Are Career Termination Concerns Only for Athletes? A Case Study of the Career Termination of an Elite Female Coach

This paper presents a case study of an elite female coach and her career termination from a 20+ year career following a critical life incident. A novel autobiographical approach was adopted whereby the participant undertook expressive writing to describe her experiences prior to, during, and following coaching an athlete at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Thematic analysis indicated seven phases related to the participant’s experiences of the critical incident: Build up to the event, the event, the aftermath, recovery and reflection on the event, sampling of new avenues, enlightenment, and career re-birth. The findings reinforce the high demands placed upon elite coaches, the subsequent threats to physical and mental well-being, and the importance of having robust psychological skills and suitable social support to cope with these demands. Implications for preparing and supporting coaches for successful career transition are discussed

Emoções, “stress”, ansiedade e “coping": estudo qualitativo com treinadores de nível internacional

A influência dos fatores e processos psicológicos no desempenho desportivo dos atletas está, de uma forma geral, amplamente demonstrada; todavia, poucas investigações procuraram estudar esta relação nos treinadores. Neste sentido, empregando uma entrevista semi-estruturada, a presente investigação procurou, junto de seis treinadores de elite com idades compreendidas entre os 55 e os 63 anos (M = 59 ± 3,03) de diversas modalidades, identificar as características/competências psicológicas mais importantes para o sucesso desportivo, as principais fontes de “stress” e ansiedade experienciadas e as estratégias de “coping” a que recorriam em situações estressantes e/ou problemáticas, adicionalmente, pretendeu explorar o papel de outras emoções no seu desempenho. Os resultados revelaram que: 1) a motivação era uma das competências/características psicológicas percepcionadas pelos treinadores como mais importantes para o sucesso; 2) as principais fontes de “stress” estavam relacionadas com preocupações com o desempenho dos atletas, sendo comuns a diferentes modalidades; 3) os treinadores recorriam a diversas estratégias de “coping” em simultâneo, geralmente adaptativas; e 4) para além da ansiedade, outras emoções, positivas e negativas, pareciam influenciar o desempenho dos treinadores.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Are Career Transition Concerns Only for Athletes? An Autobiographical Study of the Career Transition of an Elite Coach

In contrast to the wealth of literature devoted to elite and professional athletes few studies have explored the transition experiences of coaches’ out of their respective sports, or into other sports. This is despite the acknowledgement that the career transition can also be a significant and long lasting event for these individuals (Gordon & Lavallee, 2011). Like athletes, coaches do not consider the end of their careers or believe it important to plan for retirement despite acknowledging job instability. This paper presents a case study of a female coach and her transition out of long term coaching from her sport following a critical life event. At the time of the initial data collection the participant had been coaching in her sport at the elite level for 24 years. A novel autobiographical approach was adopted whereby the participant undertook expressive writing to describe her experiences prior to, during, and following the critical life event of coaching an athlete at the 2012 Summer Olympic games. Thematic analysis indicated 7 key moments related to the participant’s experiences of the critical life event: the build up to the event, the event itself, the aftermath, reflection on the event, sampling of new avenues, career enlightenment, and career re-birth. The findings describe the psychological processes that a coach experiences in relation to transitioning out of their sport due to a critical life event. They also reinforce the high demands placed upon elite coaches, the subsequent threats to physical and mental wellbeing, and the importance of having robust mental skills and suitable social support to cope with these demands. Implications for preparing and supporting coaches and support staff for successful career transition are discussed including the provision of structured support programs and resources in the lead up to, and following, critical life events in their professional careers

Applied Sport Psychology: An Expert Panel Discussion.

An interview with several exercise and sport scientists including Andrea Faull, Kate Hays, Stephen D. Mellaliue, and Brendan Cropley in Great Britain is presented. They share how their practice philosophy was developed over time. They share advice to those who started working in the field. They also reveal the interventions they have implemented in the practice

A theory of challenge and threat states in athletes

We propose a Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA) which is an amalgamation and extension of the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, the model of adaptive approaches to competition and the debilitative and facilitative competitive state anxiety model. In the TCTSA we posit that selfefficacy, perceptions of control, and achievement goals determine challenge or threat states in response to competition. Distinct patterns of neuroendocrine and cardiovascular responses are indicative of a challenge or threat state. Increases in epinephrine and cardiac activity, and a decrease in total peripheral vascular resistance (TPR) characterise a challenge state and increases in cortisol, smaller increases in cardiac activity and either no change or an increase in TPR characterise a threat state. Positive and negative emotions can occur in a challenge state while a threat state is associated with negative emotions only. Emotions are perceived as helpful to performance in a challenge state but not in a threat state. Challenge and threat states influence effort, attention, decision?making and physical functioning and accordingly sport performance. The TCTSA provides a framework for practitioners to enhance performance, through developing a challenge state, and encourages researchers to explore the mechanisms underlying performance in competition

Identification and enhancement of preperformance mental states in male rugby union players

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN036555 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Measuring Recovery in Elite Rugby Players: The Brief Assessment of Mood, Endocrine Changes, and Power

Purpose: There is demand in applied sport settings to measure recovery briefly and accurately. Research indicates mood disturbance as the strongest psychological predictor of mental and physical recovery. The Brief Assessment of Mood (BAM) is a shortened version of the Profile of Mood States that can be completed in less than 30 s. The purpose of this study was to examine the BAM as a quick measure of mood in relation to recovery status in elite rugby players alongside established physiological markers of recovery. Method: Using elite rugby union players (N = 12), this study examined the utility of BAM as an indicator of mental and physical recovery in elite athletes by exploring pattern change in mood disturbance, energy index, power output, cortisol, and testosterone 36 hr before and 12 hr, 36 hr, and 60 hr after a competitive rugby match. Results: Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant changes in all variables across the 4 time points (p < .05, η2 range = .20–.48), concurrent with previous study findings. Although visual inspection of the graphs indicated that the pattern of change for mood disturbance and energy index mapped changes in all physiological variables, only a low correlation was observed for power output (r = − .34). Conclusions: Although BAM scores changed significantly over time in accordance with the hypotheses, further testing is required to confirm the utility of the BAM as a measure of recovery. The results indicate that the BAM could be used as 1 indicator of recovery status alongside other measures