Involuntary career termination in sport: a case study of the process of structurally induced failure

Abstract

Sport can be perceived as one of the contemporary key socializing agencies with which a significant number of children and youth come in to contact. The nature of this contact between the institution of sport and the individual is erratic, leading to the, often abrupt and unforeseen, termination of the individual's sporting career. In this essay, our aim is to draw wider attention to the personal adjustments young athletes undergo during and after their career has been institutionally terminated. Our analysis is embedded in theory as well as empirical, qualitative evidence gathered through semi-structured, long interviews with eight ex-varsity athletes. In shedding light on the personal consequences of structurally induced failure in sport, we seek to approach these issues from a socio-psychological angle and examine specific, personal layers of those via the lived experiences of ‘drop-out’ varsity athletes.1

Notes

¹ The authors would like to acknowledge the massive contribution of Alan G. Ingham to the development and initial phases of this project. Alan played a significant and defining role in our academic development and in our appreciation for both psychology and sociology in scientifically making sense of contemporary sporting practices. Much to our regret, Alan passed away in 2005, but his personal as well as academic heritage has remained with us and will live on through the work of his grateful students and colleagues.

² Ingham, Chase and Butt, ‘From the Performance Principle’, 308–31; see also Martens, ‘Youth Sport in the USA’, 27–33.

³ Sage, Power and Ideology.

⁴ See National Council of Youth Sport Survey (2001) at http://www.ncys.org/pdf/marketResearch.pdf.

⁵ See Gould, Feltz and Weiss, ‘Motives for Participating’; Klint and Weiss, ‘Dropping In’.

⁶ See Gill, Gross and Huddleston, ‘Participation Motivation’; Weiss and Petlichkoff, ‘Children's Motivation’.

⁷ Linder, Johns and Butcher, ‘Factors in Withdrawal’.

⁸ Donnelly, ‘Prolympism’; Ingham, Chase and Butt, ‘From the Performance Principle’.

⁹ See Kerckhoff, ‘The Status Attainment Process’.

¹⁰ See Ingham, Blissmer and Davidson, ‘The Expendable Prolympic Self’.

¹¹ Gould, ‘Understanding Attrition in Youth Sport’; Sapp and Haubenstricker, ‘Motivation for Joining’.

¹² Leonard, ‘The Odds of Transiting’.

¹³ See also Coakley, ‘Leaving Competitive Sport’.

¹⁴ For instance, Bouton, Ball Four; Brandmeyer and Alexander, ‘Dealing with Tempered Dreams’, 454–61; Haerle, ‘Career Patterns’; Hill and Lowe, ‘The Inevitable Metathesis of the Retiring Athlete’; Johnson, ‘After the Golden Moment’; Lerch, ‘The Adjustment to Retirement’; McPherson, ‘Sport Participation’; Rosenberg, ‘Geronotological Theory’; Rosenberg, ‘Athletic Retirement as Social Death’; Rozin, One Step from Glory.

¹⁵ Cf. Curtis and Ennis, ‘Negative Consequences’; and see B. Couturie and J. Else, Disposable Heroes, Burbank Video, 1991.

¹⁶ Bookbinder, ‘Work Histories’; Lerch, ‘The Adjustment to Retirement’; Reynolds, ‘The Effects of Sport Retirement’.

¹⁷ See Coakley, ‘Leaving Competitive Sport’, and cf. Curtis and Ennis, ‘Negative Consequences’.

¹⁸ McPherson, ‘Sport Participation’; Greendorfer and Blinde, ‘Retirement from Intercollegiate Sport’.

¹⁹ Curtis and Ennis, ‘Negative Consequences’.

²⁰ Curtis and Ennis, ‘Negative Consequences’

²¹ Curtis and Ennis, ‘Negative Consequences’

²² Curtis and Ennis, ‘Negative Consequences’

²³ See the case of Jim Otto in Couturie and Else, Disposable Heroes.

²⁴ Ball, ‘Failure in Sport’; for the concept of degradation see Garfinkle, ‘Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies’; and of cooling out see Goffman, ‘Cooling the Mark Out’.

²⁵ Ball, ‘Failure in Sport’, 726.

²⁶ Ball, ‘Failure in Sport’, 727.

²⁷ Ball, ‘Failure in Sport’

²⁸ See Scott, A Matter of Record.

²⁹ Linder, Johns and Butcher, ‘Factors in Withdrawal’.

³⁰ Ebaugh, Becoming an Ex.

³¹ Drahota and Eitzen, ‘The Role Exit of Professional Athletes’.

³² Drahota and Eitzen, ‘The Role Exit of Professional Athletes’

³³ Ebaugh, Becoming an Ex.

³⁴ Taylor and Ogilvie, ‘Career Termination among Athletes’.

³⁵ See Drahota and Eitzen, ‘The Role Exit of Professional Athletes’.

³⁶ Taylor and Ogilvie, ‘Career Termination among Athletes’.

³⁷ Taylor and Ogilvie, ‘Career Termination among Athletes’

³⁸ Patton, Qualitative Evaluation.

³⁹ See McCracken, The Long Interview.

⁴⁰ See McCracken, The Long Interview, 33–4.

⁴¹ See Kvale, Interviews.

⁴² See Flick, An Introduction to Qualitative Research.

⁴³ See member-checking in Lincoln and Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry.

⁴⁴ Tesch, Qualitative Research.

⁴⁵ Denzin and Lincoln, Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry.

⁴⁶ McCracken, The Long Interview.

⁴⁷ Connell, Masculinities, 89.

⁴⁸ Mills, The Sociological Imagination.

⁴⁹ Williams, Marxism and Literature.

⁵⁰ Thompson, The Poverty of Theory.

⁵¹ Giddens, Profiles and Critiques; Willis, ‘Notes on Method’.

⁵² Willis, ‘Notes on Method’, 91.

⁵³ A scene from the movie, entitled Stick It, graphically illustrates the way coaches may misuse their position to lure athletes and parents into a specific sport activity. Although, the movie exclusively focuses on misleading participants for financial gain, we argue that reality is much more complex than that.

⁵⁴ Donnelly, ‘Prolympism’.

⁵⁵ Ingham, Blissmer and Davidson, ‘The Expendable Prolympic Self’.

⁵⁶ Ingham, Chase and Butt, ‘From the Performance Principle’.

⁵⁷ Elias, The Civilising Process, 414–15.

⁵⁸ Elias, The Civilising Process, 415.

⁵⁹ Elias, The Civilising Process

⁶⁰ Freud, The Ego.

⁶¹ See Bourdieu, Distinction.

⁶² See Ingham, Chase and Butt, ‘From the Performance Principle’.

⁶³ Macpherson, Democratic Theory.

⁶⁴ Ingham, ‘From Public Issues to Personal Trouble’.

⁶⁵ See Ingham, ‘The Sportification Process’.

⁶⁶ Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy.

⁶⁷ Clark, ‘The “Cooling-out” Function’, 569.

⁶⁸ Clark, ‘The “Cooling-out” Function’, 571.

⁶⁹ Clark, ‘The “Cooling-out” Function’, 575.

⁷⁰ See Anderson, Arguments within English Marxism; Parkin, Class Inequality.

⁷¹ See Nicholls, ‘The Development of the Concepts’, and Nicholls, ‘Achievement Motivation’.

⁷² See Ingham, ‘The Sportification Process’.

⁷³ See Crompton and Gubbay, Economy and Class Structure.

⁷⁴ Ingham, Chase and Butt, ‘From the Performance Principle’.