Transcript
CAROLINE HEANEY:
The athletic level indicates that during her career Natasha will experience four key periods of transition. Her first transition involved her initiation into athletics at the age of 11. Then, as she got older and became more involved she transitioned into the development phase. Here, she began developing her skills with more specialist training and competing in junior competitions. As she progressed from junior to senior competition, she transitioned into the mastery phase, where she is currently enjoying her most successful performances. Now that she is in her late 20's, Natasha is starting to think about retirement and life after sport, when she will move into the discontinuation phase.
The two transitions seen at the psychological level are moves from childhood to adolescence and adolescence to adulthood, which loosely coincide with the transitions at the athletic level from initiation to development and development to mastery, and appear to involve an increase in drop-out from competitive sports, as Natasha saw with some of her friends.
The transitions associated with the psycho-social level relate to changes in who is most important to the athlete. During her childhood, Natasha's parents were the most important people around her, but now as an adult her partner has become more important. Coaches are obviously important, too, and tend to become significant figures in adolescence and then throughout the athlete's participation.
Finally, the academic and vocational level of the model identifies three key transitions-- primary to secondary education, secondary to higher education, and higher education to vocational training and work. Natasha found the transition from secondary school to university difficult, experiencing challenges connected to moving away from home, changes in her social network, and moving to a different coach. After university, when she started working, she found she had less time to train and sometimes experienced conflict between her work and athletic roles.