Understanding the relational and emotional dimensions of transitions in elite sport : professional footballers' tales

• Main Author: Stamp, Darryn
• Published: University of Hull 2017
• Subjects: 796.334; Sports science
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.721533

The issue of career transition in and out of sport has received increasing attention from researchers over the past three decades (e.g. Fortunato & Marchant, 1999; Lavallee, 2005; Park, 2012; Ryba, Stambulova & Ronkainen, 2016). However, there continues to be a paucity of research exploring the impact of ‘others’ on athletes’, or indeed former athletes’ transitional experiences. Therefore, an aim of this study was to provide a relational, emotional and socio-cultural analysis of former professional footballers’ multiple transitional experiences and, in particular, to how interactions and relationships with significant ‘others’ impacted upon their transitions. Data were collected through a series of in-depth, semi-structured, interviews with three participants alongside my own auto-ethnography. Throughout the study, the collection, analysis, and representation of data were features of an ongoing, reflexive, and iterative process (Tracy, 2013). Here, the analysis comprised of both emic and etic readings of the data which gave me the opportunity to explore emerging themes and issues in both future writings and in subsequent interviews (Sparkes & Smith, 2002). In keeping with my interpretive stance, the findings were principally understood in relation to Bauman’s (2012) liquid modernity, Crossley’s (2011) relational sociology, May’s (2013) sense of belonging, and Burkitt’s (2014a; 2014b) discussions of emotions and social relations. The work of Turner and Stets (2005) and Cooley (1964[1902) was also used to make sense of the emotions I experienced throughout my auto-ethnographic research. My analysis revealed that the participants understood their transitions through their interactions and relationships with a variety of significant others who played important roles in both decision-making and sense-making processes. Here, each transitional experience (both inside and outside of football) affected, and was affected by, the participants’ location in various networks of interaction. This was also evidenced in my own transition(s) as I approached the end of my playing days in (semi-) professional football where my emotions were also inextricably linked to my multiple identities and therefore multiple networks of social relations.