Are you a coach working with athletes of different ages? Are you a parent whose child has shown potential in sport? Perhaps you are an athlete looking ahead at your potential journey and choices through and beyond the sporting pathway? Whatever your involvement in sport, this course will help you understand the journey an athlete undertakes during their career, whether as a professional or recreational athlete, and the nature of support they may need at different times.The athlete’s journey through sport can be characterised by several transitions and periods of change and each athlete’s journey will be experienced in a different way. In this free course, The athlete’s journey: transitions through sport, you will explore the psychological challenges of some of these transitions and the impact they can have on the athlete. This course will offer you practical guidance, whether you support athletes as a coach or parent or whether you are an athlete yourself, and draws on a wealth of case study and audio-visual material to bring the athlete’s journey to life.The course is introduced by former England hockey player and Olympic gold medallist Alex Danson. Watch the video below to see what she has to say.TranscriptEnrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation − which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction and guidance
- Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged course?
- How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
- Session1Session 1: The athlete’s journey – what are career transitions in sport?
- Introduction
- 1 What are transitions?
- 2 Your experiences of transitions in sport
- 3 The athletic career transition model
- 4 What does the research say about transitions?
- 5 This session’s quiz
- 6 Summary of Session 1
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session2Session 2: Influencing factors – key themes in the athlete’s journey
- Introduction
- 1 What factors influence transitions?
- 2 Athletic identity: who am I?
- 2.1 How athletic identity affects responses to transitions
- 3 Level of participation
- 4 Is ‘type of sport’ relevant?
- 5 Preparation and support
- 6 Reflecting on your own experience of transitions
- 7 This session’s quiz
- 8 Summary of Session 2
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session3Session 3: Out of the blocks – preparing athletes for career transitions
- Introduction
- 1 The need for a life outside sport
- 2 Performance lifestyle
- 3 The five-step career planning strategy
- 4 Other strategies: coping with the unexpected
- 5 This session’s quiz
- 6 Summary of Session 3
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session4Session 4: Keeping going – expected transitions in sport
- Introduction
- 1 What are normative transitions?
- 2 Lifespan perspective
- 3 Upward and downward transitions
- 4 Reflecting on normative transitions
- 5 This session’s quiz
- 6 Summary of Session 4
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session5Session 5: Stopped in your tracks – unexpected transitions in sport
- Introduction
- 1 What are non-normative transitions?
- 2 Spotlight: sport injury
- 2.1 Return to sport
- 2.2 Career-ending injuries
- 3 Reflecting on non-normative transitions
- 4 This session’s quiz
- 5 Summary of Session 5
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session6Session 6: Spotlight – parenthood and sport
- Introduction
- 1 Combining parenthood and elite sport
- 2 The athletic mother
- 3 The challenges of being a sporting parent
- 4 Positive impacts: is parenthood the key to success?
- 5 This session’s quiz
- 6 Summary of Session 6
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session7Session 7: The final athletic chapter – retirement from sport
- Introduction
- 1 The reality of retirement
- 2 Why do athletes retire?
- 3 The impact of retirement – positive or negative?
- 4 Coming out the other side: coping with retirement
- 5 But I can’t let go!
- 6 This session’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Session 7
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session8Session 8: Moving on – life after sport
- Introduction
- 1 Making a successful transition
- 2 Case study 1: Lizzy Yarnold
- 3 Case study 2: Kristian Thomas
- 4 Case study 3: Josh Lukwata
- 5 Case study 4: Olympic athlete panel
- 6 Bringing it all together
- 7 This session’s quiz
- 8 Summary of Session 8
- Where next?
- Tell us what you think
- References
- Acknowledgements
