Note:
Michelle is starting a sports psychology Q and A on the Runner's Web. Submit your questions to Michelle at: SportsMindedMC@aol.com and we will post her answers on the Runner's Web.
The Necessary Research!
The next two articles I am going to provide are pieces of my dissertation on transition. Because I think this is very interesting material particially because my research on recreational women triathletes has never been done, I want to share it with you. Once I have concluded my research (in approximately 6 months) I will share my conclusions.
The Problem
Most of the research hence the literature talks about athletes in ‘transition’ as athletes transitioning or terminating out of their sport. However, a gap in the literature exists, in that not all athletes are necessarily transitioning out of their sport but instead are transitioning within their sport (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004).
It seems important and relevant to the field of sports psychology to understand how to deal with transitions that take place within the context of an athletes sport so sports psychologists can assist athletes (or athletes can assist themselves) in that process. It is definitely a necessity to add an understanding of this process to the body of literature present on transition because although it’s important to understand transitioning out of sport it seems an entirely different matter to understand transition within sport.
This Researchers Hypotheses
This study is designed to discover the essence of when the lived experience of the transition process takes place for women who are recreational athletes in the sport of triathlon.
The first hypothesis in this study is the fact that women triathletes struggle with transition but is this transition after a single event or at the end of a season? Generally an enormous amount of time and energy is put into training for a triathlon and into a triathlon training season and this time takes away from family, friends, work and time spend alone. The assumption in the first hypothesis is that because so much time and energy is spend in triathlon training away from the rest of a women’s world, after a long training period, be it one triathlon or a season, there will be transition period. This researcher wants to uncover when women triathletes are most impacted.
The second hypothesis is that women training for longer distance triathlons have a harder time transitioning after the event or after the season because they’ve spent a longer period of time training and less time with family, friends, etc. This study is interested in discovering the essence within the context of women training for olympic, half ironman and ironman distance events.
The third hypothesis of this study is that recreational athletes cope with transition differently than competitive, professional or elite athletes. This study is interested in looking at transitions that might occur within the context of a sport versus transition/termination out of a sport.
The fourth hypothesis is concerned with how the sports literature on transition doesn’t clearly differentiate between termination and transition (Termination: the end or ending of something; the coming to an end of a contract period. Transition: passage from one form, state, style, or place to another). Clearly the definitions delineate a difference. Although a termination might be a transition, a transition doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a termination. This study would like to begin delineating the differentiation between transition and termination.
It is through descriptive phenomenology that as a researcher I am allowed to understand the phenomena of transition for women who are recreational athletes. This includes what they go through when dealing with issues of transition in the sport of triathlon, but even more specifically when they go through it .
In my next article I will share the current model on transition. This model has been researched using professional, elite athletes and was developed for extending the research on an athlete’s career termination versus how athlete’s cope with transition within the context of their sport however I feel it is the most noteworthy model to date.
Michelle is owner of Sports Minded, a Sports Psychology Consulting practice. She works with individuals and groups on performance enhancement. Michelle is an NASM-certified personal trainer and a USAT-certified triathlon coach. E-mail questions and comments to her at SportsMindedMC@aol.com or check out her web site at MentalStrength.com.
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