Session 5: Stopped in your tracks – unexpected transitions in sport
Introduction
Having looked at expected ‘within career’ transitions in sport in Session 4, you will now move on to look at unexpected (or non-normative) career transitions that can occur within an athlete’s career and the impact they can have.
You begin this session by watching the video below in which sport and exercise psychologist Dr Josie Perry discusses why non-normative transitions such as injury are particularly challenging. She explains how these transitions are out of the athlete’s control and therefore harder to prepare for. Transitions like this often take athletes out of their comfort zone into periods of change which can make them feel insecure.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1
Transcript: Video 1
DR JOSIE PERRY:
I think transitions in sport are really important because what it comes down to is change. Change can be really difficult for anybody. But when you are really used to something in sport, there's always external elements going on that change in sport, but you can get quite secure in the team you're in or the team you've got around you. And so when that's likely to change, it makes you feel really insecure inside. You can start to see things much more as a threat than a challenge. And when we get into a threat mindset, we just don't perform in the same way as we would like to. So not only does our well-being suffer, our performance can also suffer.
INTERVIEWER:
What do you think of are challenges of career transitions in sport? So why do athletes find them so challenging?
DR JOSIE PERRY:
I think one of the biggest challenges of career transitions in sport is when you're not in control of what's happening. So if you're in the under 14s and you move up to the under 16s, it's something you always knew was coming and so you can prepare for it. You'll know you'll be going out with lots of other people at the same time. So that feels like a really positive development. But some career transitions can feel really negative. The biggest one for most people is injury. And you go from doing the thing you love every day and getting to see your friends when you do it and knowing your journey because it's mapped out and you know the competitions or tournaments you'll be doing, and it can go. And the real tricky element of injury is not knowing how long it will take to recover. And I've even had athletes say to me, they would rather know they couldn't do anything for a whole year with an injury because at least they have a framework, than just it go on and on and not know when they're going to recover. So that can be a really tricky one.
Video 1
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By the end of this session you should be able to:
- identify some of the non-normative transitions an athlete may experience in their career
- understand the psychological and emotional impact of non-normative transitions on the athlete
- consider the psychological impact of sport injury on the athlete.