In retirement, athletes go through major transitions as they begin a new phase of their life. While this transition might be easy for some, it can be downright debilitating for others, but why?
A retired basketball player messaged me on Instagram to discuss what his retirement was like. He specifically wanted to know if having a job lined up after an athlete’s career is over is an advantage. For him, that’s exactly what happened, and it was relatively easy to make the transition. He was ready to leave the game and he had a plan. He went straight into coaching. We talked about how having a plan, knowing when to leave, and putting that into action were definitely advantages, but that each person has their own unique story.
To that point, not everyone has an easy path into retirement. The stories of struggle that I hear the most often are when an athlete’s sports career ends abruptly. For example, I coached a few retired football players who stopped playing because of injuries and subsequently dealt with serious depression. It’s not to say that all athletes have this experience, but it’s not uncommon either.
In thinking of the different conversations I’ve had, I began to wonder more about the factors that play into an athlete’s transition experience after sports.
Many studies over the years have been done on this exact problem over a variety of sports. Here are just a few of the findings:
Unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect formula to make life after sports an easy transition. The key is to get ahead of that change by broadening your options and your identity outside of being a player.
Would you like help with your transition into life after sports? Contact me about one-on-one VIP coaching.
[1] Giannone ZA, Haney CJ, Kealy D, Ogrodniczuk JS. Athletic identity and psychiatric symptoms following retirement from varsity sports. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 2017;63(7):598-601. doi:10.1177/0020764017724184
[2] George Sanders & Clare Stevinson (2017) Associations between retirement reasons, chronic pain, athletic identity, and depressive symptoms among former professional footballers, European Journal of Sport Science, 17:10, 1311-1318, DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2017.1371795
[3] S. M. Cosh, D. G. McNeil & P. J. Tully (2020) Poor mental health outcomes in crisis transitions: an examination of retired athletes accounting of crisis transition experiences in a cultural context, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2020.1765852
[4] J. Robert Grove, David Lavallee & Sandy Gordon (1997) Coping with retirement from sport: The influence of athletic identity, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 9:2, 191-203, DOI: 10.1080/10413209708406481
[5] Giannone, Z. A. (2016). Life after sport : the relationship between athletic identity and mental health outcomes after sport retirement (T). University of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0223581
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