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Sport Termination

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, and "recovery from injury and fatigue is not as rapid as it once was" (Fixx, 1985, p. 122). Fixx also notes that there is a great deal of "societal opposition" regarding older athletes (p. 120). These factors contribute to the decision to retire when the athlete reaches a certain age. Ironically, the physical activity associated with a sport career helps keep older athletes in better shape than the average person. Thus, many athletes probably retire before i...

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Sport Termination. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 17:44, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1705026.html