Transitions in the Careers of Competitive Swimmers: To Continue or Finish with Elite Sport?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Ethical Issues
2.2. Procedure
2.3. Participants
2.4. Measures
2.5. Analysis of Qualitative Data
3. Results
4. Discussion
4.1. Strengths and Limitations
4.2. Future research Directions
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Category | Direct Quotes | |
---|---|---|
Health & physical fitness (25) | Well-being (6) Physical development (8) Athletic silhouette (8) Body-awareness (3) | Better health and good mood; Physical development and swimming skills; Neat silhouette and athletic body shape; Knowing your body and its abilities; |
Measurable benefits (13) | Financial benefits (7) Social recognition (6) | Scholarships; Independent or partly independent subsistence; Financial gain; Fame & popularity; People recognize you; |
New experiences (22) | Meeting new people (12) Visiting new places (8) Unique experiences (2) | Meeting new people in Poland and Europe; A lot of new friends; Traveling & sightseeing; Traveling and visiting interesting places; A wealth of experience and memories resulting from it; |
Personal growth & life skills (24) | Positive personal qualities (12) Useful skills (6) Self-realization (6) | Self-discipline; Mental toughness; The habit of systematic work; Competitive sport gave me opportunity to learn how to cooperate; Self-realization; Comprehensive development; |
Satisfaction (15) | General satisfaction (8) Satisfaction from sport skills level (5) Satisfaction with achievements (2) | Self-satisfaction; Feeling of satisfaction; Satisfaction out of the sport skills that your peers don’t have; Satisfaction from accomplishments. |
Perceived Benefits | Group 1 | Group 2 |
---|---|---|
Health & physical fitness | 16 (94%) | 9 (53%) |
Measurable benefits | 3 (18%) | 10 (59%) |
New experiences | 15 (88%) | 7 (41%) |
Personal growth & life skills | 9 (53%) | 15 (88%) |
Satisfaction | 10 (59%) | 5 (29%) |
TOTAL | 53 | 46 |
Category | Direct Quotes | |
---|---|---|
Lack of free time (22) | Limited time for social contacts (10) Limited time for other activities (7) Swimming as exceptionally time-consuming activity (5) | Lack of time for friends; Lack of hanging out with friends; Lack of free time; Lack of time for other activities; Too little time to develop other interests and hobbies; Practicing swimming is very time-consuming; Workouts take all the time. |
Injury & health problems (13) | Sports injury (8) Health problems related to long-term competitive swimming (5) | Injuries; Injuries that occur later; Recurring injuries; An adverse effect on health; Health deterioration; Limited contact with other disciplines deteriorates your general physical fitness |
Mental consequences (7) | Feeling of underestimation; Mental problems—kids get depressed hearing their coach’s comments, having no support; You live as if “in a bubble”. It all revolves around the same people; Lack of carefree childhood; | |
Education (8) | It is problematic to cope with swimming and school; Sports development at the cost of school and other activities; Intellectual development and education is limited; You cannot learn and develop own interests; Schooling; | |
Exhaustion (6) | It takes a lot of effort; You feel constantly tired and don’t get enough sleep; Tiredness of traveling and being away from home; Swimming requires a lot of effort. |
Perceived Costs | Group 1 | Group 2 |
---|---|---|
Lack of free time | 11 (65%) | 11 (65%) |
Injury & health problems | 5 (29%) | 8 (47%) |
Mental consequences | 2 (12%) | 5 (29%) |
Education | 2 (12%) | 6 (35%) |
Exhaustion | 2 (12%) | 4 (23%) |
TOTAL | 22 | 34 |
Category | Direct Quotes | |
---|---|---|
Appropriate coach (20) | Good approach to athletes (6) Motivational leader (5) Communication skills (5) Comprehensive competences (4) | The right approach of the coach; Coach who was not authoritarian. In the beginning he was more like father who patiently explained everything. Then like a partner; Coach’s support and engagement that enhanced my motivation; You need to feel that the coach motivates you and encourages you. Then you want to train; Good communication with coach; Coach who just talked to us and explained; A great coach. He taught us how to be a good athlete. He knew how to speak to our hearts. He had amazing communication with young people. I would like to be like him; Appropriate/competent coaching staff. |
School & sport good cooperation (6) | Good communication between teachers and a coach, mutual understanding; School that allows you to participate in swimming practice and competition; Teacher who appreciates sport achievements; Lack of problems with schooling; | |
Intrinsic motivation (15) | Enjoying swimming (7) Setting & striving for goals (5) Determination (3) | Your own interest in what you do, without coercion; Deriving pleasure from what you do, deriving pleasure from training, from competitions; Setting your most important goals and striving for them, staying focused on them without getting distracted; Desire to prove that you can do something, you can achieve something; Determination; |
Infrastructure and funds (17) | Infrastructure (9) Financial benefits (8) | Infrastructure conditions; Access to a suitable pool; Appropriate conditions for training; Appropriate financial support; Competitions with financial rewards; Rewards and scholarships for good results; |
Feeling of success (12) | Sports development (5) Accomplishments (5) Better life (2) | Significant progress—it gives you satisfaction and the feeling that it is worth to work hard; Getting better and better results; Good results and successful competing; Sport successes; I feel distinguished, being an athlete; I have more exciting life than my non-athlete peers; |
Family support (14) | Family atmosphere (8) Family involvement (6) | When family accept what you are doing and believe that your involvement in swimming makes sense; Good atmosphere in the family; Feeling that you can always rely on your family; Family support during competitions; Motivation, support, and cheering from the family; When the whole family cheers; Parents’ financial support; |
Good relationships and atmosphere (9) | Relationships (5) Atmosphere (6) | Friendship with people involved in similar activities; Good relationships in the group, in your team; Group atmosphere; Good atmosphere during practice; |
Natural abilities (4) | Good health; Giftedness; Genes; Good health that protects you from injuries. |
Facilitators | Group 1 | Group 2 | Z | p |
---|---|---|---|---|
Appropriate coach | 7 (41%) | 13 (76%) | −1.587 | 0.113 |
School & sport good cooperation | 3 (18%) | 3 (18%) | 0 | 1 |
Intrinsic motivation | 5 (29%) | 10 (59%) | −1.229 | 0.219 |
Infrastructure and funds | 9 (53%) | 8 (47%) | −0.138 | 0.890 |
Feeling of success | 7 (41%) | 5 (29%) | −0.691 | 0.489 |
Family support | 11 (65%) | 3 (18%) | −2.746 | 0.006 |
Good relationships and atmosphere | 5 (29%) | 4 (23%) | −0.383 | 0.702 |
Natural abilities | 0 (0%) | 4 (23%) | −2.098 | 0.036 |
Total | 47 | 50 | −1.073 | 0.283 |
Category | Direct Quotes | |
---|---|---|
Coach (24) | Coach’s discouraging attitude (7) Coach’s low teaching competences (11) Conflicts with coach (6) | Coach’s inappropriate attitude, lack of skills to motivate athletes; Coach’s discouraging approach, criticizing instead of saying what to improve, and how; The coach who doesn’t understand athlete’s needs and doesn’t assume a personalized approach; Bad training methods; Conflicts and lack of mutual understanding between a coach and an athlete; Lack of understanding and bad atmosphere. |
Schooling (11) | It’s too big an effort to cope with school and competitive swimming; Problems with school duties; Bad grades at school; School learning | |
Lack of motivation (10) | Feeling bored with swimming; I lost my interest in swimming; Weak motivation and lack of goals; The monotony of swimming and hard workouts | |
Lack of financial support (10) | Lack of scholarship and funds; Lack of money; Limited access to financial support; Financial problems; | |
Bad company (10) | Spending too much time with people who don’t practice sport; Adverse influence of other people; Inappropriate company and temptations, like alcohol; Bad influence of friends and peers; | |
Health problems (12) | Poor physical condition; Illness; Injuries; Health and injuries; | |
Family problems (12) | Bad family atmosphere (5) Lack of support and interest (7) | Conflicts with parents; Family problems and lack of understanding; Family atmosphere; Parents were uninterested and unsupportive; Parents didn’t support. They were indifferent; |
Bad group atmosphere (6) | Bad atmosphere in the group; Inappropriate atmosphere in the group and lack of someone to compete with; My friends quit swimming and it changed the atmosphere and decreased my motivation; Relations among swimmers. |
Inhibitors | Group 1 | Group 2 | Z | p |
---|---|---|---|---|
Coach | 11 (65%) | 13 (76%) | −0.450 | 0.652 |
Schooling | 7 (41%) | 4 (23%) | −0.824 | 0.410 |
Lack of motivation | 3 (18%) | 7 (41%) | −1.483 | 0.138 |
Lack of financial support | 7 41%) | 3 (18%) | −0.931 | 0.352 |
Bad company | 5 (29%) | 5 (29%) | −0.293 | 0.769 |
Health problems | 3 (18%) | 9 (53%) | −1.599 | 0.110 |
Family problems | 11 (65%) | 1 (6%) | −3.251 | 0.001 |
Bad group atmosphere | 4 (23%) | 2 (12%) | −0.532 | 0.595 |
Total | 51 | 44 | −2.652 | 0.008 |
Reasons | Number and Percentage of Participants | Direct Quotes |
---|---|---|
Education | 7 (41%) | I was a student of a technical university and my teachers didn’t understand my situation as a competitive athlete; I wanted to focus on my school exams; I didn’t want to associate my further education with sport; I didn’t want to study at a sports university. I’ve decided to study economics and to focus on my education. |
Coach | 5 (29%) | My coach had too many obligations and he stopped getting involved; The coach exerted too much pressure; Bad relationship with the coach; Lack of mutual understanding with the coach. |
Unsatisfactory accomplishments | 5 (29%) | Lack of success; The results did not improve; It wasn’t like it used to be. Although I tried, I was not good at the competition anymore; Lack of results improvement |
Health problems | 4 (23%) | Injury; Health; Sinus problems caused by water and chlorine; Knee injury caused by skiing accident |
Emotional exhaustion | 4 (23%) | Emotional burnout; Disappointment and discouragement; I felt mentally burned out; Feeling discouraged |
Physical exhaustion | 3 (18%) | I was afraid of tremendous effort; Weariness and fatigue caused by swimming practice; Monotony and energy drain caused by swimming, and the number of workouts |
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Siekanska, M.; Blecharz, J. Transitions in the Careers of Competitive Swimmers: To Continue or Finish with Elite Sport? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6482. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186482
Siekanska M, Blecharz J. Transitions in the Careers of Competitive Swimmers: To Continue or Finish with Elite Sport? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(18):6482. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186482
Chicago/Turabian StyleSiekanska, Malgorzata, and Jan Blecharz. 2020. "Transitions in the Careers of Competitive Swimmers: To Continue or Finish with Elite Sport?" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 18: 6482. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186482