About this Research Topic
The transition experiences of high-performance athletes have garnered significant attention in sports scholarship in recent times. Predominantly, these experiences have been explored through a sport psychology lens, aiming to support and develop resilience among athletes who inevitably face challenging transitions due to the nature of a high-performance sports career. Increasingly, socio-cultural researchers have also begun exploring the impact of sports cultures on athlete transition, suggesting that transition experiences should be understood as being intimately connected to the relations of power that govern high-performance sports environments.
What remains clear from the findings of athlete transition research is the ongoing need to explore athlete transition from a range of perspectives. This exploration is essential to continuously educate, involve, and advise those engaged in these inevitable and often challenging moments in athletes’ lives, such as coaching practitioners and sports support workers. Continued work is needed to determine the types of support that could ameliorate the negative implications of athletic transitions. What is it that sports workers do, or indeed don’t do, that affects an athlete’s transition experience?
Specifically, we welcome papers that consider the relationship between sport coaching and athlete development practices and their impact on athlete experiences across a range of transitions, including but not limited to:
• the sports retirement experience
• the transition out of high-performance sport settings
• the transition into high-performance sport settings
• the transition from academy settings to first-team settings
• the transition from part-time/non-professional to full-time/professional sport
• the transition from player to coach
• an athlete’s transition from one culture to another
• within-sport transitions (e.g., change of position, weight category, distance, or code)
What remains clear from the findings of athlete transition research is the ongoing need to explore athlete transition from a range of perspectives. This exploration is essential to continuously educate, involve, and advise those engaged in these inevitable and often challenging moments in athletes’ lives, such as coaching practitioners and sports support workers. Continued work is needed to determine the types of support that could ameliorate the negative implications of athletic transitions. What is it that sports workers do, or indeed don’t do, that affects an athlete’s transition experience?
Specifically, we welcome papers that consider the relationship between sport coaching and athlete development practices and their impact on athlete experiences across a range of transitions, including but not limited to:
• the sports retirement experience
• the transition out of high-performance sport settings
• the transition into high-performance sport settings
• the transition from academy settings to first-team settings
• the transition from part-time/non-professional to full-time/professional sport
• the transition from player to coach
• an athlete’s transition from one culture to another
• within-sport transitions (e.g., change of position, weight category, distance, or code)
Keywords: athlete transition, sports coaching, sport retirement, sport practitioner, performance
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
