What happens to athletes after college sports?

In America, sports can rule a child’s life. Weekends are full of games, tournaments and trips. Joining the most talented club teams can lead to state teams and then national teams. Then, pursuing college sports scholarships and eventually playing for her NCAA makes her entire teenage identity entwined with her success in sports. In pursuing that dream, “young people start giving up on all other aspects of life,” Francesca Cavalerio, a sports psychologist and lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, told me.

When an athlete realizes they have no intention of turning pro, their single-mindedness can become a roadblock. Less than 2% of college athletes continue to play professional sports, according to the NCAA. (Even if she got there, the average professional length of her career in football, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey would be three to five years.) I don’t understand. A defined role in a closed world with rules and guidance. An uncertain future may await you after graduation. Elodie Wendling, a researcher in the Department of Sports Administration at the University of Florida, says, “All the great transferable skills that you get as an elite athlete are very useful, but it’s not really about finding new avenues, new goals. limited,” he said.

Transitioning from a linear education system to normal adult life can be difficult for twenty-somethings. Add in the end of a long sports career and it can become even more difficult. Retired athletes, like us, would benefit from having multiple identities in their lives.

Life after sports involves a lot of serious adjustments, but there are also minor ones. “I was so used to eating grilled chicken, rice and vegetables, salad, and a slice of bread and water every night,” says former professional soccer player Savannah Jordan. A natural athlete, she dabbled in several sports before soccer took her to the University of Florida and played professionally for two years. All of Jordan’s meal choices were managed by a coach: “Now I go out and look at the menu and my natural instinct is, I don’t want to eat anything.” It means that it cannot be done. [those foods]because my mind was so well-trained,” she said.

After retiring, Jordan realized he had personal freedom of choice. But it wasn’t easy either. Her life as a football player had so many elements set in her specific schedule, right down to when she ate and slept. Jordan also went without specific rituals like proms, sleepovers, and parties. She didn’t have her social life at all. Instead, teammates spent so much time together that friendships became ready-made. We’re friends,” Jordan said. Which social group do I fit into”

It may come as a surprise, but exercise and physical fitness can be a challenge for some former athletes after college. Erin Lifestek, associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, told me in an email. But training for sport is not the same as exercising for health. “Sports cultures often reinforce certain values ​​and norms, such as sacrificing the body for athletic performance,” he said. “Physical activity in this context can be viewed as very strenuous and painful, which is probably not the most ideal perception.” , exercised less, weighed more and were more likely to develop osteoarthritis (which may result from an earlier injury) compared with those who participated in club, intramural, or recreational sports in college. rice field.

Read: Finding new meaning after an Olympic career

One of the keys to helping athletes adjust to retirement may be to better support them during their college years. It’s a formative period for young people, a time when the demand for sports can go into overdrive. “At the college level, there is not enough support for athletes to prepare them for life after sport,” Wendling said. At Pac-12, the major athletic conference in collegiate sports, the athlete said he spends more than 50 hours a week in sports-related activities, he said, executive of the Center for Athletes’ Rights and Equity at the University of California, Riverside. director Eddie Comeau told me.

On top of that, Comeau said they were dealing with “mental exhaustion, physical exhaustion, nagging injuries.” Athletes are less likely to spend time in the classroom, given the spend an average of two days or more per week away from campus. The same research also recently showed that athletes in many sports spend less time socializing and relaxing during sports seasons. It has gone from 20 hours a week in 2010 to just 15 hours a week in 2019.

Many collegiate athletes may not have time in and out of the auditorium to prepare students for life after graduation, such as applying for internships, joining non-athletic clubs, and studying abroad. An NCAA study found that when student-athletes were asked what they wanted their coaches and sports administrators to tell them more about, the most common response was that 41% of male athletes and 61% of female athletes said they were preparing for a career outside of sports. That was it. College. In one of Wendling’s studies funded by an NCAA grant, 55% of his more than 500 former college athletes interviewed said they were confused about what to do after college. Either you feel or you haven’t made plans for your next career yet.

Young athletes are typically conditioned from an early age to have one focus in their sport, with an implicit belief that this is the only path to success. But having a little more personal freedom may not be at odds with maximizing athletic performance. doing. Her hypothesis is that this also improves athletic performance. Whether it proves right or not, a better quality of life will be a reward in itself for young athletes in the twilight of their careers.