Sport Termination
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Sport termination has a strong psychological impact on the athletes who experience it. Some athletes find it relatively easy to cope with the termination of their careers. However, the majority of athletes feel a sense of trauma at that time. One survey found that 61 percent of Olympic athletes "reported feelings of panic or fear when faced with the final decision of leaving high performance sport" (Orlick, 1990, p. 169). Most retiring athletes feel a sense of loss and many go through stages similar to those experienced by terminally-ill patients when they learn they are about to die. Elite athletes, such as professionals and Olympic stars, often experience identity crises at the close of their careers. Nevertheless, there are many ways in which the sport participant can cope with termination. In particular, a smooth transition to a new way of life can be made if the athlete builds new relationships to replace those which centered on sports before. Ogilvie and Howe (1986) claim that there are three basic reasons for termination from sports activity. These are: being cut from the team, becoming injured, and becoming too old (p. 365). Aging can be a factor in sport termination because the body undergoes a process of physical deterioration as it gets older. With old age, the heart rate slows down, the amount of oxygen in the blood decreases, muscular strength is reduced, reaction time becomes slower, bones becomes less resilient, there is a tendency to gain weight,
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. As a result of this type of conditioning, "the end of the road for the male athlete presents him with his most difficult social role adjustment" (Butt, 1987, p. 122).
The loss of identity which takes place in sport termination is so strong that many experts equate it with the process involved in adjusting to death. Lerch (1984), for example, calls retirement from sport a form of "social death." As in the case of physical death, the retiring athlete must deal with feelings of shock and must learn to cope with the transition. Lerch claims that the process of coping with sport termination follows the same stages as those designated by Kubler-Ross for coping with one's own death. These stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Lerch also points out that, in contrast to physical death, in sport termination the athlete continues to live. Thus, "there is a recovery - a resurrection, if you will - from social death" (p. 269). According to Lerch, only a part of the person dies with retirement (p. 269). Thus, the retired athlete has an opportunity to start over and adjust to a new way of life. This point of view is also expressed by Werthner & Orlick (1983). According to these authors, the final st
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Werthner Orlick, Ogilvie Howe, , Human Kinetic, View Mayfield, York Hemisphere, According Lerch, Press Roberts, References Butt, House Lerch, sport termination, elite athletes, werthner orlick 1983, werthner orlick, orlick 1983, transition life, howe 1986, cope termination, coping skills, ogilvie howe, orlick 1990, ogilvie howe 1986, eds vanier ontario, athletes feel sense, vanier ontario coaching,
Approximate Word count = 1864
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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