From player to coach: Subcultural and social support perspectives in career transitions in tennis

Abstract

Despite the recent surge of retirement research, there is still a great deal of work to be done on the subject matter. One pathway that has been said to influence the transition quality is a within-career transition to coaching within the same sport. However, little research has been conducted on the player to coach transition. The purpose of the study was to explore the sub-cultural and social support perspectives during the career transition from player to coach in tennis. This qualitative study utilised a semi-structured interview guide in order to obtain data. The participants (n=7) consisted of coaches who were previous national level players recruited from various clubs within the UK. Findings showed that there are three major sub-cultures which effected participants‟ decisions to stay within the sport: Competitiveness/winning, Sociable and Environment. Within these sub-cultures there were further sub-categories identified. Although all three sub-cultures were prominent within the findings, the most significant sub-culture in terms of this study was identified as Environment. Furthermore, results identified specific sources of social support to be a facilitator within each sub-culture when transitioning into a coach.