Wylleman et al (2004) suggest that central to the debate regarding the position from which it is best to examine the event of athletes’ exit from sport is a question of whether to consider such experiences as either a Singular or Transitional event. Wylleman et al (2004) describe how considering the end of an athletic career as a singular event led to “paralleling” such an event to that of retirement from the workforce, or even to the process of dying. Thus researchers sought ideas from fields such as gerontology, the study of the aging process, and thanatology, the study of dying and death. Early studies that considered the end of an athletic career as a singular event included well-publicised negative or even traumatic experiences among athletes retiring from elite sports. Blinde and Stratta (1992) expressed concern for the number of athletes who experienced traumatic effects upon athletic career termination, including alcohol and substance abuse, acute depression, eating disorders, identity confusion, decreased self-confidence, and attempted suicide. Another study that viewed athletes’ exit from sport as a singular and traumatic event was that of Mihovilovic (1968). Mihovilovic’s (1968) survey of Yugoslavian former first-league football players showed that not only 95% ended their football career involuntarily and suddenly, but also that this end was perceived to be very negative by those players without another profession on retirement.
It should be noted that the importance of Mihovilovic’s (1968) investigation goes beyond that of an appropriate example of a study that employed the view of an exit from elite sport as a singular and traumatic event. It is one of the most cited pieces of scholarship in regards to athletes’ exit from sport and acts as a point genesis for this topic of research. Mihovilovic asked 44 male Yugoslavian football players, through questionnaires and interviews, about their post-athletic careers. The three-part study analysed the reasons for career termination, the reactions of peers, and the ways the effects of retirement could be eased. Mihovilovic's (1968) study found that only 5% of the players retired voluntarily; retirement for the remainder was a result of injury, age, club conditions, or elimination by younger players. Mihovilovic describes how attempts to block the success of younger players were regular, through the use of sabotage or boycotting, indicating the unwillingness of the older players to accept the new team members. For those whose transition from active play was gradual, Mihovilovic (1968) offered two explanations. The first was that the players were simply holding on for as long as they could. The second was that the gradual transition was an easier one for the footballer to accept and was, therefore, the preferred one. In the end, though, the athlete who stayed on “despite declining skills left his career planning in the hands of management”, making a sudden cut all the more likely (Mihovilovic, 1968:91). Mihovilovic’s (1968) subjects suggested that a smooth transition for an athlete could be facilitated by maintaining contact with his former club, by participating in tournaments, by public recognition from the clubs, or by being used in coaching or other capacities that made use of their experience. Mihovilovic (1968) concluded that the move from active sports to other employment was a serious social problem that required recognition and correction.
In contrast to Mihovilovic’s (1968) study, Coakley (1983) put forth the notion that that athletic career termination could serve as an opportunity for social rebirth, rather than a social death. Such a notion led
researchers to suggest that athletic career termination should be seen as a transitional process rather than as a singular event. ‘Transition models’ (e.g. Schlossberg, 1981, 1984) involve a transition being defined as “an event or non-event which results in a change in assumptions about oneself and the world and thus requires a corresponding change in one’s behaviour and relationships” (Schlossberg, 1981:5). In these models three major sets of factors interact during a transition; (i) the characteristics of the individual experiencing the transition (e.g., gender, age, previous experience with a transition of a similar nature), (ii) the perception of the particular transition (e.g. role change, affect, occurrence of stress), and (iii) the characteristics of the pre and post-transition environments (e.g. the evaluation of internal support systems, institutional support). A number of researchers have used this model in an attempt to understand the career transition process of athletes (e.g. Baillie and Danish, 1992; Sinclair and Orlick, 1993; Swain, 1991). This approach to research led to the notion that the adjustment process to post-athletic life was mediated by, among others, the voluntariness with which athletes retired and their preparation for a life after sport (Wylleman et al, 2004).
Sinclair and Orlick (1993) describe transitions as inevitable and often unpredictable. Human life is characterised by various life changes, discontinuities, or turning points (Schlossberg et al, 1989). Transitional events include career changes, the death of a spouse, having children, moving to another city, or getting married. Every transition has the potential to be a crisis, a relief, or a combination of both, depending on the individual's perception of the situation. Sinclair and Orlick (1993) suggest one particular type of transition that has the potential to illuminate these complex patterns of change and stability is an exit from high- performance sport, in the case of this study a player’s release and career transition from a Premier League club. The event of retirement, or change, is a normal consequence of elite participation. A career in sport is much shorter than most other careers or occupations, as most athletes retire, voluntarily or involuntarily. All athletes, whether they compete internationally or professionally, must eventually move from elite
participation in sport (Sinclair and Orlick, 1993). Any transition, whether smooth or rough, necessitates a degree of adjustment (Coakley, 1983) but Sinclair and Orlick (1993: 139) ask the questions, “What becomes of athletes upon their exit from high performance sport?” and, more specifically, “Whether or not they leave sport satisfied with their memories of participation and enthusiastic about the new challenges that await them?”
Sinclair and Orlick (1993) debate whether an exit from high-performance sport is an event which allows the pursuit of other opportunities, or one which leads to negative outcomes such as unhappiness, addictions, and identity crises. In contrast to the studies previously mentioned that portray the post elite sport lives of athletes as traumatic, Sinclair and Orlick (1993) and Coakley (1983) have taken an alternative view of the retirement process. These studies and those similar to them assert that former athletes do not face the avalanche of adjustment difficulties leaving sport, as other studies have suggested, and may be a pleasantly anticipated event because it allows new opportunities for personal growth and development. Such a perspective asserts too that athletes may actually experience relief from the pressures and heavy time commitment of sport as a result of their withdrawal.
McPherson (1984: 225) states that this problem-oriented perspective “must be replaced by a process-oriented approach”. Sinclair and Orlick (1993) suggest that too frequently athletic transition has been looked at as an event that automatically causes trauma or relief rather than as initiating a transitional process, a process that each individual perceives differently and therefore adjusts to differently. A multitude of behavioural patterns are associated with athletic transition (Werthner and Orlick, 1986) simply because individuals bring their own perceptions of stress, personal resources, coping strategies, and socialization experiences to their particular transition (Schlossberg, 1981). Sinclair and Orlick (1993) stress that it is a combination of the individual, the resources available to and used by that individual, and the type of transition encountered, that
influences whether or not a career transition is successful. Wylleman et al (2004) explain how the concept of ‘transition’ has been related during the past decades to a variety of topics including individual life span development, occupational planning, educational processes, social support, and the processes of aging, retirement, and dying. In general, a transition has been related to the occurrence of one or more specific events which bring about, not only in an individual ‘a change in assumptions about oneself’ (Schlossberg, 1981:5), but also a social disequilibrium (Wapner and Craig-Bay, 1992) that goes beyond the on- going changes of everyday life (Sharf, 1997). The concept of transition was introduced in the wake of psychologists and social scientists’ interest during the 1970s–early 1980s in how (former) athletes coped with the event of retirement from high-level competitive and professional sports (e.g. Mihovilovic, 1968). According to Wylleman et al (2004), since then, the focus of research has evolved in different phases. The athletic career end was originally seen as a singular event, the transitional approach was later implemented to other phases and events occurring during the athletic career, and resulted in the current holistic, life-span perspective on (athletic as well as non-athletic) transitions faced by athletes.
Acknowledging the critiques mentioned above, this project applies a process orientated perspective and examines the event of participants’ release from professional Premier League clubs as a transitional process. When referring to the event of participants’ release from their clubs this project will herein address the topic as Career Transitions. The reasoning to assume this position lies in the understanding that participants within this study are members of a sporting population that all must continue living their lives following their departure from professional football. Their existence does not end once they have been released, nor do they quietly wait for the inevitable end to old age. Labelling an end to a sporting career as a singular event does not allow the findings of this project to be of relevance or practical help in understanding how players move on with their lives following an end to their sporting biography as Premier League players. Considering such events as a process and as a
career transition allows the study to illustrate that, while some players may understandably experience saddened emotions following their release, such an event is one of many junctures in their lives. Not only is the transition perspective the most appropriate theoretical position from which to acknowledge the multiple and fluid identities of participants, it also allows the event to be considered a doorway to the attainment of positive future possible selves that lie outside the lines of a pitch.