A One Sport Voice reader sent me an email looking for resources helping collegiate athletes transition into “the real world” after they no longer are competitive athletes. Great query! There is a fair amount of literature from the sport psychology world on this issue. While it is not my primary area of expertise, I can provide some guidance into existing resources.

The first is a book titled Career Transitions in Sport (Lavallee & Wylleman, 2000). This book gives some theoretical perspectives on transitions, self-identity issues, causes and consequences of transitions, as well as some intervention strategies.

Another book that is helpful is book pertaining to the psychology of sport injury-a common cause of career transition- is titled Counseling in sports medicine (Ray & Wiese-Bjornstal, 1999). If an athlete suffers from a career-ending injury, a transition is inevitable.

While both these resources are geared for sport psychology students and professional, it is a starting place for those looking for information on this important, but scarcely talked about phenomena.

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• Filed Under:  
• SportsPLUS, College, Student-Athlete, Psychology, Research

• Tags:
• Health
• research
• sport psychology

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AnnGaff

I call it a quarter-life crisis. I've seen friends go through it. Myself, I am going through it now, 5 years after I graduated. I avoided it long enough by being lucky enough to compete professionally. But since retiring in July of 2008, I've definitely been struggling with my own identity. After all, I spent most of my life identifying myself as a stud athlete. Now that I no longer hold that title, what sets me apart from everyone else? Or is it that I need to stop NEEDING to stand apart from everyone else? I'm not sure if that's a healthy desire or not. At any rate, this is definitely an issue that is somewhat taboo because us "studs" don't want to admit to having any kind of insecurities of course :)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 12:55am EST