The athletic career: some contingencies of sport specialization
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ABSTRACT:
In the context of an interactionist approach, one aspect of the athletic career was examined: the contingencies which influence the athlete's decision to specialize in the sport in which he or she will eventually gain international status. In-depth interviews were conducted with all of the first year players (N=29) on the Women's Field Hockey team and the Men's Rugby and Water Polo teams from both Canada and England. Analysis of the data indicated that while some of the athletes (N=11;5UK, 6 Canadian) specialized in their sports at a very early age, a majority of the athletes (N=18;8 UK, 10 Canadian) had to make a decision at some point in their careers about their future involvements in sport. Some of these athletes (N=12;6 UK, 6 Canadian) experienced a gradual attrition of their sport involvement until only two or three sports remained between which they had to decide. Other athletes (N=6;2UK, 4 Canadian) experienced a radical redirection of their commitments as an existing career in another sport came to an end. In all situations, the decisions which the athletes made were based on the two considerations of the "potential for success" which the chosen sport offered and the type of "people" who were associated with that sport. Both of these considerations are understandable from an interactionist perspective as the deliberate and self-reflexive seeking for desirable "role-identities", and for the "role support" necessary for the development and maintenance of these identities.
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