume an
athletic career.
Problems Seen With Disengaged
Athletes
In order to get a more applied perspective
on the difficulties that retired professional athletesÕ face, some of the concerns
and problems stated in the interviews of disengaged professional athletes are stated below (From GamesOver.org,
2006). When the game is over, players face unexpected and sometimes
overwhelming problems in their personal lives. Among them include:
1. Denial
2. Drinking & Drugs
3. Divorce
4. Financial Loss and/or Challenges
5. Physical Loss and/or
6. Lack of Purpose and
7. Depression
8. Anger and Bitterness
9. Loss of Structure
10. Isolation
As mentioned earlier, there are
various ways that an athlete can disengage, either forcefully or voluntarily,
from organized sport. The works by May & Asken (1987)
and (Patterson, 2005) classify some
of the basic reasons for disengagement such as deselection, injury and loss of
eligibility.
Disengagement Due to
Deselection
The term for being cut from an
organized sport team is often referred to as deselection. Most people remember, all too well,
their first thoughts when they were omitted from the team roster, often through
a posting on a bulletin board, during their initial tryouts. Others will often relive the experience
they shared when they were asked by the coach or manager to turn in their gear
and locker because they were being terminated from the team. When an athlete's career is ended due to
deselection, the athlete is faced with the limitations of his or her inherent
athletic ability. The athlete has
to come to the realization that he or she was not good enough to continue with
the team or organization.
Athletes who are
intentionally deselected from the team, or not chosen to move on to higher
level from high school or college athletics, fall into this category. The signs of being disengaged from
sport may have been there, but may have been ignored or denied. Athletes may be resigned to the fact
that their ability will not carry them into a career in sport. This challenges their plans they had
made for moving on to the next level of competition. A sense of guilt and the assumption that they had not tried
hard enough, practiced enough, or taken their sport seriously begins to invade
their thinking. Deselection is a
traumatic and disruptive blow to one's self-esteem and athletic identity. When
asked to compare their feelings and emotions during this period with other
experiences they perceive in life, many athletes have indicated that their
feelings parallel that to death or dying (Blinde & Stratta, 1992).
There are more athletes who are
deselected from teams when they arrive at the next level of competition. The probability of being deselected
from college athletic team and remaining on that team until his or her
eligibility expires is very low.
The question that should be raised, internally and externally, is
whether or not coaches, family or other individuals involved in the lives of
athletes are being realistic about their true ability level? Is an athlete being given accurate
information about the level of competition to which he/she should aspire to
compete in? Very often, coaches
provide inaccurate information to the athlete, and to coaches at the next
level, concerning the characteristics of an athlete such as size, speed,
ability, and academic background.
Athletes may believe what they are hearing and base their levels of
expectations accordingly.
Unfortunately, when the time comes for college or professional scouts to
begin assessing the athletes' physical attributes, he or she is often
unprepared for the reality of not being selected to play for a team at a higher
skill level.
The emotional frustration that
occurs when being omitted from a team may occur very early in life. A prime example is seen in youth
sports, where young kids are cut from public school sport teams. How do these athletes, cope at this
young age? The reality of
deselection is even greater as the athlete competes at higher levels. Early studies in 1987 on 700,000 high
school basketball players found that only 15,000 (.021%) made an NCAA varsity
team, and only 50 (.00007%) made a team in the National Basketball Association
(Ogilvie & Howe, 1987). The
probability levels of making professional careers in football and baseball were
found to be similar. Even after
successfully making it to professional athletics, the careers of those who do
make it to this level are short lived.
Over twenty years ago, the average career in the National Football
League (NFL) as 4.2 years, while the average career in the NBA was slightly
less (Dietzel, 1983). Today, media
coverage primarily focuses on the popular athletes who have longer and more
lucrative playing careers.
Little coverage is given to the typical cases or those who play for one
or two years before being deselected or forced to quit for other reasons such
as being injured. We simply donÕt
hear about athletes whose one-year contracts are not renewed after their first
season. Coakley (2008) stated that
the average players, on the oldest NFL team in 2008, were less than 28 years
old. Therefore, the deselection
process is very typical to the 22-year-old athlete who suddenly faces an end to
his/her professional sport career.
Minorities from low
socioeconomic backgrounds may require more attention than those who come from
higher socioeconomic status. We
have all heard stories about athletes who were told that the Òbest way to make
it out of the environment is through sport.Ó Athletes from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are sometimes
led to believe that sport is the best chance to achieve success. Total commitment to athletics may
encourage a Òsingular focusÓ on sports, at the sacrifice of other potential
means of achieving success. Many
minorities have made inroads into some of the team sports in the United States,
and some international sports such as boxing and track and field, but their
overall participation level in professional sports is disproportionately
low. Additionally, African
American athletes are rarely seen excelling in such sports as golf, bowling,
soccer, automobile racing and tennis.
In reality, minorities remain underrepresented in some professional
sports in the United States.
Even though the black athlete
is highly visible in basketball, football and baseball, the opportunities
remain low. Coakley (2008) found that
professional sport opportunities, regardless of race and ethnicity, are short-term,
averaging three to seven years in team sports and three to twelve years for
individual sports. This means that
after the professional sport career has ended, there is about forty remaining
years in a personÕs working life.
In 1986, it was estimated that of the thirty million blacks in the
United States, only one out of every 460,000 blacks made a living from major
football, basketball or baseball leagues (Coakley. 1986). Ironically, research in the 1990Õs
revealed that 43% of all black male high school athletes believed that
eventually they would play professional sports as a career (Johnson,
1991). The odds or chances for a
person, regardless of race, to become a college or professional athlete are
difficult to calculate. Many
different methods have been used and the estimates reported in the media are
probably inaccurate, but the calculations all point to the fact that playing at
the professional level is a long shot at best.
Too often we hear of athletes
who have mistakenly placed all their eggs in one basket. They counted heavily on making it to
the professional leagues just to find out that they did not possess the ability
to continue their sport career at a higher level. When they were forced to terminate their career because they
were unable to live up to the expectations of the coach or trainer, their
discouragement intensified when they realized that they had no occupation or
means to make a living. The
unrealistic expectation of earning a living in sport has to be addressed through
proper counseling of athletes at all levels of competition. Additionally, it is the duty of the
coach and athletic administration to give all athletes a proper perspective on
the odd against making a living in professional athletics. In reading the literature on the
probability of making a career in sport, it is obvious that coaches and parents
should be preparing the athlete for careers in fields that have a higher
probability for success, such as becoming a lawyer, doctor, business
professional or teacher. If the
athlete fails to make a team at a higher level of competition for some reason,
he or she would at least have something to fall back on as a means of
survival.
Disengagement Due to Injury
Forced termination due to
injury is a reality that many athletes experience but many collegiate and
professional athletes are generally unprepared for this form of
disengagement. Unfortunately, the
chances that most athletes will be forced to retire as a result of injury is
very high. Mihoces (1988) reported
that 66% of all NFL athletes retired with some type of permanent injury. The situation is serious at all levels
of competition. At the University of Iowa, Pankey (1993) found that 21,000
athletes from 351 high schools reported injuries, with 21% of these serious
enough to prevent further competition.
Contact sports are among the most dangerous workplaces in the
occupational world (Rice, 2005).
The same could be said about high-profile power and performance collegiate
sports in which 80 percent of male and female athletes sustain at least one
serious injury while playing their sports and nearly 70 percent are disabled
for two or more weeks (Nixon 2000).
The contact inherent in most sports takes a definite toll on the health
of athletes.
It is important to understand
that a traumatic sport injury does not always end an athletic career
immediately. Athletes often go
through a very lengthy physical and emotional process in coming to grips with
their injury, while preparing for surgery and rehabilitation. It is common for athletes to push
themselves for several months or an entire season before it is determined that
injury will disengage them from sport.
In situations where the injury is obviously a career ending one, the
athlete with still go through a similar process, but with no hope for
continuance in organized sport. Reactions to injury may include grief, identity loss,
separation, loneliness, fear, anxiety, loss of confidence and deviant behavior
(Albert, 2004). There are numerous
cases seen in sport where athletes have suffered acute depression, abused
alcohol, and have developed suicidal tendencies (Pearson & Petipas, 1990). Athletic career termination by way of injury is a situation
that happens to a large portion of our population every year. Such a form of departure from athletics
results in one's feeling less life satisfaction. Apparently, a sense of unfilled promise weighs heavy on the
minds of athletes and therefore has a tendency to plague them for years after
the injury terminated their playing careers.
How do athletes react to this
forced termination due to injury?
Many feel a great deal of stress.
Typically, the athlete responds to the challenge by attempting to work
their way through the challenge, to "tough it out." Denial is used as a protective shield.
"This can't be happening to me" are typical reactions by the
athlete. Some will express
depression, resentment, anger and hostility. Many of these emotions are visible in Ogilvie's (1987)
example of a college linebacker he had counseled. Ogilvie titled the young man's reaction to injury as the
"raging bull" syndrome.
The young man had suffered a leg injury that was
slow in healing; therefore, he could not start fall practice on schedule. The
young man was blaming the doctor's supposedly conservative treatment for his
slow recovery, and the player was looking for some doctor with a "magic
wand" to cure him when the previous doctor could not.
Emotionally, the young man was
resentful and angry, and outwardly expressed hostility to the physician, trainer,
and coach who were not allowing him to compete. Emotionally discouraged, the young man had left counseling
to pursue his case with another orthopedic surgeon.
There is a personal misfortune
that occurs when disengagement from sport is the result of injury Athletes in
counseling often reveal their innermost feelings and tell their courageous
battle they had fought against overwhelming circumstances. Such accounts exemplify the extreme
commitment to sport that many athletes possess in the face of a debilitating
injury. For the athlete their life
is the sport, and the threatening loss of sport because of injury is tremendously
profound. While one has to feel
respect for persistence and inner-strength that athletes have in the face of
injury, the underlying problem for many who compete in higher level sports is their
inability to look at themselves more broadly and consider their other aptitudes
and abilities which can lead to alternative careers and a successful life.
Disengagement Resulting From Expiration
of Eligibility
The third prime reason for
termination of a competitive athletic career is the expiration of
eligibility. Termination of
eligibility happens to all athletes, in both college and high school. After a prescribed period of time in high
school or college, the athlete simply becomes ineligible because an athleteÕs
four or five years of competitive play is ending. Again, it is not unrealistic to see an athlete being ill
prepared for the eventual last game of their senior year. They strive for many years to make the
varsity team and they spend an insurmountable time in training and preparation
to make it to the playoff in their last year of eligibility. Then when they
fail to progress any further in the playoffs, the ÒgameÓ is truly over. Most athletes are left with a low
probability of playing at the next level of sport competition.
Not so definite is the amount
of emphasis in preparing athletes for life after sports in academics. According to numbers reported by the
NCAA, it appears that with all male and female athletes, particularly minority
athletes, the academic emphasis remains low. Recent NCAA reports provide a strong argument for increasing
academic standards for incoming athletes in order to improve graduation
rates. Ironically, it may also
indicate that tougher academic rules are forcing a disproportionate number of
black athletes out of sports at the higher education level. Recent figures show that graduation
rates of athletes continue to be higher than those of all students. Women
athletes were found to graduate at a higher rate than their male counterparts,
but graduation rates for blacks continue to be lower than those of white
athletes. The consideration of
these and similar findings make it obvious that many of the 22-year old
athletes leaving college are acquiring few skills other than that of being able
to play sports. Over fifteen years
ago, Harry Edwards, a Sport Sociologist from California Berkley University,
maintained that athletes are not being taught to aspire to legitimate goals in
sports, and should focus their aspirations in a balanced perspective with the
rest of their lives (Sperber, 1992).
Counseling and Intervention
Strategies for the Coach and Sport Psychologist
What can we do to help prepare
athletes for the time when sport is no longer a dominant force in the athleteÕs
lives? Coaches, educators, and all
people involved with athletes need to help athletes balance sports with
"real-world" life. A
"preretirement" approach to counseling the athlete, with the
philosophy that positive actions taken before disengagement will prevent or
minimize social and emotional deprivations after athletics. There can be no substitute for early
education to inform athletes of all the contingencies involved in the process
of disengagement. Coaches should
have a plan on what to do to help prepare their athletes for life after
sports. They should talk openly to
their athletes about this subject. They may want to communicate with their
former athletes about how their future career path, encourage them to attend
different workshops, help to pinpoint their career interests, and provide
networking opportunities and resources to better prepare them for their
eventual disengagement from sport.
Disengagement from athletics is usually a natural, but
sometimes painful, process. Most
people can and do retire from being an athlete without help. Time heals, they find other occupations
to involve themselves in and their lives go on. With college athletes, research has shown that a shifting of
priorities over the collegiate years took place in the majority of athletes,
with sport becoming less significant in their lives and education assuming an
increasingly prominent role. On
the other hand, for those athletes who never make it to college, disengagement
from athletics can be overwhelming - an obsession, an intense, enduring
immobilizing pain. Wanting to be
in sports and training with a team and friends for a common goal when the opportunity
for doing so is no longer available, can lead to depression, obsessive thoughts
and self-destructiveness. For all
sorts of reasons some athletes hold fast to the memory of being associated with
an athletic team. The experiences
they shared with friends when they won a tournament or playoff game, the love
that the school had toward their effort in sports and the support that the
coach and family gave them when they played were so real, so precious that they
fear letting go of it. They are
afraid of the great void that comes in the aftermath, the perceived
insignificance of their lives, the feelings of rejection and anguish.
________________________
INSERT DISENGAGEMENT MODEL HERE
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Transition Phases In The
Disengagement Process
The phases that athletes go through during the disengagement
process has been well documented in the literature. Blinde (1992) indicates that along with the initial shock of
being cut from a team, athletes may attempt to deny that their sport career is
actually over. Athletes may
isolate themselves from other individuals because they have few support systems
that remain or can be drawn upon, possibly because their closest peers were
still a part of a team.
After career termination, there may be a period of
helplessness and disorientation.
The individual may not have the tools to be able to deal with the
freedom from the structured existence within the athletic world. He or she may exhibit certain forms of
denial as a result of being so disorientated. Often the athlete develops unrealistic expectations of
returning to sports or making a miraculous comeback from an injury. Over time, the reality of the situation
becomes clear. It is at this point
that anger often sets in. Anger is
often a response and surfaces when athletes feel betrayed by those responsible
for decisions leading to the termination of their sport career (Blinde &
Stratta, 1992). The athlete
suffering from forced termination may express anger against himself or herself
in self-destructive ways. Some
have reported that they had resorted to extreme behavioral forms to vent their
anger such as abusing alcohol or taking excessive risk in exercising of taking
performance-enhancing substances (Coakley, 2008). The athlete may even direct the anger outwardly at an
athletic establishment, family or friends.
Another psychological phase that the retired athlete may
experience includes a bargaining period, where the athlete attempts to bargain
with the coach, or God, promising changes in his or her actions in exchange for
continued playing time. In
comparison to other adjustment phases, bargaining is rarely utilized as a
coping phase to reverse the decision of the coach (Blinde & Stratta,
1992). When these attempts to deal
with disengagement begin to fail, or are considered futile by the athlete, the
reality of the termination can bring on a period of depression. Many times, this is again followed by
destructive life styles (Pankey, 1993).
If and when depression subsides, as with most emotional
trauma, it is questioned as to whether or not actual acceptance begins. Most sport psychologists feel that when
depression eventually subsides, a renewed energy emerges. The athlete often begins an era of
self-development and starts to explore new alternative careers and life
styles. If the athlete completes
this phase, then a more healthy existence may prevail. If athletes do not choose to examine
the causality of their frustrations and seek ways of modifying their behaviors
they may experience negative feelings and thoughts of past athletic experiences.
Psychologists categorize this recall situation as a form of
"state" learning. In
essence, one recalls situations about their past once put into the state that
they were in when a negative experience occurred. Law enforcement values some aspects of hypnotism to bring
out the state of an individual who witnessed a crime. With the athlete, a negative state may occur when watching a
basketball game, or when seeing a son or daughter play little league
baseball. Old memories about a
touchdown pass that was dropped, embarrassing moments when the athlete finally
realized that his or her career was over, or the guilt and hatred that was felt
toward the coach is suddenly remembered once a similar situation occurs. Cognitive strategies such as self-talk,
thought stopping, imagery or some basic behavior modification and counseling
may be suggested in dealing with negative states or experiences in a positive
way.
Behavior Therapy For The Disengaged Athlete
Behavior therapy has had much success with
athletes who are in feeling rejected or depressed over departing from organized
athletics. It generally helps in
decreasing the frustration that these athletes feel once the cheering
stops. Behavior therapy can retired
athletes learn to take pride in other forms of recreational play and involve
themselves in something else that is physical, that has importance and can
teach them to enjoy sport once again.
Athletes can learn to see sport or recreation for the pure act of moving
in different ways. Athletes can
learn that their physical self can take shape again, and they can learn take
control of their emotions.
Repeatedly you hear about people who have
had a close brush with death, a plane was forced to make an emergency landing
when it experienced difficulty with an engine. Everyone escaped unharmed from a possible accident, but for
a split second, they were close to being killed. When people have experiences like these, they almost always
shift their thoughts to what is most important in their lives. In these situations, people force
themselves into thinking about the relevant things in their lives, like their
family, their loved ones or their religious convictions, and for a time, their
behavior changes. Unfortunately,
it often takes a traumatic experience before people will put the emphasis of
purpose and meaning into perspective.
The disengaged athlete should be taught to shift his behavior and begin
to realize that sport is only a small part of the whole picture of life.
A traumatic event that suddenly ends an
athletic career, may force the athletes to seek ways of looking at their sport
with less meaning and stress and begin to spend more quality time with their
school, family and loved ones.
They may even devote their lives to the things which bring them
fulfillment, like religion, recreation or they may elect to relax more, taking
more time to enjoy the real beauty of moving and being a part of a different
kind of team such as a scuba club.
Their brush with trauma was a catalyst that permitted them to awaken
themselves and turn their own lives into something that would go beyond their
next football or basketball game.
Athletes do not have to experience a close
call with death before attempting to understand what sport meant to them when
they were vigorously competing.
Being an athlete gave them joy, meaning and purpose in life. Retiring from organized athletics
doesn't mean that life will be unhappy or less gratifying. Athletes can give themselves permission
to live their lives in the way that would provide them and their loved ones
gratification. Learning to behave
in a different way is the foundation to behavior modification. Developing a systematic plan that will
allow people to take advantage of the things that make them feel alive, eliminating
those obstacles from your past athletic experiences that causes guilt, or
depression every time they think of their past athletic career and wish it
never had ended. Behavior
modification has many advantages over conventional ways of thinking about the
past.
The following recommendations
can be used to facilitate team and individual transitions following the
athleteÕs disengagement from sport.
A trained sport psychologist would be very helpful in facilitating this
process.
1. Early, honest, realistic
educational programs must be undertaken with athletes, before disengagement, to
help the disengaged athlete learn to blend athletics with academics. They must
be taught how to see how the characteristics learned in sport, such as
self-control and self-esteem can be used in a positive way outside of the
athletic world.
2. Work with athletes on
thinking how disengagement would affect them personally. It is especially important to emphasize
that athletes learn to accept the responsibility of personal growth. For example, the athlete needs skill
development in physical activities outside team sports. This will provide them
alternatives for easing the emotional and physical stress commonly felt as a
result of disengagement from competitive athletics. Therefore, self-responsibility should be taught, teaching
the former athletes that they must be responsible for everything that happens
to them.
3. Through individual and group
counseling sessions, the athlete needs to come to the realization that academic
success, in the vast majority of cases, is the best ticket for success in life
after sport. Coaches and
counselors should not wait until the dream ends. They should address these concerns when athletes are
young. Athletes will generally not
come to the coach or parent to address disengagement; athletes are taught
throughout their athletic career to "tough it out", not to seek
help. So it is up to the coach or
parent to approach the athlete about this issue first.
4. In working with college
level students who are interested in continuing in athletics, possibly through
coaching, four to six weeks of group counseling has proven valuable. The counseling is centered on career
orientation and employment opportunities after athletics. The reality of the career duration
expectancy of coaches should be discussed. It is commonly known that great athletes do not always make
great coaches, and with many coaching careers, the ability to remain in the
coaching field for a lifetime is very low. Burnout as well as financial expectancy is a few of the
common problems associated with a career in coaching.
5. Health and wellness skills for the ex-athlete cope must be
presented. The concept of
detraining should be discussed, including weight control, diet and exercise. Positive addictions such as walking,
swimming, biking, and other forms of recreation should be emphasized. This
allows excess physical energies to be channeled into activities that can be
undertaken on an individual basis, contributing to one's wellbeing.
6. Role differentiation may be utilized with the team. In this process, the members of the
team can chart the role of each person, highlighting the position or role of
the athlete who had been retired from the team. The individuals could be asked to clarify the role of each
teammate and their perception of team unity, cooperation, motivation, spirit
and the ability to resolve conflict in the absence of those who have left the
team either forcefully or voluntarily.
Those athletes remaining on the team must accept the responsibility of
the possible change in their roles within the team.
7. Give the team the opportunity to work together, talk and
deal with the absence of a teammate as well as how they perceive the
integration of a new teammate into the formerly held position of the absent
athlete.
8. Lastly, ex-athletes must be
taught to develop their ability to let things go, and to get involved in the
rest of their lives. The concept
of "letting go" and transition should be addressed, emphasizing that
everything in life, including life itself, is temporary. Emphasize that transition has been a
part of their life in the past, it is a part of the their life now, and will be
a part of their life in the future.
For example, when athletes went from high school to college and from
college to the pros they experienced transition. When they married, were
traded, changed teams or bought a house they experienced transitions that are a
part of every player's life. Some
transitions are planned, some are unexpected, and some are unpredictable. Some are because of an event happening
and some are caused because an event didn't happen. Regardless of the type of transition, their greatest
determining factor for success is the perception of their transition and their
attitude during transition.
Perception is everything.
Emphasize to the former athlete the importance of getting involved in
life while they have their one and only chance.
Conclusions
The
author of this article feels that there is a great deal that can be done to
help athletes, at all levels, prior to, during and after their inevitable
career termination. The counselor,
coach or parent who desires to help the athlete must seek out and counsel
players and former players. A
large amount of counseling and behavior modification may be necessary. Friends, families,
coaches and fellow teammates should support the athlete during their
disengagement process during and after their retirement. Negative attitudes about retirement
from sport, expressed by anyone in the athlete's life, can become barriers to
the athlete seeking out, asking for, or receiving help from others.
It is helpful that
athletes think about retirement from sport and develop strategic plans for the
end of their career. There are
many ways that an athlete can suddenly end a career in sports, so having a
backup plan is important for the athlete to disengage from competitive
sport. Petipas (1997) indicates
that the goal of a backup plan is to give one an alternative focus in
developing and pursuing goals.
There is no doubt
that the end of an athletic career is a difficult time. To properly retire or disengage from
sport, the athlete must be able to recognize problems during this transition
and know where or how to get help.
Not every athlete experiences a difficult transition in retirement, but
research has shown that many do.
Coaches and athletic trainers should help to address the transition that
athletes face in retirement and let athletes know that their discouragement and
despair is normal. Mentors can
help the athlete identify ways to turn negative feelings into positive
outcomes. All support groups
should understand the difficulty of disengagement, support, and point the
retired athlete in the appropriate direction to get help if needed. Athletes should be aware that they may
have to establish a new self-identity in their disengagement process, but they
can also be assisted in maintaining their own sense of self-worth.
Many things athletes learned while playing
sports, such as self-talk, thought stopping, and imagery, as well as leadership
and motivational skills can be useful to athletes during their transition and
in starting a new career (Pankey, 1993).
Individual schools, universities and organizations can develop programs
that assist athletes with disengaging from sport. These programs should be deemed as important as those that facilitate
athletes while they are in school and could be utilized an integral part of any
college or university that has an athletic department (Patterson, 2005). If the disengagement process in sport can be appropriately
addressed, behavior modification training, as expressed earlier in this article,
utilized by the coach or sport psychologist who works with athletes at all
levels would be most appropriate.
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