Individual Pathways Through the Junior-to-Senior Transition: Narratives of Two Swedish Team Sport Athletes

Abstract

Athletes frequently describe the junior-to-senior transition (JST) as the most difficult within-career transition, and many athletes have acknowledged that they failed to cope well with it. Athletes’ development in the JST is influenced by narratives existing within relevant contexts and settings. This study served as a follow-up to the quantitative longitudinal study to gain a deeper understanding of individual JST paths through a qualitative narrative approach. The aim was to explore 2 team sport athletes’ (John, the football player, and Anna, the basketball player) JST pathways, emphasizing psychosocial factors that were perceived as facilitating and debilitating the process. Narrative type interviews were conducted, and the holistic-form structural analysis was used. Through their narratives, John and Anna reconstructed their JST paths, attaching meanings to certain events, recounting the people involved, and making personal reflections. John had a performance and family narrative and Anna had an enjoyment and relationship narrative. They perceived their key facilitating persons to be their family members and teammates. The debilitating factors were some coaches’ behaviors. At the time of this study, John and Anna had already terminated their athletic careers and had refocused on getting an education. Although they did not reach elite senior levels in their sports, they found their athletic careers to be meaningful life experiences.

Lay Summary: The aim was to explore two team sport athletes’ junior-to-senior transition (JST) pathways, emphasizing psychosocial factors involved in the transition process. The findings revealed two narratives. John (football player) storied his JST as a performance and family narrative and Anna (basketball player) as an enjoyment and relationship narrative.

Interest in the junior-to-senior transition (JST) originates from its particular importance for athletes who are trying to achieve elite levels in sport. Based on the stories of former athletes, the JST lasts between 1 and 4 years, and individuals often described it as one of the most critical and difficult transitions during their athletic careers (Stambulova, 1994, 2009). The JST is well known for its high dropout rate, and about 80% of the athletes experience the JST as a crisis (Stambulova, 2017). In Sweden, there are mainly two career options during the JST (Riksidrottsförbundet, 2009, 2017). One option is through the national elite sport schools, where athletes can combine sport and education as part of a dual career program. Unfortunately, according to the Swedish Sport Confederation (2009), only a small number of the athletes who want to reach the senior level can be given this opportunity. The second option, which the majority of athletes have to choose, is to find their own paths (e.g., the optimal balance between sport, studies, and private life) in the sport clubs and schools in their locales that provide the opportunities to be involved in sports. The latter groups of JST athletes (i.e., sports club based) are less privileged, and probably in need of more support than national elite sport school athletes. This difference was one of the primary motives for exploring the JST process in sport-club-based Swedish athletes.

This study is part of a bigger JST project. Three theoretical frameworks were selected to frame and guide the project. The first was the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003, 2009) that defines a transition as a process of coping with a set of transition demands. In the coping process, athletes use various coping strategies to deal with the demands. The effectiveness of coping is seen as being dependent on a dynamic balance between the transition resources and barriers. Resources can be various internal and external factors that facilitate the transition, and barriers are various internal and external factors that interfere with the coping process. The model entails two primary outcomes: a successful transition and a crisis transition. The second theoretical framework was the holistic athletic career model (Wylleman, Reints, & De Knop, 2013), providing a comprehensive description of athletes’ development. The model links five concurrent domains of an athlete’s development (i.e., athletic, psychological, psychosocial, academic/vocational, financial) throughout the athletic career. The normative transition from the development to the mastery stage is analogous to the JST, which was outlined in the analytic sports career model by Stambulova (1994). Third, the athletic talent development environment model (Henriksen, 2010; Henriksen, Stambulova, & Roessler, 2010a, 2010b, 2011) was chosen to encapsulate an athlete’s JST environment. The model describes the athletic environment, putting the athlete in the center with the other components structured into micro- and macrolevels, athletic and nonathletic domains, and adding a time dimension (i.e., past, present, future). These frameworks have provided views of athletes’ development, the transition processes (e.g., the factors involved), and complemented by an ecological perspective on the JST.

Narratives (e.g., performance, relational, discovery) are often rooted within particular sociocultural contexts (Carless & Douglas, 2012) and influence athletes’ development and identities. Gould (2017) noted, “It takes a community to develop an athletic career,” and key persons (e.g., coaches, family, peers) and settings (e.g., federation, sport club, school) may influence athletes’ development. Not only are coaches and parents important social supporters for a junior athlete, but the athletic environment as a whole plays a pivotal role in the athlete’s development. Elite youth academy players’ perception of the quality of their environments indicated that the overall perception was positive, but there was still room for improvements in establishing well-integrated youth and senior teams and positive relationships with key stakeholders (Mills, Butt, Maynard, & Harwood, 2014). Finn and McKenna (2010) mentioned overly high expectations of others, limited social support, and insecure financial situations as the JST barriers. Several previous narrative studies have focused on key persons (e.g., family members, coaches, friends, teammates) who provided guidance and meaning in regards to the athletes’ development (e.g., Gledhill & Harwood, 2015; Sandström, Linnér, & Stambulova, 2016; Storm, Henriksen, & Christensen, 2012). Storm, Henriksen, Larsen, and Christensen (2014) described athletes’ relationships with key persons as either transitory or existential. Transitory relationships are defined as being influential primarily within an athletic context and, although usually short-lived, provide important guidance to the athletes in terms of their career directions or changes. Existential relationships influence athletes’ sport and nonsport lives, their value systems, and motivations for long-lasting athletic careers.

Narrative constructionist researchers propose that people’s life stories are psychosocially or intersubjectively created (Sparkes & Smith, 2008), and investigators need to be familiar with the contexts in which participating athletes live and interact. A qualitative narrative approach has been used in several previous studies on athletes’ careers and transitions (e.g., Busanich et al., 2014; Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2012, 2013a; Franck, 2018). These studies described career or transition pathways and focused on athletes’ identities as complex cultural constructs (e.g., Ronkainen, Kavoura, & Ryba, 2016; Schinke & McGannon, 2015) having multiple layers (e.g., nationality, gender, education, sport event). In this sense, identities can also be understood as fluid and as being constructed in the athletes’ social contexts (Carless & Douglas, 2013b). Different types of narratives (e.g., performance, relational, effort, discovery) have been identified in previous research. Douglas and Carless (2009) described the performance narrative as “a story of single-minded dedication to sport performance to the exclusion of other areas of life and self” (p. 215). The performance narrative is, perhaps, one of the most common narratives in which athletes reflect upon, or share, their athletic career stories. In the performance narrative, being competitive and aiming to win are considered “normal,” and losing is seen as being associated with shame. An effort narrative (Franck, 2018) is slightly different from the performance narrative by drawing attention to process rather than outcome. Carless and Douglas (2012) used the example of how an athlete could say “I did the best I could” (p. 391) instead of focusing merely on winning or losing. Narratives other than performance include the discovery and the relational narrative (Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2013b). In the discovery narrative, emphasis is placed on athletes’ explorations of sports and the world, discovery of new things, and development of new skills and relationships. In the relational narrative, athletes’ stories are formed around meaningful relationships with key people in their careers.

In another study (Franck, 2018) involving the JSTs of two individual-sport athletes (a swimmer and a tennis player), the analysis revealed the performance narrative as a central storyline that was similar for both athletes, but two side storylines emerged that were specific to each athlete. The side storyline for the swimmer was an effort and relationship narrative, whereas for the tennis player it was an injury and reorientation narrative. The study also explored psychosocial factors involved in the JST. The two athletes shared the perception that their families, sport clubs, and some coaches were factors facilitating the JST. Perceived debilitating factors were different: The swimmer emphasized negative changes in the sport group and a poor relationship with his new coach, and the tennis player highlighted a decrease in financial support and the challenge of facing younger opponents after recovery from a severe injury.

This study is a qualitative follow-up to a quantitative longitudinal (five measurement times over 2½ years) study of the JST process (demands, coping strategies, support, pressure, personal resources, stress, need for additional help, and adjustment to the senior level) in Swedish sport club athletes (Franck, Stambulova, & Ivarsson, 2018; Franck, Stambulova, & Weibull, 2016). The results from the longitudinal study provided three profiles of athletes based on their personal characteristics such as athletic identity, self-esteem, and task and ego orientation. Athletic identity was the key personal characteristic that set the three profiles apart. The analysis also provided three profiles of athletes with different adjustment patterns (i.e., progressive, regressive, and sustainable). The progressive and sustainable adjustment patterns were interpreted as being associated with positive transition outcomes, and the regressive pattern was seen as indicating problematic transition.

The present research is a logical progression to a qualitative exploration of the transition processes of some of the athletes involved in the original quantitative longitudinal study to gain a deeper understanding of individual JST paths. This shift to the qualitative, narrative approach changed the framework from a positivistic to a constructionist standpoint. Papathomas (2016) described narrative inquiry as being characterized by ontological relativism and epistemological social constructionism. A narrative can be defined as “a complex genre that routinely contains a point and character along with a plot connecting events that unfold sequentially over time and in space to provide an overarching explanation or consequence [emphases added]” (Smith & Sparkes, 2009, p. 2). From this standpoint, we are interested in studying personal truth and not objective truth. This meant switching from using different validated instruments to conducting interviews, the main purpose of which was to help athletes tell their JST stories in their own words. The narrative approach helped us to enter the athletes’ internal world and to follow how they retrospectively constructed and reconstructed the transition process and meanings of their experience. In other words, the narrative approach allowed us to get insights into their subjective transitions. Stambulova (2016) also supported this standpoint: “The career topic (although studied a lot quantitatively) has an inherent qualitative nature because there are as many careers with various pathways, contexts, and personal meanings of career experiences as there are athletes” (p. 450). In this current study we aimed to further explore the JST process through a narrative approach, which has been used in previous career research (e.g., Carless, 2008). In narrative research, the participants (e.g., athletes) are storytellers (Smith, 2016), and their stories are the sources of data that provide understanding of athletes’ JST processes and reveal personal meanings for the participants. The objective of this study was to explore two team sport athletes’ transition pathways through the JST, with an emphasis on the psychosocial factors that they perceived as facilitating and debilitating the transition processes.

METHODOLOGY

Participants

The participants were selected from the original longitudinal study, based on the latent profile analysis of the longitudinal data that identified three subgroups of athletes’ with different adjustment patterns (Franck et al., 2018). The minimum selection criteria were that the athlete had participated in the first and last of the five measurements. Of the 101 athletes who participated in the longitudinal study, 81 were team sport athletes. After contacting several athletes from each profile who met the criteria, two team sport athletes agreed to participate in this study. John and Anna were 16 years old when the quantitative longitudinal study started, and both took part in all five measurements. At the time of this study, John was 23 years old and a former football player, and Anna was 23 years old and a former basketball player. (Both names are pseudonyms.)

Data Collection

The first author contacted the athletes by phone and asked if they were interested in participating in a follow-up study regarding their JSTs. During the phone conversation, she informed them of the study’s objective, method, and related ethical issues such as voluntary participation, confidentiality, and the right to drop out at any time without the need to specify why. The first author communicated (and conducted the interviews) with the athletes, who chose the time and place for the interviews. At the time of the interviews, the participants received written information about the study’s objective and ethical issues, and they were told that the interview was going to be recorded. The athletes signed the informed consent forms before the interviews started.

Throughout the interviews, the first author encouraged the participants to share their personal stories about the JST. In the beginning of each interview, she asked the athletes what they remembered about the longitudinal study. This proved to be an important part of the interviews. The athletes seemed to have few memories about the details and content of the longitudinal study, but they remembered meetings with the first author, who was present during the measurements. This situation seemed to make the athletes more comfortable in sharing their personal stories. Further descriptions of the meetings between the athletes and the first author are presented before each story.

An interview guide in three parts was used to help the athletes retrieve their memories of the JST. First, the athletes were asked about demographic information (e.g., age, where they currently lived, if they still were active in their sport). Second, they were asked to begin telling their stories from about the time when the longitudinal study started and then continue the storytelling year by year. The first author was an active listener, asking for clarifications, for elaborations of parts of their stories, and questions about the psychosocial factors that the athletes perceived as facilitating and debilitating (if not mentioned in the stories) in relation to the different years in the JST. Third, the athletes were asked to talk about their current life situation. Each interview was about one hundred minutes long. After the interviews, the first author listened to the recorded stories and transcribed them verbatim.

Data Analysis

As Andersen and Ivarsson (2016) suggested, qualitative researchers’ pasts, personalities, and prejudices are important for the research process and are often called the researcher’s positionality. This study has two authors; the first can be viewed as a junior researcher who is in the process of developing her skills and competences, whereas the second author has extensive experience in the field of career research. The first author conducted, transcribed, and initially analyzed the interviews. The second author acted as a critical friend to ensure that the research process was thorough and trustworthy. A critical friend encourages reflection, explanations, and explorations of alternative interpretations of the data (Smith & McGannon, 2018). Throughout the process, we discussed the narratives, alternative explanations, and closing thoughts. We also reflected on different cultures of individual and team sports and the specific features of football and basketball cultures.

The term trustworthiness is commonly used to address the quality of qualitative research, and in discussing trustworthiness, Sparkes and Smith (2008) described two types of researchers (a criteriologist and a relativist). In this study we have taken the relativist position, meaning that we view the trustworthiness criteria as changeable instead of fixed (the perspective of a criteriologist). In a recent review, Smith and McGannon (2018) critiqued commonly used methods to ensure rigor in qualitative research. Taking into account the problems they highlighted with member checking, interrater reliability and universal criteria, we used member reflections and a critical friend (as just described) to ensure trustworthiness in this study. Participants were given the opportunity to read the transcripts and add to and further elaborate on their stories.

Because the participants provided no feedback on the transcriptions of their stories, we analyzed the transcripts of the originally recorded interviews. For this study, we chose to use the holistic-form structural analysis (Smith, 2016), which focuses not on the what but on how the narratives are told (the structures and forms of the narratives). Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber (1998) originally described this form of analysis, and it focuses on the organization and plot of each narrative with the goal of identifying the distinct structures that hold it together (i.e., the holistic analysis of form). In our current study, we assumed the role of story analysts, and the athletes were seen as the storytellers (Smith, 2016). The analysis followed Smith’s (2016) guidelines.

The first step involved verbatim data transcription, organization, and narrative indwelling (e.g., reading the transcripts and listening to the recordings several times) by the first author. Then she retold the stories verbally to the second author, trying to be as close as possible to the participants’ expressions and meanings, and the two authors discussed the stories and reflected on their overall impressions. The second step was to identify the narrative type by using different cues (e.g., directions, shifts, participants’ reflections on specific phases). For example, we paid attention to “crossroads” (i.e., shifts in each participant’s storytelling) that divided the stories into individually meaningful parts or phases reflecting the dynamics of the JST process. We focused also on the athletes’ keywords (i.e., what they repeated many times or specially emphasized) and could notice that John emphasized performance issues and family as his main supporter, whereas Anna talked a lot about emotional and social aspects of her JST experiences (with keywords such as having fun, being with teammates/friends, support from others). This is how we came to defining John’s story as a performance and family narrative and Anna’s story as an enjoyment and relationship narrative. The third step was to write descriptive accounts illustrating the narratives based on relevant quotes extracted from the transcripts and the notes from Steps 1 and 2. It was in this step that the first author translated the quotes from Swedish to English and discussed with the second author to achieve accurate meaning in the translation. The translated quotes were also reviewed by the professional proofreader, who is native English speaker but also familiar with Swedish language. In the fourth step, the interpretations of the narratives were discussed again between the authors, and in the final step, the authors worked on the results presentation. Presenting some quotes in the Results section, we use exclamation marks to emphasize the athletes’ affective reactions during storytelling.

RESULTS: THE NARRATIVES OF JOHN AND ANNA

John and Anna had different paths during their JSTs. John told a performance and family narrative. Anna recounted an enjoyment and relationship narrative. The two JST stories with their crossroads are presented next.

John’s Performance and Family Narrative of the JST

We define performance and family JST narrative as athletes having ambitious athletic goals, prioritizing sport, and focusing on sport achievements with a family supporting their choices. From John’s story it was obvious that his athletic development and performance were important for him, and he was willing to work hard and to focus on sport to make the progress in the JST. His development was influenced by the key people (i.e., his family members) who (to different degrees) affected his transition choices. The performance and family narrative was important for John’s story and therefore formed his path and influenced his choices when faced with different crossroads.

John started telling his story by describing himself at the age of 16 in the following way: “You are quite far from the senior level, the muscles are not fully developed, the technique is not perfect, and you’re not fully mature in your mind either.” He added that he was quite realistic in terms of his goals and didn’t fully believe that he would end up in the Champions League, but he said that he had a goal to reach, someday, the highest football division in Sweden. Recollecting the beginning of the JST, John described that there were a lot of training sessions and many games (“sometimes too many”), and it was important to eat and sleep right. “At least this was what I was told by teachers and coaches.” During this period, he also felt that he had to make sacrifices, for example, not going out to meet friends because there might be a game the next day. John said, “Sometimes you had to sacrifice things, but I don’t regret it; it was a part of the lifestyle.” He went on to describe his strongest resources at that JST phase as follows:

I had strong motivation and determination to work hard. I used to always train a little bit extra on the side of the ordinary training sessions. I used to go out in the garden at home and just kick the ball around, thinking that this would improve the touch.

John had a tight relationship with his family (mom, dad, and brother), and he felt supported by them. He said, “They used to drive me everywhere, well sometimes I had to take the bike [laugh].” He described how they supported him emotionally by being encouraging, showing interest, being present, and always being around if he needed to talk:

My dad had always had a huge interest, and he came to watch almost every game; he was my number one supporter! I used to always talk to him after the games on the way back home. He could tell me what I did well and what I needed to work on to improve. You know, after the games you usually have a lot of emotions and thoughts, so it was great to have someone to talk to. But, it wasn’t just my dad, it was my grandfather too; he used to come and watch the games or call after to find out how it went.

John also felt support from his sport club and the coaches. He explained that he had been with several coaches throughout his athletic career, but the coaches he had in the under-17 team were the best: “They really provided us with the right conditions to develop, and they showed interest not only in sport and performances, but in other things as well, and that’s what you want, a coach that’s interested and encouraging.” The sport club provided support in terms of paying for some equipment and covering costs related to games or competitions.

John went to a local high school that gave him an opportunity to combine studies and sport. He described the school as rather “soft,” meaning they didn’t have really high academic demands. If it hadn’t been for football, he would have chosen another high school. One of the benefits was that the coaches and teachers knew one another and communicated about schedules (e.g., school and sport). Another benefit was that “almost the whole team studied in the same class; so we were always together, both in school and in the sport club.”

Crossroad 1: Starting to practice and play for the under-20 team. In football, players move up to the next age category when they get older, if they are skilled enough. Most of his teammates also moved up to the next level, but some of the teammates didn’t make the selection. At this time John faced his first crossroad (starting to practice and play for the under-20 team). During this time John was a high school student. The under-20 team was mixed with older players and new players originally from other football clubs. John said, “I was one of the best players, and I did pretty well in the new team, so I earned the other players’ respect.” While on the under-20 team, John suffered a foot injury; the recovery went well, and the great support from his family, coaches, and the sport club made the recovery easier. John went on to say that playing on the under-20 team was fun and not “bloody serious.” There was no money involved, and even if it was serious, it was still part of his leisure time and not his job. He also mentioned that the team had a good atmosphere:

It was fun! You spent a lot of time together since there were more games away. So, instead of spending time with friends back home, you hung out on the bus, and a bus trip itself was the fun part. That year we won the Swedish championship, so we had a lot of success as well.

The coaches worked hard to prepare them (John and other players) for the senior level. John’s family members were still supportive, and John tried to find time to be with them. For example, when he had free time, he preferred chatting or playing PlayStation with his brother to going out with his friends. When asked about whether he ever felt pressured by his family, he explained, “Yes, there was some pressure, but not much, and I felt that without that pressure, I wouldn’t have improved as much as I did.”

Crossroad 2: Signing the trainee contract. When John played his final year on the under-20 team, he faced his second crossroad (signing the trainee contract). The trainee contract is a step toward the elite senior level. Signing the contract gave John the opportunity to continue playing with the under-20 team while starting to practice with the senior elite team (also referred to as the A-team). For a football player to start practicing with the senior team while still on the under-20 team is fairly common in Sweden. For John, this experience, overall, was not a good one.

I was part of both teams. Some days I practiced in the morning with the under 20 team, and then in the afternoon I had to practice with the A-team. Looking back it was really too much. At the time I felt that the coaches for the two teams could have communicated better with each other.

He explained that the climate was much tougher on the A-team. He didn’t know everyone, and he felt that the other players could feel that he was there to take someone’s place. The practices were also harder; the pace was higher, and the games were much more physical.

Crossroad 3: The realization that a football career might not work. Because of all these conditions (e.g., harder practices, tougher climate within the team), John started to feel tired; his motivation decreased, and John faced the third crossroad (the realization that a football career might not work):

When you get older, you also get more mature. When I was a few years younger I didn’t really think about the future. But now I started to think: “What do I actually want to do with my life?” I felt that I needed to get an education.

During that time, John also started questioning if it was a good idea to sign the trainee contract, and whether he would have developed better without it. John was disappointed with certain things. For example, he felt that the coaches on the A-team never really gave him a fair chance:

I started to feel as if I were far from the senior level … at least that was the impression I got from the coaches. I felt that I could keep up with the guys in the A-team during practices, but the coaches viewed this differently. I didn’t always get to play in the right position, and I didn’t get any game time. I felt that this affected my ability to perform. You can’t just enter a team and start to perform right away. I felt that I didn’t get a real chance!

Crossroad 4: The decision to end his athletic career and adjust to life after sport. Then, he arrived at his fourth, and final, crossroad (the decision to end his athletic career and adjust to life after sport). John felt disappointed by how he was treated on the A-team: “I think that the coaches should have been more honest. Initially, they told me that they believed in me, and then they treated me as if I didn’t exist.” As a result, he and the club mutually agreed to terminate the trainee contract. After that, John stopped playing football because the joy and motivation for the sport had vanished.

John decided to apply for university studies and selected a social science program. He explained that he still didn’t know what he wanted to become, and that’s why he chose a broad education. At the time of the interview, he was still living at home, describing it as being “all inclusive”: “Why would I pay money to live in a student apartment if I can live with my parents? It is beyond my understanding.” After some time away from football, he started to miss it and described it as “a huge part of his life.” John now plays for a local team and in a lower division than during his active career. He explained that he didn’t regret the years he spent playing football, and there are several things that he learned through sport that might benefit him in the future. He ended his story by saying,

It’s all about having fun; if you don’t have fun you can’t perform. But, you do need to invest time, if you want to succeed! If you have setbacks then it’s not the end of the world, you can still make it.

ANNA’S ENJOYMENT AND RELATIONSHIP NARRATIVE OF THE JST

We define enjoyment and relationship JST narrative as athletes being motivated mainly by enjoyment of playing sport and social aspects of it (e.g., team spirit, support of key people). From Anna’s story it was obvious that her athletic success was secondary compared to the experience of playing basketball and to the relationship she had in the sport. She felt joyful being within the team where her friends were. Her development in the JST was also influenced by the people around her who (to different degrees) affected her transition choices. The enjoyment and relationship narrative was central for Anna’s story, helping her to construct her JST pathway.

Anna began her story about the JST as follows:

I was 16 years old, and I didn’t have any long-term goals because I didn’t know what I really wanted. I never had a dream to play for women’s team. I just liked playing basketball with the team I was in, but I did like winning too.

Anna’s team was pretty good in their age category; they competed at the Swedish championships and did fairly well. Anna described how they had a lot of fun together and had great team cohesion. Despite these good things, Anna did feel that it was hard to combine basketball with a social life (e.g., friends outside of sport). Anna said, “I felt that it was hard not being able to participate in everything [both sport and other activities].” Anna’s coaches were pushing her and giving her positive feedback, but she struggled. “It wasn’t just basketball; it was starting to think about how you looked and how to be cool.” She felt that her friends outside of sport were pulling her in one direction (e.g., going to the movies, dinners, and parties), whereas the coaches and teammates expected her to be at every training session and do her best.

Anna’s family paid her sport-related expenses, but Anna explained that playing basketball is not too expensive. She might need new shoes and the member fee for the sport club each year, but there were few additional costs. When Anna described her parents, she said that her dad was sometimes involved as an assistant coach and leader but her mom didn’t have that much interest in basketball. Her mom was still emotionally supportive, and she was there when things were hard and when Anna needed someone to listen to her:

My family was divided into two parts. My dad and I, who liked basketball, were one half. The other half was my mom and my sister, who I am not sure if she [the sister] even knows what basketball is.

Crossroad 1: Feeling forced to move up the athletic ladder. Anna’s first crossroad (feeling forced to move up the athletic ladder) came when she was asked to start practicing with both the women’s team (in her sport club) and the regional youth team. She felt that she had the right basketball competencies (e.g., speed, endurance, technique), but she thought that she was lacking self-confidence and motivation. She said, “Talking about the women’s team, I didn’t know if I even wanted to play with them, but it felt as if I had to.” Anna had the same feeling about the regional youth team, which she shared with a few of the girls from the regional team who also got the chance to play on the women’s team: “There might have been one of us who enjoyed playing with the regional team; the rest of us didn’t. We had such a good team spirit within our [original] team, so that’s where the fun was!” Anna described that meeting and playing with girls she’d never met before was one thing that generated her negative feelings. Her father thought she should give it a chance. Anna said she even cried because she didn’t want to go to the regional youth team practices. She didn’t feel pressured by her dad, but he encouraged her to try before deciding whether to continue.

Crossroad 2: Being mixed with another team and getting a new coach. Anna then had to face the second crossroad (being mixed with another team and getting a new coach). Anna’s team had to merge with another team with players 1 year older. Several girls had quit that team, so the club needed to merge the two teams. Anna reflected about the event as follows: “First, they weren’t as good as we were, and second, we got their coaches, and our coaches were moved to another team. It was not fun!” Anna described the new head coach as sometimes mean and saying bad things:

The new coach wasn’t nice. He was very harsh, and sometimes he only focused on one or two players. He could say hurtful stuff, for example, “Angelika, don’t stand there like a fucking brick, move your ass!” … Of course, a coach should instruct and provide feedback, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. He did it the wrong way! We got upset, and some girls cried.

Anna said this coach was a big reason for her motivation decreased, “I didn’t like the coach and his coaching style, so I got unmotivated to practice.” This was the time when Anna started thinking about quitting. The girls on the team talked to one another about the coach; they even talked with representatives from the sport club. A meeting was arranged to try to fix the situation, but there was no improvement. Anna discussed the situation a great deal with her parents, and especially with her dad. In the end she asked herself, “Do I really want to continue?”

Crossroad 3: The decision to end her athletic career and adjust to life after sport. Answering the aforementioned question, Anna reached her third and final crossroad (the decision to end her athletic career and adjust to life after sport). After high school, she decided to stop playing basketball and to start working before applying to a university 1 year later.

When Anna started university, she moved away from home. She occasionally participates with the university team just for fun. When she returns home, she sometimes takes the time to practice with the “old lady team” in her old sport club, where some of her former teammates still play. Even after terminating her athletic career, Anna stays active, including training in the gym and running outdoors. She explained, “If I am not active, then I won’t be able to focus on my studies.” She ends her story by words acknowledging the role of sport in her life:

The sport has helped me in so many ways. … If not for sport I would never have learned to plan and structure my time. I think being active as an athlete has helped me focus and concentrate better in school; therefore, I got good grades and could continue at the university.

DISCUSSION

Through their narratives, John and Anna reconstructed their JST paths, attaching meanings to certain events, people involved, and personal reflections. We analyzed the stories focusing on the crossroads they went through and then consolidated into the performance and family JST narrative for John, which we define as athletes having ambitious athletic goals, prioritizing sport, and focusing sport achievements with a family supporting their choices. The other narrative was the enjoyment and relationship narrative for Anna, which we define as athletes being motivated mainly by enjoyment of playing sport and social aspects of it (e.g., team spirit, support of key people). In line with previous research (e.g., Baron-Thiene & Alfermann, 2015; Franck, 2018; Franck, et al., 2018; Franck, Stambulova, & Weibull, 2016; Morris, Tod, & Oliver, 2015; Storm, 2015), both narratives reflect non-inear JST, meaning there were ups and downs in the processes. The crossroads clearly show that the JST is a nonlinear path, consisting of dynamic individual events, meaning the athletes’ face different challenges that can shift the direction of their development and ultimately affect the outcome of the transition. The crossroads can be viewed as pieces of a puzzle and are short stories within the story. The crossroads helped us to search for the red thread linking different pieces of the JST. There were some similarities between John’s and Anna’s JST experiences (e.g., both athletes described the challenges of moving to the higher level team, meaning higher level and new team members), but also with some features specific to each athlete (e.g., mainly performance focus in John’s story and mainly enjoyment focus in Anna’s story). Several forms of narratives within the sport culture affecting athletes’ perceptions of their careers have been described in previous research (e.g., Busanich et al., 2014; Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2012, 2013b; Franck, 2018; Ronkainen et al., 2016; Schinke & McGannon, 2015). The narratives identified in this study have similarities to those that have been previously identified but also contain some new twists.

John’s JST path developed as a performance and family narrative. John’s family supported the performance narrative throughout his JST, but they also supported him when his athletic career ended and the performance narrative was marginalized. As mentioned before, the performance narrative may be the most common narrative in elite sports (e.g., Carless & Douglas, 2013b). But this narrative has also been shown to be problematic, especially when athletes’ storylines fail to align with the dominant narratives (e.g., Douglas & Carless, 2009), which could threaten athletes’ mental well-being and sense of self.

For John, however, the performance narrative was so highly interconnected with his family to the extent that we have chosen to call it the performance and family narrative. The two parts were intertwined, and they coexisted throughout the JST.

Anna constructed her JST path as the enjoyment and relationship narrative. Although some influences of the performance narrative are visible in Anna’s story (e.g., in the expectations from coaches, parents, and teammates that she would try to advance to a higher team if given the chance), she did not fully embrace this narrative. Instead, she emphasized the fun and enjoyment related to both basketball as a game and her team/teammates as a social circle. Her enjoyment seemed to originate from “just playing basketball,” basketball training, and being part of the team. We wanted to label Anna’s narrative not as being only relational but as a combination of the joy of sport and the relationships she experienced from being part of a team. The enjoyment and relationship narrative is one of the alternatives to the performance narrative that is close to what has previously been described as a relational narrative (e.g., Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2013b). Anna’s motivations throughout the JST process were all related to having fun, good relationships, good coaches, and a good team. When she was forced to try out, and when she became disappointed by the situation in the “merged team,” especially by the harsh coach, her sport motivation vanished and she moved on to planning her career termination. Another reason Anna terminated her sport career was her preoccupation with “how she looked and how to be cool.” The female adolescent social life and her “cool” identity were important to her. Gledhill and Harwood (2015) studied female football players who did not cope well with their JSTs, emphasizing the influences of nonsport peers who pushed athletes to lead “normal adolescent lives” (e.g., social activities outside sport) and who marginalized their athletic identities. These other influences are probably why Anna vacillated between sport and social life and didn’t see the performance narrative as dominant in her JST path.

John’s and Anna’s JST path narratives are, in a way, a reflection of their different sports. Football is one of the most popular sports in Sweden (Riksidrottsförbundet, 2016), and many young footballers have dreams of becoming the “next Zlatan.” Such popularity of football also makes them more receptive to the dominant performance narrative that exists in the Swedish football context. Basketball doesn’t have the same amount of participation (Svenska Basketbollförbundet, 2016), traditions, or media attention and makes us suggest that different forms of social narratives (e.g., relationship, enjoyment) might better match the Swedish basketball context than the performance narrative. In our similar study of two individual sport athletes’ JST paths (Franck, 2018), we identified different narratives (performance, effort and relationship, and injury and reorientation narratives). Those two athletes represented swimming (among the most popular sports in Sweden) and tennis (with a long tradition of producing elite athletes). In comparison, John’s story is the one that shares more features with the two individual-sport athletes’ stories, whereas Anna’s story is the one that stands out because of the marginalized performance narrative.

Athletes may have different forms of relationships during their athletic careers, which Storm et al. (2014) called existential and transitory relationships. Storm (2015) also mentioned that it is not who the key persons are but what they do that is significant for the athlete’s development. After analyzing John’s and Anna’s stories, we agree with Storm’s suggestion. Key people, with whom our participants developed existential relationships (e.g., John’s family and coach in the under-17 team, Anna’s dad), were facilitating during their JST. Debilitating were the new coaches that John got in the A-team and Anna in the “merged team.” Relationships with these key people were transitory in a way that dissatisfaction with these coaches contributed to the athletes’ decision to terminate their athletic careers.

Career termination did not seem to be traumatic either for John or for Anna. They attempted to move to and settle into the senior levels in their sports, and had some moderate achievements, but could not develop into elite athletes. Carless and Douglas (2012) defined success as a multidimensional concept (i.e., broader than just winning or losing) and noted that different narrative strategies can help athletes resist the cultural pressure toward the singular concept of success (i.e., winning). John and Anna shared that they had ended their athletic careers without reaching the highest level or winning the finest medal, but both felt thankful to sport for helping them to develop useful skills (e.g., being active, planning, having goals) for their lives after sport.

Methodological Reflections

We chose to use the small number of participants to emphasize a within-case approach (although some elements of the opposed cross-case approach were also used). The within-case approach was chosen as suitable for the purpose of the study, meaning that it allowed us to get insights into the athletes’ subjective transitions and to gain a deeper understanding of their unique JST paths. The narrative holistic-form structural analysis (Smith, 2016) proved to be suitable to meet the aim of the study.

Limitations with qualitative research are often related to rigor. In a recent review publication, Smith and McGannon (2018) problematized previous commonly used methods to ensure rigor in qualitative research. In this study, we tried to use participants’ reflections on the transcripts but did not receive their feedback and worked with the initial transcripts and recorded interviews (e.g., for nonverbal cues). The first author made the initial analysis, and the second author acted as a critical friend by discussing the narratives and searching for alternative explanations and conclusions drawn from John’s and Anna’s stories. A few years had passed between when the two athletes had gone through the JST process and when they reconstructed their views of the process. This time lapse may have given the athletes a more mature perspective of their overall JST process.

CONCLUSION

This study is part of a longitudinal project examining the JST process in Swedish sport club athletes (Franck et al., 2018; Franck, Stambulova, & Weibull, 2016). In the quantitative parts of the project, several adjustment patterns and transition pathways were identified for different subgroups of athletes. To gain a deeper understanding of individual paths and contexts, we decided to explore the JST process qualitatively in two studies. The first study in this line focused on individual sport athletes (Franck & Stambulova, 2018), whereas the current study turned the attention to team sport athletes. The stories magnified the athletes’ voices and added depth to the understanding of athletes’ JST paths and contexts.

For John, the performance and family narrative illustrated his JST path, and for Anna, the essence of her JST path was expressed through the enjoyment and relationship narrative. The insights from these two stories show how social (sport) contexts and individual circumstances shaped their JST paths and influenced coping abilities with different transition challenges (i.e., crossroads). Along their paths, John and Anna had key persons (mainly family, some coaches, and teammates) supporting them and facilitating the JST. They also perceived some people as debilitating to the transition (e.g., some other coaches for both athletes and nonsport friends for Anna). Both participants ended their careers after the JST, and, despite this, none of them regretted the years they spent in sport; they talked about their JSTs as meaningful times of their lives. Both athletes felt a strong commitment to the junior teams to which they first belonged, but when they had to move to or was merged with another team, the commitment and motivation decreased. Some athletes, even though they were talented juniors (e.g., Anna in this study), did not have ambitions to pursue elite athletic careers. Their motivations for doing sport can be fueled by enjoyment of their games and teams, but they can also be influenced by performance narratives, emphasizing performance and winning (e.g., Busanich, McGannon, & Schinke, 2014; Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2013a).

Practical Implications

This study revealed the JST as a multidimensional and multifactor process that is constructed by athletes through their personal narratives. Previous research highlighted that in the JST many athletes are ambitious and motivated to establish themselves on a senior level; their athletic identity increases, and they are often driven by dominant performance narrative, and if they do not achieve their athletic goals, they get frustrated. This study revealed that not all athletes are ambitious, and the enjoyment and relationship narrative might be a good alternative for the athletes with lower ambitions. Sport psychology consultants and coaches should not devaluate and should support this line of thinking and meaning making in athletes to ensure that all transitional athletes have overall positive experiences beyond achieving a senior-level performance success. Therefore, it is important that the sport clubs take the responsibility for creating environments where athletes (despite their ambitions) feel welcomed and have possibilities to develop (e.g., Henriksen et al., 2010a).

In addition, coaches and other club stakeholders should look to individualize their approaches (e.g., training routines, recovery periods, competition plans) and pay attention to narratives circulating within their sports and their specific sport club environments, and to how these narratives may affect athletes’ abilities to develop. The following has been described by Douglas and Carless (2015):

Narrative theory suggests that through a range of complex and often subconscious psychosocial processes, we all engage in negotiating the fit or tension between what we do (as agentic beings), what we say we do (through our personal stories) and what our culture calls us to do (through publicly available narratives). … Culturally available narratives become “resources” that encourage and support particular actions, identities and lives. At the same time, the absence of narrative resources within a particular cultural context is likely to limit or constrain particular actions, identities and lives. (p. 44)

Keeping the narrative theory perspective in mind, the JST is recommended as a topic for group counseling or workshops, in which sport psychology consultants emphasize possibilities of various transition pathways (each unique and valid) and encourage athletes to share their stories, exchange experiences, and support one another. Narrative-collaborative group coaching (Stelter, Nielsen, & Wikman, 2011) might be one way to organize the JST workshops with junior athletes. This method, based on several theoretical pillars (e.g., positive psychology, narrative psychology, and community psychology), helps the participants to express themselves through narratives, learn from one another, and develop durable social networks strengthening athletes’ ability to handle challenging career/transition situations. In these workshops the diversity of narratives should be emphasized, keeping in mind that identity is constructed through narratives. Therefore, narratives that address not only athletic but also other identity dimensions (e.g., academic, family, gender) and bridge their past, present, and future (e.g., career progression or retirement) should be encouraged. This type of applied work might help all JST athletes to find own transition path and appraise their JST experiences as meaningful and positive regardless of performance success in senior sports. Sport psychology consultants might also consider drawing ideas from constructionist career counseling (Savickas, 2011), assisting athletes to move from their present story toward a more desired future story. This approach is more appropriate for individual counseling but requires special training on the side of a practitioner to use it.