A Longitudinal Qualitative Exploration of Elite Korean Tennis Players’ Career Transition Experiences Studies in athletes’ career transitions have increased gradually in the past three decades

The purpose of this study was to explore elite Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences, focusing on psychological components (i.e., self-identity, life skills development, and coping strategies) and socio-cultural influences through the process. A longitudinal qualitative method was employed, and Korean tennis players (N = 5; two males and three females; mean age 29.8 ± 5.54 years) who were considering retirement participated in the current study. Data were analyzed by interpretative phenomenological analysis and resulted in three super-ordinate themes: (a) sense of self and process of identity shift, (b) available resources during the career transition process, and (c) decision-making processes and consequences of decisions. These results provided practical implications for supporting athletes’ career transitions (e.g., developing a balanced self-identity and life skill during their athletic careers, providing proactive intervention) and future research directions (e.g., examining athletes’ retirement decision-making process, the need of cross-cultural research). A Longitudinal Qualitative Exploration of Elite Korean Tennis Players’ Career Transition Experiences Studies in athletes’ career transitions have increased gradually in the past three decades (e.g., Bruner, Munroe-Chandler, & Spink, 2008; Stambulova & Alfermann, 2009; Wylleman, Alfermann, & Lavallee, 2004). Findings from previous studies have indicated that athletic identity (e.g., Lally, 2007), life skills development (e.g., Kerr & Dacyshyn, 2000), and coping strategies (e. g. Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2004) are closely related to the quality of athletes’ career transitions. Researchers (e.g., Lally, 2007; Lavallee & Robinson, 2007) have revealed that athletes with strong athletic identities experienced a higher degree of career transition difficulties and identity crisis during the career transition process, in terms of their narrowly focused lifestyles and identity development. For example, previous literature (e.g., Lally, 2007; Warriner & Lavallee, 2008) has indicated that athletes with a higher degree of athletic identity experienced more negative emotions, including feelings of loss, isolation and fear of an uncertain future, and also took longer to adjust to post-sport life than those who had a more balanced identity. Investigators (e.g., Kerr & Dacyshyn, 2000; Lavallee & Robinson, 2007) have also discovered that the balance in athletes’ lifestyles, such as the balance between inside sport and outside sport activities, tends to be associated with individual development, including identity and life skills development and influences the quality of adjustment to post-sport life, in terms of developing a balanced self and social identity and acquiring higher educational achievement. Regarding coping strategies, researchers (e.g., Stephan, Bilard, Ninot, & Delignières, 2003; Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994) revealed that athletes’ social support networks and coping resources influence the quality of career transitions. Through the development of the research area, the concept of transitions in sport has changed from a singular event to a process which occurs to athletes over time, and researchers have tried to focus on athletes’ life span development (e.g., Stambulova & Alfermann, 2009; Wylleman et al., 2004). Since athletes’ career transition has been considered as a process, researchers (e.g., Lavallee & Robinson, 2007) have suggested the need to examine the process through longitudinal assessments, in terms of examining athletes’ changes in psychological and emotional responses (i.e., identity re-formation, coping strategy used). However, in the study area, only a few studies (e.g., Douglas & Carless, 2009; Stephan et al., 2003) have been conducted with longitudinal designs because it is not easy to predict the actual timing of athletes’ retirement, and even for the longitudinal studies, most of the data were collected after the actual retirement of athletes (e.g., Stephan et al., 2003). In addition, although researchers (e.g., Cecić Erpič, Wylleman, & Zupančič, 2004) have discussed the importance of athletes’ retirement decisionmaking process in the final stages of their sport careers, the overall process of athletes’ career transitions, including both the final stages of athletic careers and post-sport adjustment, have not been examined much in the study area. Another issue often discussed in the career transition research field recently is the influence of socio-cultural issues and environmental sport contexts in athletes’ career transitions, and researchers (e.g., Stambulova & Alfermann, 2009; Stambulova, Alfermann, Statler, & Côte 2009) have emphasized the need to examine socio-cultural and environmental-based variables (e.g., sport systems). Stambulova and Alfermann (2009) stated that the majority of career transition studies have been conducted in the Western nations (i.e., North America, Europe, and Australia), and studies on athletes’ career transition are rare in Asian countries. In the cross-cultural psychology literature, Si and Lee (2007) highlighted that examining cultural similarity and differences could help test the generality and validity of existing knowledge and theories in other cultural contexts and practical implications, such as providing suitable and appropriate support in applied work. In addition, although aforementioned psychological influences (i.e., athletic identity, athletes’ life skills development, and coping strategies) have been considered as factors related to the quality of athletes’ career transitions, not much evidence has been provided from Korean athletes. Therefore, examining Korean athletes’ career transition experiences might be helpful in expanding knowledge of different cultural backgrounds and testing the generality and validity of existing knowledge and theories in other cultural contexts. To understand Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences, it might be helpful to explain Korean sport contexts, in terms of unique Korean semi-professional sport systems. In Korea, there are two different types of elite level tennis players, professional and semiprofessional. The professional athletes play international tennis tournaments, such as those on the ATP (Association Tennis Professionals) or WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tours. Two major companies support these players, and only a few Korean athletes (usually fewer than 10 players at the same time) have a chance to become a professional tennis player. Semi-professionals mainly play the domestic league and compete in just a few international tournaments each year. They belong to certain teams (companies) and play for their teams. Some of the semiprofessional teams hire athletes as regular employees. In that case, athletes can work at the company after they terminate their sport career, which means they have secure jobs after their retirement from sport. The semi-professional system in the Korean tennis context is more similar to the professional contexts of most other countries than their semi-professional systems, because during their sporting lifetime semi-professional athletes in Korea only play sport for their team but are not involved in office work. Other semi-professional teams have a short-term contract with players, and athletes are not considered employees of the company. Players who have a short-term contract with semi-professional tennis teams and professional players need to find a post-sport career when they retire from their sport. Since researchers (e.g., Lotysz & Short, 2004) revealed that finding a post-sport career is one of the main sources of athletes’ career transition difficulties, unique Korean sport contexts might influence athletes’ career transition experiences. The purpose of the current study was to explore elite Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences by focusing on psychological factors (e.g., self-identity, psychological status) and socio-cultural influences, including the pre-retirement period and post-sport life adjustment over a period of time (i.e., 2 to 3 months before retirement and within 1 month, 6 months, and 12 months after retirement). Method A qualitative longitudinal research design was employed to explore participants’ career transition processes in depth. According to Patton (2002), qualitative inquiry generally helps researchers produce rich and detailed information from a small number of participants and collect information about certain cases or situations rather than generalized findings. The participants in the present study were selected purposively based on Smith, Flowers, and Larkin’s (2009) sampling strategies. Smith et al. (2009) suggested that researchers need to select participants with represent perspective on particular phenomena who are fairly homogeneous. In order to select information-rich cases who can offer an insight into a particular experience, the participants for the current study were selected on the basis of two criteria. First, participants had to be either professional or semi-professional tennis players in Korea, and second, they should be considering retiring from their sport. Participants The participants in the present study were full-time Korean elite-level athletes, including one female professional tennis player and two male and two female semi-professional tennis players. The players were aged between 24 and 36 (Mage = 29.8, SD = 5.54), had been playing tennis for an average of 20 years (SD = 5), and had spent an average of 10.6 years (SD = 3.78) as professional or semi-professional athletes. Participants’ profiles are presented in the Table 1, and pseudonyms have been used to protect confidentiality (see Table 1). The participants postponed their retirement for 1 to 3 years, since they had first considered their retirement. Two of them retired from their sport 3 months after their first interviews, and the other three participant