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“From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies

Previous research has assessed the affects release from football academies has on psychological distress and athletic identity of players. However, there has been no qualitative research exploring players' experiences of the release process. This study retrospectively explored players' liv...

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Autores principales: McGlinchey, Thomas Ryan, Saward, Chris, Healy, Laura Catherine, Sarkar, Mustafa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9354464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35935062
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.941482
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author McGlinchey, Thomas Ryan
Saward, Chris
Healy, Laura Catherine
Sarkar, Mustafa
author_facet McGlinchey, Thomas Ryan
Saward, Chris
Healy, Laura Catherine
Sarkar, Mustafa
author_sort McGlinchey, Thomas Ryan
collection PubMed
description Previous research has assessed the affects release from football academies has on psychological distress and athletic identity of players. However, there has been no qualitative research exploring players' experiences of the release process. This study retrospectively explored players' lived experiences of being released from a professional football academy, having completed a scholarship (from ages 16–18). Four male football players (age 21.6 ± 1.5 years) who had experienced release from professional academies participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four super-ordinate themes were interpreted from the data: Foreshadowing release—“left out in the cold”, The process of release, Support during the process of release and New beginnings—“there's a bigger world than just playing football every day”. Players reported that their contract meeting was a traumatic experience, and they experienced psychological difficulties in the longer-term following release. Factors that compounded the players' release were: a lack of aftercare being provided by the players' professional clubs for their wellbeing, and a disuse of social support, which hindered their transition out of full-time football. Context relevant recommendations are made to help improve the release process for elite youth football players.
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spelling pubmed-93544642022-08-06 “From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies McGlinchey, Thomas Ryan Saward, Chris Healy, Laura Catherine Sarkar, Mustafa Front Sports Act Living Sports and Active Living Previous research has assessed the affects release from football academies has on psychological distress and athletic identity of players. However, there has been no qualitative research exploring players' experiences of the release process. This study retrospectively explored players' lived experiences of being released from a professional football academy, having completed a scholarship (from ages 16–18). Four male football players (age 21.6 ± 1.5 years) who had experienced release from professional academies participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four super-ordinate themes were interpreted from the data: Foreshadowing release—“left out in the cold”, The process of release, Support during the process of release and New beginnings—“there's a bigger world than just playing football every day”. Players reported that their contract meeting was a traumatic experience, and they experienced psychological difficulties in the longer-term following release. Factors that compounded the players' release were: a lack of aftercare being provided by the players' professional clubs for their wellbeing, and a disuse of social support, which hindered their transition out of full-time football. Context relevant recommendations are made to help improve the release process for elite youth football players. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9354464/ /pubmed/35935062 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.941482 Text en Copyright © 2022 McGlinchey, Saward, Healy and Sarkar. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sports and Active Living
McGlinchey, Thomas Ryan
Saward, Chris
Healy, Laura Catherine
Sarkar, Mustafa
“From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
title “From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
title_full “From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
title_fullStr “From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
title_full_unstemmed “From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
title_short “From everything to nothing in a split second”: Elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
title_sort “from everything to nothing in a split second”: elite youth players' experiences of release from professional football academies
topic Sports and Active Living
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9354464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35935062
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.941482
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