coakley leaving competitive sport quest1983

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Quest 1983 35.  l l l Leaving Competitive Sport: Retirement or Rebirth? Jay J. Coakley This paper reviews existing information on retirement from sport and offers an interpretation of the retirement process that will both challenge widespread assumptions held by sport sociologists and provide hypotheses for future research. The dynamics of the retirement process are discussed for athletes in top-l evel interscholasti c and amateur sports as well as in professional sports . Ex- ist ing da ta suggest that retirement for athletes in each of these contexts is not an inevitable source of stress, identity crises, or adjustment problems. It is argued that the dynamics of the sport retirement process are grounded in the social structural context in which retirement takes place. Factors such as gender, race,  ge socioeconomic status, and social and emotional support networks shape the manner in which one makes the transition out of sport. Therefore, retirement from sport sometimes may be the scene of stress and trauma but, by  itself it often is not the major cause of those problems. What happens to athletes when, for one reason or another, their active in- volvement in top-level competition ends? In recent years, concern about the fates of so-called ex-athletes has grown, and has usually focused on athletes' re- tirement from sport and the possibility that that retirement may be a source of problems. In some cases, leaving sport has been conceptualized as a form of  social death, and the ex-athlete de- scribed as being prone to critical social and psychological conditions. This paper will review the research on retire- ment from sport and offer a framework for exploring what happens when ath- letes end their active involvement in top- level competition.  bout the uthor Jay J. Coakley is with the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Col- orado Springs. Before going any further, the major terms used in this discussi on must be de- fined. First, competitive sport refers to any organized sport activity in which training and participation are time-con- suming and in which the level of perfor- mance meets relatively high standards of expectations. Specifically, highly com- petitive interscholastic and amateur sports as well as professional sports of all types will be discussed. Second, re- tirement refers to the process of transi- tion from participation in competitive sport to another activity or set of activi- ties.  This is somewhat different from popular connotations of the term where retirement is often used to refer to an event which simply marks a withdrawal from, or an end to, an involvement. Popular synonyms for retirement are  to go away, enter seclusion, withdraw, retreat, give ground, move back, or in baseball, to make

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Q u e s t 1 9 8 3 3 5 .  l l l

Leaving Competitive

Sport: Retirement orRebirth?

Jay J. Coakley

This paper reviews existing information on retirement from sport and offers an

interpretation of the retirement process that will both challenge widespreadassumptions held by sport sociologists and provide hypotheses for futureresearch. The dynamics of the retirement process are discussed for athletes intop-level interscholastic and am ateur sports as well as in professional sports . Ex-isting da ta suggest that retirement for athletes in each of these contexts is not aninevitable source of stress, identity crises, or adjustment problems. It is arguedthat the dynamics of the sport retirement process are grounded in the socialstructural context in which retirement takes place. Factors such as gender, race,  g e socioeconomic status, and social and emotional support networks shape themanner in which one makes the transition out of sport. Therefore, retirementfrom sport sometimes may be the scene of stress and trauma but, by  itself it

often is not the major cause of those problems.

What happens to athletes when, forone reason or another, their active in-volvement in top-level competitionends? In recent years, concern about thefates of so-called ex-athletes has grown,and has usually focused on athletes' re-

tirement from sport and the possibilitythat that retirement may be a source ofproblems. In some cases, leaving sporthas been conceptualized as a form of  social dea th, and the ex-athlete de-scribed as being prone to critical socialand psychological conditions. Thispaper will review the research on retire-ment from sport and offer a frameworkfor exploring what happens when ath-

letes end their active involvement in top-level com petition.

Before going any further, the majorterms used in this discussion must be de-fined. First, competitive sport refers toany organized sport activity in whichtraining and participation are time-con-suming and in which the level of perfor-

mance meets relatively high standards ofexpectations. Specifically, highly com-petitive interscholastic and amateursports as well as professional sports ofall types will be discussed. Second, re-tirement refers to the process of transi-tion from participation in competitivesport to another activity or set of activi-ties.  This is somewhat different frompopular connotations of the term where

retirement is often used to refer to anevent which simply marks a withdrawal

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CO KLEY

an ou t. These terms make retirementsound final and negative when, in manycases, it involves new opportunities and

the potential for growth and develop-ment. In fact, retirement often involvesa type of graduation rather than a with-drawal, and graduations are celebratedwith commencement exercises marking abeginning rather than an end. In anycase, retirement is most accurately con-ceptualized as a role transition throughwhich a person disengages from one setof activities and relationships to develop

or expand other activities and relation-ships.

Paradoxes in the Study

of Retirement

In describing competitive sport, theliterature tends to emphasize the rigidityof sport organization, the existence of

exploitation, and threats to athletes' au-tonomy and personal well-being. The lit-erature describes athletes who complainabout the aversive nature of their train-ing schedules, the length of their sea-sons, and the lack of control over theirown lives. This type of analysis shouldlead to the conclusion that most athleteswould welcome retirement from compet-itive sport because it would allow them

to pursue alternative activities more con-ducive to personal growth and develop-ment. However, discussions about ex-athletes usually emphasize retirement asa negative event (Ball, 1976; Harris &Eitzen, 1978; Hill  Lowe, 1974; Mc-Pherson, 1980; Rosenberg, 1980a,1980b, 1981). Retired athletes are de-scribed as unwilling victims of circum-stances causing them trauma, identitycrises, loss of economic status, and theloss of meaningful social support from

ment was often described as somethingto look forward to and to work for; itwas seen as a transition through which aperson left the constraining context ofwork and entered the liberating contextof leisure. On the other hand, retirementwas also described as a problem, asource of personal trauma for the re-tiree,  and a sentence to isolation andpowerlessness. Although the merits ofthese descriptions are still debated, re-cent research in the field has shown that  for the most part, retirement appears

to have little significant impact on broadlevels of social adjustment and identity(George, 1980, p. 73). Of course, thereare exceptions to this rule. Retirementfor some people  s stressful. But the typi-cal pattern involves no major changes ina person's level of adjustment. This doesnot mean that retired people have noproblems, only that their problems arenot characteristically caused by their re-

tirements. Furthermore, research showsthat most people prepare for retirementby using information they receivethrough informal sources. Personal cop-ing styles for moving from a work careerto other activities and relationships varywidely among retirees. Most copingstyles are successful and none stand outas ideal (Atchley, 1980; George, 1980).

Unlike the gerontologists, sport soci-ologists are still in the initial stages ofclearing up the contradictions in theirstudy of retirement. Is retirement fromcompetitive sport a problem, or does itprovide new opportunities? Do athletesexperience trauma during retirement, ordo they experience relief? Is the transi-tion out of the role of active player expe-rienced as a withdrawal, a move back, a

retreat, a failure? Or is it experienced asa period of growth and development? At

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LEAVING COMPETITIVE SPORT

fying activities, but others cling to theirtrophies, sport identities, and memoriesin ways that seem to impede their devel-

opment. We do not know how often re-tiring athletes fall into either of thesepatterns, nor do we know why these pat-terns vary from one individual to thenext. However, if some studies are re-viewed through a conceptual frameworkthat focuses attention on role transitionsduring late adolescence, young adult-hood, and middle age, it is possible todevelop hypotheses and make sugges-

tions for future research.

Leaving Interscholastic

and mateur Sport

Although research is scarce, thestudies completed on former interscho-lastic and amateur athletes suggest thattheir ret iremen t from sport is simplyseen as a part of other normal develop-ments such as leaving high school, enter-ing college or the labor force, and set-tling down into new relationships associ-ated with family and career. The studiesdo not support the idea that retirementfrom competitive sport is a characteristi-cally traumatic and identity-shaking p ro-cess.  For example, in a study of 153former outstanding male high school

football and basketball players. Sands(1978) found that although sport was acrucial activity in their lives while theywere in school, it declined in importanceafter graduation. The athletes in hissample generally defined their sport in-volvement as passing phases in theirlives.  According to Sands, the end oftheir involvement in competitive inter-scholastic sport was not accompanied by

trauma or identity crises, and their lossof social recognition was handled quite

and less visible in the social environmentof the high school. Young men in minorsports and young women in most varsity

sports would be less likely to have theirstatus and their relationships directlylinked to their sport involvement. Thetransition out of competitive sportwould probably not create trauma or ad-justment problems for them . They mightmiss the camaraderie of teammates andthe excitement of top-level athletic com-petition, but their memories of pastsport participation are not likely to in-

terfere with their future growth and de-velopment.

Other research on interscholastic ath-letes suggests that males who participatein varsity high school sports experiencemore success after graduation than dononathletes. Compared to nonathletes,they are more likely to attend college,receive degrees, go on to graduateschool, reach higher levels of occupa-tional status, and earn higher incomes(Otto  Alwin, 1977; Phillips  Schafer,1971;  Bend, Note 1). This is  ot  to saythat their success comes from participa-tion in sport. But these data hardly sup-port the idea that ex-athletes haveunique adjustment problems which in-terfere with their growth and develop-ment.

Research also suggests that when highschool athletes increase their academicaspirations and achievements, the in-creases are primarily due to support theyreceived through the important relation-ships in their lives. The sport experiencetakes on meaning through those rela-tionships, especially those with parentsand close friends. It is likely that theparents and close friends of most ath-

letes, like the athletes themselves, wouldsee sport peirticipation as a passing phase

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 O KLEY

to sport involvement. Many former highschool athletes participate in commun-ity-based programs at a variety of com-

petitive levels. They may go on to collegeand participate in varsity, intramural, orclub sports. They may also continuetheir attachment to sport by majoring inphysical education or recreation, bycoaching or refereeing youth teams, orby becoming involved in any of a num-ber of lifetime sport activities.

At the college level we could expecttransition patterns similar to those at the

high school level. For example, Snyderand Baber (1979) found no evidenceamong 233 former intercollegiate maleathletes in a midwestern sample to sug-gest that retirement from sport was asso-ciated with problems. The former ath-letes were compared to nonathletes whohad graduated during the same timeperiod (1965-1975); there were no differ-ences in levels of satisfaction withfriends, marriage, work career, financialsituation, or general life style. The dataalso showed that the former athletesshifted their interests and activities quitesuccessfully after leaving school. Likenonathletes, they seemed to adjust to thenormal challenges encountered after col-lege. Unlike the nonathletes, they madesport and sport-related activities a major

part of their leisure time. They attendedmore sport events, watched more sportson television, and actively participatedin sports more often than did nonath-letes. In other w ords, they did not usual-ly terminate their involvement in sportwhen their intercollegiate careers ended.They simply tended to m aintain their in-volvement by making it a high priorityleisure activity while continuing to grow

and develop in other dimensions of theirlives during early adulthood.

Thiel (1979) indicate that ex-athletes donot significantly differ from formerclassmates in their curren t socioeconom-ic status. Of course, this does not neces-sarily mean that the athletes had noproblems in adjusting to the transitionfrom college to occupation, but it atleast suggests that the problems, if theydid exist, were not serious enough tocause their occupational patterns to dif-fer from those of their college cohorts.

Although more research is needed, themajority of former intercollegiate male

athletes appear able to handle the transi-tion out of top-level sport competitionconstructively. The transition out of in-tercollegiate sport seems to go hand-in-hand with the transition from college towork careers, new friendships, marriage,parenthood, and other roles normallyassociated with early adulthood.

Research is also scarce on retirementfrom amateur sports where participationoccurs outside of an interscholastic set-ting. Mihovilovic (1968) studied 44former elite Yugoslavism male soccerplayers and reported that for them re-tirement was a painful event. He ob-served tha t o lder athletes tended to clingto team membership as long as possibleand then had a difficult time adjustingto retirement. He concluded that the re-

tired soccer player characteristically  hides, escapes, looks for compensationin alcohol, blames others, weavesdreams, . . . deceives himself as regardshis possibilities, [and] grows indifferentto events around him (p. 81).

However, a closer examination ofMihovilovic's data reveals that the ad-justment problems among the retiredsoccer players were not as pervasive as

he suggested. For example, over 60% ofthem remained nonsmokers or smoked

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LE VING COMPETITIVE SPORT

mates; 70 did not report any constric-tion in their circle of friends; 80 stillparticipated in sport tournaments; and

nearly 90 maintained their connec-tions with sport by coaching, refereeing,serving in some other support capacity,or working in sport organizations. Con-trary to Mihovilovic's conclusion, then,this seems to be an impressive adjust-ment record for athletes whose sport ex-periences had monopolized their atten-tion for many years and had preventedmost of them from completing their edu-

cation or receiving job training. It isespecially impressive when one considersthat over half of the former players hadretired suddenly and involuntarily. Thisfdoes not mean that retirement requiredno personal adjustments, but it doessuggest that it was handled quite well inspite of being unwelcome.

Mihovilovic's study answers few ques-

tions about retirement among amateurathletes. Although his data did not sug-gest that many of the former soccerplayers experienced measurable failurein coping with life after retirement, hisconclusion referred to considerablepain, stress, and maladjustment. It maybe that his confusing interpretation re-flected the range of transition patternsassociated with retirement—coupled

with his own concern and ambivalenceabout retirement issues. More research isneeded to identify the conditions andcharacteristics associated with these pat-terns.

There is similar confusion when dis-cussing the retirement of other amateurathletes. Swimmers, gymnasts, tennisplayers, and figure skaters, since the age

of 5, have spent considerable time intraining and competition; the conclusion

while participating in sport. But there isno systematic, empirical basis for a dis-cussion of these possibilities.

In a  ports  llustrated article, journ al-ist Janice Kaplan (1977) briefly de-scribed the retirement of three formeramateur athletes. Her descriptions por-trayed a range of patterns. For example,former gold-medalist swimmer DebbieMeyer retired at age 19. Shortly there-after she became depressed and gained50 pounds. Then she entered anddropped out of two colleges, went on acrash diet, and suffered from anorexianervosa. She recovered, started coachingat a swim club, became a successful as-sistant coach at Stanford University,and then accepted a good marketingposition with a swimsuit manufacturer.Fritz Hobbs, part of the silver medal-winning rowing team in the 1972 Olym-pic Games, combined athletics with his

pursuit of B.A. and M.B.A. degrees atHarvard and, after dropping out of top-level competition, made a smooth trans i-tion into a Wall Street job. Now Hobbsuses his past sport experience as a con-versation topic with clients, is involvedwith an amateur rowing association, andplays squash several times a week. JohnWilliams, a 1972 Olympic gold medal ar-cher, dropped out of top-level competi-

tion at 19. He obtained a low-paid con-sulting job with an archery equipmentmanufacturer, entered and dropped outof one school, entered another and vol-unteered as an archery coach. Williamsencountered some political problems inamateur archery, joined the Profession-al Archery Association and won its an-nual competition. He was ejected fromthe PAA for reasons stemming from hisearlier problems in amateur archery, waslater reinstated, went back to school,

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COAKLEY

not because they are representative, butbecause they show some of the varia-tions to be expected in a study of retire-

ment among amateur athletes. In fact,the variation would probably be greaterthan that found among former inter-scholastic athletes because amateur ath-letes are a more diversified group. Re-tirement from amateur sport occurs atmany ages for a variety of reasons, whileretirement from interscholastic sport isusually associated with other transitionsin a young person's life. Leaving ama-teur sport does not necessarily corre-spond with these other transitions.

  eaving Profe ssional Sports

There is more information aboutformer athletes from professional sportsthan there is at other levels of participa-tion, but confusion still exists about thedynamics of the retirement process For

example, sociologist Marvin Su^man(1972) once wrote that retirement fromprofessional sport was never a problembecause athletes were aware of the brev-ity of their careers and prepared accord-ingly; furthermore, professional athleteswere guaranteed second careers whentheir sport careers ended. However, re-cent information has indicated thatSussman's statements were based on

popular misconceptions and did not ac-curately describe the retirement process.

It is now known that many profes-sional athletes have until recently ig-nored the prospect of early retirementand that second careers are sometimesdifficult to initiate and m aintain.\ But itis also naive to use just this negative in-formation and conclude that former

professional athletes in general are over-whelmed by retirement-induced stress

disillusioned Mercury Morris sitting injail after a drug conviction^The fewsystematic studies that have been done

indicate that neither Tarkenton norMorris is typical. The fates of formerathletes cannot be collectively character-ized 3 either glorious or disastrous. Abrief review of these studies illustratesthis.point.

In a 1958 survey of former majorleague baseball players, Haerle (1975)concluded that retirement created strainbut that the overall transition out of

sport involved successful patterns ofcoping with these strains. He found thatmany of the former players missed thedaily camaraderie of teamm ates, but thisdid not interfere with their search to findnew jobs and to make the other adjust-ments required in their lives outside ofsport.,The respondents made these ad-justments in spite of the fact that about

75%  of them had never seriously though tabout retirement until the last quarter oftheir active playing careers.

Two other studies of former baseballplayers, one by Arviko (Note 2) and theother by Lerch (1979), report findingssimilar to those of Haerle. The levels ofadjustment among respondents in eachof these studies were relatively high. On-ly 15% scored low on a measure of life

satisfaction. Although neither studycould explain more than 15% of thevariemce in life satisfaction scores, fac-tors such as good health, a high income,a high level of education, a positive pre-retirement attitude, and a job connectedwith sport all related positively to feel-ings of satisfaction. Had these research-ers used comparison groups, they proba-bly would have found the retired playersto be a relatively well-adjusted group of

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LE VING COMPETITIVE SPORT

linked with the amount of social supportcoming from close friends and relatives.This was especially true for playersworking in low-status jobs unrelated totheir personal occupational interests.

Unfortunately, there are questionsabout the representativeness of eachsample in these latter three studies. Thedata were collected through mailed ques-tionnaires and the response rates werelow (38 , 45 , and 22 , respectively).Therefore one should be cautious aboutusing them to characterize the retirement

process. In addition, each study focuseson one of the two major male teamsports in the United States.

The only available systematic infor-mation on former athletes of individualsports has been reported in two studiesof boxers, one by Weinberg and Arond(1952) and the other by Hare (1971).Weinberg and Arond traced the post-re-tirement careers of 9 ex-champions and

leading contenders. They found thatretirement was accompanied by a dra-matic decline in prestige and income,and by emotional problems stemmingfrom trying to find jobs outside of box-ing. However, most of the problemsseemed to be directly linked to injuries, aheavy past dependence on managers,and carefree spending habits begun dur-

ing their active boxing careers. The pos-sibility that the boxers' minority status,or the low socioeconomic status of theirfamilies, could be related to adjustmentproblems was not discussed by Weinbergand Arond. But Hare dealt with it in a1971 study. He concluded that familysocioeconomic background and minori-ty status were both significant variablesin the retirement process for the former

boxers he studied. Since most of themcame from low income families lacking

Discussion and Implications

For most interscholastic athletes, leav-ing competitive sport is tied to generalchanges in their educational careers. It isusually associated with normal role tran-sitions involving moves into other edu-cationed settings or the labor force. Be-cause leaving sport occurs simultaneous-ly with these other transitions, it is diffi-cult to separate the effects of retirementfrom the effects of other significantevents such as dropping out of school,

graduating, continuing one's educationin a new setting, trying to find a job,starting a career, and coping with theother developmental tasks faced duringearly adulthood.

Of course, some former high schoolathletes, like Harry Angstrom in Up-dike's   Rabbit Run will have problemsin their lives, but it would be naive toconclude that those problems are inevit-ably linked to prior sport participationor retirement from it. In order to discov-er factors unique to the transition ou t ofsport, researchers need to use compari-son groups. This will prevent them frommistakenly inferring that the normal ad-justment problems of late adolescenceand early adulthood are causally linkedto retirement from sport.

In addition to the need for compari-son groups, there is a need to explore themanner in which sport retirement pat-terns vary with the socioeconomic statusand gender of former interscholasticathletes. If the transition out of competi-tive sport is eased by continuing sport in-volvement in other settings, patternsmay vary by status and gender becauseopportunities for involvement vary

along these dimensions. For example, ayoung woman who no longer has access

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COAKLEY

who live with their parents or spousesmay have more difficulties than do theirmale counterparts in negotiating the freetime and resources to take advantage ofopportun ities that do exist. These accessproblems would probably be intensifiedfor those from lower socioeconomicbackgrounds. Furthermore, former ath-letes from lower status backgrounds maylack the material supports and socialcontacts that their higher status counter-parts find useful in initiating careers andadjusting to life after leaving school.

The transition out of sport goes moresmoothly when the transition into im-portant nonsport roles, activities, andrelationships also goes smoothly.

The transition out of amateur andprofessional sports would be infiuencedby similar factors. Some sports naturallydraw athletes from upper status back-grounds. They provide the athletes withnumerous opportunities to develop so-cial contacts with nonathletes who areable to assist them in making the transi-tion into careers and extending nonsportactivities and relationships. For exam-ple,  golfers and tennis players are oftenable to become teaching pros or admin-istrators at private clubs or to use theirsocial contacts to enter relatively satisfy-ing nonsport careers. These types of

career shifts are similar to the changesexperienced by many individuals in theirlate 20s and their 30s, changes that areusually perceived as normal aspects of aperson s work history. However, womenand on some occasions blacks would no thave as many of these opportunities aswhite males. But the problems they en-counter would be similar to the prob-lems faced by their nonathletic counter-

parts.  In other words, their adjustmentproblems would be grounded in general

in roles, activities, and relationshipswhich nurture and extend new dimen-sions of their self-concepts.

In similar fashion, when a sport drawsathletes from lower status backgroundsresearchers must assess the transition outof sport and into other activities relativeto the characteristics and adjustmentproblems of comparable nonathletes.For example, to say that the problemsexperienced by former boxers are relatedto their retirement from sport would notbe justified unless they were greater than

or different from the problems experi-enced by similar nonathletes. It may bethat retired black boxers have no moreproblems than those experienced byother 30-year-old black males who grewup on the streets of large inner cities, re-ceived little education, and had few re-sources to assist them in career develop-ment or job training. Again, retirementfrom competitive sport may be the scene

of problems but it does not necessarilycause those problems.

After reviewing the implications ofthe data on retirement from competitivesport, it seems reasonable to concludethat leaving sport is not inevit bly stress-ful or identity-shaking, nor is it thesource of serious adjustment problems.Adjustments are necessary—just as they

are in any role transition—but it seemsthat the majority of former top athletesfrom all levels of competition makethem in a relatively constructive manner.Of course, this does not mean that re-tirement from sport is never the sourceof serious problems. There are enoughexamples of apparent failures to showthe need to further explore the patternsof success and failure.

In the search for these patterns itcould be hypothesized that when adjust-

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LEAVING COMPETITIVE SPORT

dentials and attributes that others

like them were able to form in cop-

ing with normal developmental

tasks through life.

2.  whose relationships have been re-

stricted to other athletes, involving

interaction based primarily on

sport-related issues and activities;

  whose families have provided little

social and emotional support for

any involvement outside the physi-

cal dimensions of sport activity;

4.  whose backgrounds have provided

little access to activity alternativesand role models outside of sport;

5. whose lack of material resources

and social contacts have restricted

their transitions into careers, ex-

pressive nonsport relationships,

and satisfying leisure activities.

These hypotheses emphasize the social

structural factors related to successful

role transitions. They are based on the

notion that serious adjustment problems

are ultimately grounded in the availabil-

ity of resources for moving into roles,

activities, and relationships unrelated to

active sport participation. This differs

from traditional approaches where re-

tirement is conceptualized in terms of

adjustment problems related to a social

psychological detachment from the roleof athlete and from the activities and re-

lationships associated with that role.

The hypotheses also acknowledge that

even elite athletes have attributes, identi-

ties, interests, and relationships that are

not strictly based on their active partici-

pation in sport. Research in the sociol-

ogy of sport has promoted the idea that

there are two types of people in the

world, athletes and nonathletes. Also

promoted is the idea that athletes are not

cy to emphasize how these unidimen-

sional persons can cope with the loss of

their roles and identities. However,

when athletes are seen as complex indi-

viduals coming from diverse back-

grounds and having diverse interests,

relationships, and expectations, retire-

ment from sport is more likely viewed as

a transition into alternative roles, rela-

tionships, and activities. And this transi-

tion is seen as being infiuenced by the

same social structural factors that affect

all young adults. Therefore, former ath-

letes probably do not have as much incommon with one another as they do

with nonathletes of the same gender,

race,  age, educational level, and socio-

economic background.

 on lusion

This discussion of retirement from

competitive sport suggests that the

nature of the retirement process is pri-

marily grounded in the social structural

context in which it occurs. In the future,

the transition out of sport should be

analyzed in terms of such factors as the

age, race, gender, education, and socio-

economic status of the retiring athlete.

Other factors such as the existence of

social, emotional, and material supportsystems, and the existence of racism and

sexism, should also be considered. One

should not assume that retirement from

competitive sport automatically creates

problems until the experiences of former

athletes are compared with the experi-

ences of similar nonathletes.

When former athletes enter careers

with lower salaries and less prestige than

they were accorded during their active

playing days they should not be defined

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10 COAKLEY

cause they do not enable the former ath-

letes to drive new cars every yea r, travel

to exciting places, or  read their names in

newspapers every week. Just because ex-

athletes become similar  to  those they

resembled when their sport careers

b e g a n d o e s  not  nec es sa r i ly s igna l

trauma, identity crises, or serious adjust-

ment problems. Although some former

athletes  may  experience problem s with

their financial affairs, their relation-

ships,  or  their personal identities,  the

origins of these problems may not be re-

lated to  their past involvement  in  sport .Just  as  those  who  study socialization

through sport must separate  the  effects

of sport involvement from other sources

of growth  and  development, those who

study retirement must separate the con-

sequences  of  leaving sport from  the

challenges  and  adjus tments normal ly

associated with late adolescence, young

adu l thood ,  and middle age.

REFERENCE NOTES

1. Bend, E. The impac t of athletic parti-

cipation  on  academic  and  career

aspiration  and achievement.  The Na-

t ional Football Foundation  and  Hall

of Fame, New B runswick,  NJ, 1968.

2 .  Arviko , I. Factors influencing the job

and life satisfaction  of  retired base-

ballplayers.  Unpublished thesis . Uni-

versity of  Water loo , 1976.

R E F E R E N C E S

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