The inevitable retirement transition from sports that all athletes eventually experience has always fascinated me, mostly because it usually happens relatively early in life, and rarely is it noticed or cared about by society. Thousands of elite-level athletes retire from sports annually, and hundreds of thousands more will end their careers by the time they are teenagers. For some athletes the transition is a welcomed one, while others seem relatively indifferent. Still, there are many athletes who experience tremendous stress, frustration, anger, depression, and anxiety while facing the end of their sports careers (AHPS).
In the mid-1990’s, a colleague of mine (Ohio State athletic counselor Darin Meeker) and I created the nation’s first sport transition course at Ohio State, Positive Transitions for Student Athletes. In fact, I studied the efficacy of this course for my doctoral dissertation, finding mountains of empirical evidence that suggested many athletes do indeed experience an unplanned and life-changing event when they are faced with the sport retirement transition. Most athletes we studied experienced issues with their post-athlete identity, role confusion, poor future planning, poor career development, and in some cases mood disorders.
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Today it’s 2012, and if anything we have learned that we were really just scratching the surface looking back to our work in the 1990’s. With the internet and social media, it seems commonplace these days to hear stories about athletes experiencing difficulty at the ends of their careers — stories that include financial hardships, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and even suicide. Of course, it would be crazy to think that all of these stories could be averted, but sadly, many of them could have turned out a lot better had more aggressive advances by high schools, colleges, and professional teams taken place since our early work.
Instead of seeing a surge in the number of courses and programs designed to help athlete at the ends of their careers, there’s been a flat line. Sadly, when an athlete plays his or her final game, there is usually a harsh reality the individual faces: Few people seem to truly care. Rather than help the exiting athlete, schools and professional teams usually abandon them, turning their attention to the “next” great athlete coming to the team.
Sport psychologists and college athletic counselors help athletes when they can, but there are still only a select number of schools employing these types of professionals designated to help athletes transition out of sport. Instead, it’s the “elephant in the room” — the schools/teams know that retirement looms, and that the athletes will likely be unprepared, yet usually don’t acknowledge it and instead casually look the other way. This is not due to spite, or even negligence, but instead more likely due to the fact that the sportsworld lives by a “what have you done for me lately” philosophy – and retiring athletes are not of much worth.
It’s both fascinating to me that sport retirement is still as important to learn about today as it was 15-20 years ago, but frustrating that we really haven’t seen much academic or professional growth during this time. In fact, our book, Positive Transitions for Student Athletes, is still just as relevant today (if not more) than it was in 1999.
www.drstankovich.com
