Session 2: Influencing factors – key themes in the athlete’s journey

Introduction

While all transitions carry with them unique challenges for the athlete, it is important to understand what factors play a part in influencing these experiences. If you think back to Activity 1 in Session 1, Candice and Caroline both experienced a wide range of transitions but the way they responded and managed them was quite different. In this session, you will examine some of the factors that can influence the way an athlete manages their journey and which can ultimately have a bearing on their overall athletic development.

Before you begin, watch the short video below where former England hockey player Alex Danson introduces you to her thoughts on the key themes in her own athlete journey.

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Transcript: Video 1

ALEX DANSON:

I think at different points in my career, I felt an enormous sense of I guess real athletic identity. I was an athlete. I was proud I was an athlete and everything that came with that. But I think, certainly at the start, I was a hockey player and I identified as a hockey player, which was a hobby and I did it as much as I could.

But even when I think back at that point, I was playing in the national team. I'd gone to my first Commonwealth Games. I'd been in the set up for a few years and I was still calling myself a hockey player because I don't think I had that athletic identity. And I think the professionalisation of our game, and moving from amateur to professional sport, I think helped enormously.

National Lottery funding, it gave, I think a sense of credibility, it became my job. And yeah, there was a real sense between when someone or a company or in our case the National Lottery invest in you, it's saying we believe that you can do something pretty special here. And I think at that point and particularly the London 2012 games had an enormous impact on I believe the professionalism of all our sports. They just put them all in the spotlight and I think at that point, we really grew prouder about the fact we are athletes. We are athletes who play hockey.

It's funny. When I had my accident and I had to come away from the sport for a long period of time, it made me realise just how powerful that identity is, on a physical level just how fit, how strong, how conditioned that we really were. I think I took it for granted. I think I just thought, oh, that's normal. It's not. It's incredible. It's a real privilege.

And then also everything that comes with that identity. So that being a part of a team, having a common purpose, working incredibly hard with like-minded people, being very good, and being at the top of your game very, very suddenly, that identity disappeared. So I think that would be for me certainly in my career when it was challenged the most.

I think a really interesting point is if you're in a team transitioning or if you're in an individual sport, maybe triathlon, swimming, athletics, whatever it may be, you're running the 800 metres on your own, transitioning then may feel quite different. I think my experience was probably more similar to that of an individual sport, through no one's fault of their own. I had a head injury where I was unable to communicate or have any connection really to anybody other than my husband and my nearest family. And so I envisage that my transition with a team and with a group of friends and more people about would be, I guess in some respects less isolating, less lonely. But actually what I learned is that we're all in a team. But it might not be the most obvious.

So whether you are a hockey player and you have 29 teammates who you've travelled all around the world with, or whether you are a triathlete that travels the world on their own with a physio. They have other competitors. And it's the same people that you're competing against around the world. It's your family. It's your friends, and actually when you transition the people that become integral to you doing that well are your nearest and your dearest.

And your teammates and your friends, they play in a role and a really important role, but their role is that you have those memories forever. They won't play the part in your life that they have over the last 20 years, which is being day in, day out, but your family will.

So I guess when you're planning or when you're thinking about any form of transition, think of your team as not only just the people you compete with, but the people that have been a part of your career the whole time, that have been on the sidelines, that have been in the crowd, and that's your family. And they form your team, and whether you're in an individual sport or a team sport, those closest to you will be kind of the rocks when you go through that next stage.

End transcript: Video 1

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By the end of this session you should be able to:

• understand the main psychological challenges that career transitions present
• recognise the factors that can influence an athlete’s adaptation to transition.