Objective: During their career, most players working in professional team sports move from club to club. These transitions are not always completely successful and could highly impact the route of the players' development. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the psychological processes involved when players encounter problems in adapting from one club to another. Thus, it was the aim of this study to identify the most difficult aspects of these transitions, as experienced by team sports players and the psychological skills that contribute to successful outcomes.Design and Method: The present study included twenty professional basketball players (aged between 20 and 36 years old; Mean = 26.05, SD = 4.12), who had played under different coaches (coach range 4–15; Mean = 8.65, SD = 2.92), and also played for different clubs (range 3–10; Mean = 5.35, SD = 2.08). They took part in retrospective interviews regarding their embedded experiences during club to club transitions. A situated E-approach was used to identify their problematic experiences, the adaptability skills and how they are applied during club mutations.Results and Conclusions: The identification of problematic experiences revealed seven components in relation to coaching (e.g., obeying orders, reduced play time), three components with teammates (e.g., respect), two components with the club (e.g., lack of support), and three components with family/friends (e.g., geographical constraints). Additionally, results indicated that the adaptability skills used during mutation are related to three groups namely mental skills, learning methods, and interpersonal skills. The results provide coaches, players, sports psychologists, and national sport organizations a set of issues for understanding the challenges players encounter when they move from one club to another.

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Due to the growing competitive challenges, athletes' mutation between clubs has emerged an area of interest within career development. However, studies aimed at analysing this specific process of adaptation to clubs that lead to success or failure in such career mutations are seldom. We developed a comprehensive understanding of the psychological mutation processes to clubs using a narrative level of McAdams’ model of personality. The qualitative method approach used in the Big Three narrative framework (McLean et al., 2019) and good life stories standards (McAdams, 1996) were applied to uncover the components of the narratives of twenty professional basketball players during mutation between clubs. The current study sort to test the links between these narrative components and athlete successful club to club mutation (CCM-successful). On average, the results showed that the participants experienced richer narratives as compared to general population t (17.08) = -1.48, p < .05. Narratives in the CCM-successful were also richer (Mean = 2.83, SD = .16) as compared to narratives of the CCM-unsuccessful (Mean = 1.63, SD, = .36). The overall club mutation success correlated positively with exploratory processing, meaning-making and agency narrative components. These results suggest that when athletes develop active attitudes seeking for solution and sharing their experience with others, they may build the conditions of adaptability that corresponds to a successful outcome for their mutation. The participants exhibited flexible and proactive behaviours which rendered possible the appropriation of the elements in the environment that favour a positive experience of mutation.