A psycho-educational curriculum for sport career transition practitioners: development and evaluation

Abstract

Research question:This paper is an integration of three studies. Study 1 investigates sport career transition organisational intervention programmes for high performance athletes and training and development programmes for sport career transition practitioners in order to find a research gap with regard to sport career transition supporting services. A psycho-educational curriculum was developed for sport career transition practitioner in Study 2 to fill the research gap. In Study 3, the curriculum was examined to see if the curriculum contributed to enhancing practitioners' confidence in key competences. Research methods:A range of methods were applied to the studies including One Group Pre-and Post-test design, Case Study, Focus Group, Semi-Structured Interview, two-round Delphi-Method and Questionnaires. The data for Study 1 collected from 19 countries worldwide and total 16 participants based in seven different countries were invited to development and evaluation of the curriculum. Results and Findings:A novel psycho-educational curriculum for sport career transition practitioner was developed and evaluated concerning four competences as a form of curriculum package. The findings revealed that the curriculum package increased the participants' confidence in key competences concerning sport career transition. Implications:The findings deepen the knowledge of sport career transition in the areas of organisational intervention programmes focusing on high performance athletes and sport career transition practitioners. These findings contribute to modifying the Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career Transition (Lavallee, Park, & Taylor, 2014) by strengthening the organisational intervention perspective and applied work in respect of sporting organisation management strategies.

Life after doping—A cross-country analysis of organisational support for sanctioned athletes

“…Termination of Support and Development in Progress were identified from the data which have not been reported in the previous study of support programmes for high-performance athletes (c.f. Hong & Coffee, 2018). Lastly, Informative Support was also identified which considered as crucial for athletes in transitions (Pummell & Lavallee, 2018).…”

“…Career termination is an inevitable experience that high-performance athletes will face in a range of circumstance. Retirement is a transition moment that can increase risks, especially if they are unprepared for it (Hong & Coffee, 2018) and it also invites identity and coping issues (Sinclair & Orlick, 1994). Researchers have shown that high-performance athletes may be at an increased risk of suicide that is potentially associated with injuries, substance abuse, and relatively early retirement from their sporting career (Baum, 2005).…”

“…Since career transition support programmes enable sporting organisations to create an appropriate environment for highperformance athletes (Anderson & Morris, 2000), the organisational context of career development programmes is critical to help athletes have a smooth and healthy transition (Lavallee, Gorely, Lavallee, & Wylleman, 2001). With regard to this, Hong and Coffee (2018) provided an overview of organisational support provided to high-performance athletes from 19 different countries. Their study reviewed programmes around the world, identifying their similarities, differences, and difficulties so that sporting organisations might improve the support through sport career transition programmes.…”

“…Web-based data collection was conducted first to find any relevant information to answer the research question between May 2018 and September 2019. As Hong and Coffee (2018) applied, data collection was initiated by investigating the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) websites to identify relevant websites of sporting organisations that could be able to answer the research question. The data from Hong and Coffee (2018) confirmed that the IOC and NOCs have developed support programmes for high-performance athletes and that they have practitioners/staff members who keep in contact with athletes.…”

Developmental Experiences Related to Retirement from Sport: Insights from Japan

“…A career assistance program, the Japan Career Academy (JCA), was started in 2008 to support Japanese Olympic athletes at retirement. Hong and Coffee (2018) recently investigated the features of the JCA and identified that, although it had strong occupational support provision, psychological supports for retiring athletes were not provided due to a lack of qualified practitioners.…”