Research Into Athlete Career Transitions - Where it Came From and Where it Went

28/09/2023

Max Kalis has 10 years of experience working in strategy, culture and experience design. During this time he has mentored start ups, colleagues and clients and is now employing experience design principles to help athletes and other people to unlock progress, change and satisfaction in their careers.

At the age of thirteen I was captain of the 1st XV rugby team and was confident that it was only a matter of time before I’d lead out the national team. However by fourteen this future had been rudely edited out of my destiny. The fact that everyone else put on an extra ten kilos over that summer didn’t help and a recurring injury (ironically considered to be growing pains) guaranteed the dream was over.

Since then I’ve often wondered what athletes do after their sporting careers. For a long time the only answers appeared to be pundit or publican. It’s these experiences that have prompted me to specialise in athletes as a niche since becoming a career coach. Having been a design strategist for a decade before, I value insights highly and decided to do what appears to be the world’s largest study of athlete career transitions to ensure I really understand the space.

The Research
The central theme explored is understanding the alignment between the expectations of current athletes, the experiences of past athletes and the observations of non-athletes in sport. Understanding the similarities shows areas of common interest which can be pursued effectively. Understanding the differences between groups helps to indicate opportunities to improve communication and cooperation. There are also other interesting insights found between the lines, during immersion in the research.

Talking to many athletes and others working is sport generated a wide range of illuminating moments. It was fascinating to hear an ex athletes use the term ‘desk fit’, meaning learning how to adapt to sitting at a desk for long periods. One paralympian shared how bitterly upset they still were, many years after being dropped from a squad. They felt forgotten. I was also struck by the number of times aerial skiers were admired on their career development skills. But why?

Most memorable though, is how every person was different. Unique. Even after 250 participants, I kept hearing new perspectives and experiences.

Challenges
It was really hard to get participants, especially for the online survey. It seems people are much more willing to chat over a phone or video call but less ground was covered this way and it created a large amount of administration.

The vast majority of people were helpful. In fact only 2 people out of around 4000 were openly negative. One was annoyed that I had suggested times we could plan to speak instead of just calling them. The other one asked me not to contact any of his colleagues about the research and said that the information I was asking (what support the Players Association provides in terms of career support) was confidential. As the only objectors, I hope to yet find there’s a chance they can become its strongest supporters.

The Results
There are 25 insights generated from the research so far. Here are 3 of the best ones.

1. ADDICTION: The most striking result is arguably the similarities apparent between sport and addiction. This suggests that treating athlete transitions as rehabilitation processes rather than simply career development is appropriate. The driver behind this is how entrenched athletes are inside their sporting identities. While this is true for all workers to a degree, and suggests this is appropriate for them too, it is particularly intense for athletes and even more so for those with high profiles.
   
   
2. PERCEPTIONS: The second most interesting point is that how athletes see themselves and their situations is hugely different to how they are perceived by non-athletes in sport. In particular two dimensions stand out. Firstly, the range of future roles athletes seek is several orders of magnitude broader than what non-athletes expect, so they’re not very aware of what athletes are trying to achieve, which will undermine their ability to help.
   
   Secondly, the non-athletes think athletes are aware just how often their careers end owing to factors outside their control but athletes are shown to be naive in this respect and these false expectations are likely to be a significant cause of distress over transition situations for athletes.
   
   
3. DEPENDABLES: Among the range of people supporting athletes only three  groups appeared to be turning up for athletes as much as it was felt they should: life partners, specialists (e.g. psychologists, mentors) and career coaches. The other options included: friends, family, club, peer players, past players, players association, business/talent manager. It’s reassuring to see that career coaching is considered a dependable source of career development support.

What’s Next?
There are follow up talks based on this work, available on request. They’re designed specifically for each of the main groups studied: current athletes, past athletes and non-athletes in sport. In addition, there is one for friends and families of athletes. 

A free 5 page summary of the research is available here. A paid for full report is available by emailing [email protected].