177 research outputs found
Verifying the Values and Sparking the Sprint: Research and Practice on Motivation in Sport Psychology
No full textLove and all its manifestations, such as caring, connection, comfort, commitment, and confirmation of the precious worth and capacity of (an)other(s) and the self, truly marked the life of my dear and long-time friend, Arja Laitinen. Drawing from our many dialogues over the years, I have no doubt that she felt such love in her encounters with the important people who made up her day-to-day world. As epitomized in the affection for and admiration of Arja revealed by the authors contributing to this volume, she was the kind of person who also radiated love to those acquaintances and family members around her.In this contribution, however, I would like to focus on a different type of love, namely an ardour for the injection of personal passion in one’s work. It was clear that Arja was ardent about her professional activities, such as her earlier scholarship on feminism, sport, and physical culture at the University of Jyväskylä or later efforts with Arinna centered in telling the life stories of Finnish women. She approached such endeavours with intrinsic zeal and dedication. What was also evident from my conversations with Arja was that she was keenly aware of and energized by how her own values, experiences, and concerns infused and informed her professional contributions.The aim of this paper is to share a bit about my own professional journey as a teacher, scholar, and practitioner in the field of sport psychology. It will be a story of love that is told with love, for I truly feel blessed to be able to study what I study and I am truly touched to have the opportunity to contribute to this text. It also will be a narrative on the discovery and rediscovery of fervency and the role of values in my work. Moreover, this saga will touch upon my understanding of how such personal enthusiasm and ideals juxtapose with how I view and approach my area(s) of academic interest
Introduction: why a research handbook on gender and diversity in sport management
No full textThe purpose of this handbook is to bring together work by international scholars to explicitly address gender and diversity in sport management. We do so by situating this research within critical sociological theoretical frameworks that focus on understanding how individuals or groups engaged in leading or managing sport are situated in the social world. The goal of this introductory chapter is to sketch the need for the book, its aim and its contents. We summarize the previous research on gender in sport management and then focus on insights the authors provide in their focus on processes and practices that work to exclude certain groups and favor others. This chapter, then, serves as the framing for the various theoretical approaches used by the various authors, how these can highlight the gendered ways of organizing sport, how they are experienced and may be sustained, disrupted, and challenged
Hiipiviä hölkkääjiä ja dynaamisia juoksijoita
No full textEndurance running : a socio-cultural examination / toimittaneet William Bridel, Pirkko Markula & Jim Denison. London : Routledge, 2016
The Evolving Feminine Ballet Body
No full textSeven essays discuss both the local perspective and the broader cultural narratives of contemporary ballet.Front cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Introduction | Markula & -- Clark -- I Ballet in the Contemporary Media -- 1 Reading the Ballet Body in Children's Fiction | Davies -- 2 So You Think You Can Dance | Markula -- 3 Ballet-Inspired Workouts | Markula & -- Clark -- II Lived Experiences of Ballet in Contemporary Culture -- 4 Multiple Bodies | Clark -- 5 "Moving for Pleasure" | Millar -- 6 At the Barre | Vandekerkhove -- 7 Ballet for All Bodies? | Acton & -- Eales -- Conclusion | Markula & -- Clark -- Contributors -- Index -- Other Titles from The University of Alberta PressSeven essays discuss both the local perspective and the broader cultural narratives of contemporary ballet.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
"I Was on Top of the World, Then ... Nothing ... And Today I am Many Things:" Retirement Stories of Former Elite Female Athletes
No full textThis narrative research explores elite women athletes’ retirement experiences, to answer the following questions: How did the athletes experience their athletic lives? How did the athletes experience their retirement? What supported and/or hindered the athletes’ transition out of elite sport? How do female athletes create new meanings and re-story their lives?
Being an elite athlete requires a lot of commitment and sacrifices from a fairly young age. Due to the extended involvement in sports, athletes build their identity around their sport and are often ill prepared for life-after-sport. Consequently, retirement from elite sport has caught the attention of researchers who have studied it from different perspectives. The post-positivist research has examined the causes and consequences of sport retirement, the quality of life and life satisfaction after sport, the factors that influence the quality of transition, the body image, physical self, or global self-esteem (Erpic et al., 2004; Price et al., 2010; Smith & McManus, 2008; Stephan & Bilard, 2003; Stephan et al., 2003a; Wylleman et al., 2004). The interpretive research around retirement from elite sport has included personal experiences and how people make sense of their experiences within their contexts (Barker-Ruchti & Schubring, 2016; Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2012; Cavallerio et al., 2017; Douglas & Carless, 2009; Kerr et al., 2020). More specifically, interpretive narrative researchers have used predetermined narratives (e.g., performance narrative) to understand the retired athletes’ experiences. In addition, the post-structuralist research on sport retirement has explored the power relations within the sporting context to explain the retirement experiences (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2012; Jones & Denison, 2017). Existing research, however, has revealed that retiring elite athletes could face significant challenges to their physical, psychological, social, and occupational well-being, possibly struggling with a loss of identity, depression, and even self-harm or suicide.
While there are a number of narrative studies that have explored the retirement experiences, I also chose to pursue a narrative study. Congruent with the interpretive approach, I focused on the individual athletes’ stories. Expanding from the previous sport narrative research, I examined athletes’ stories during their athletic lifespan and after retirement. I drew on a combination of a more traditional narrative approach and narrative inquiry (Clandinin & al., 2007) to explore 10 women athletes’ stories. My interviewees were over 18 years of age, English speakers, competed at national/international levels in different sports (both individual and team sports), and were at least two years into their retirement. In addition to the ten stories of retired athletes, I, as a former elite athlete, included my own story.
Through my reflective thematic analysis, I constructed three overarching themes based in the participants’ stories: Life as an Elite Athlete, Life After Elite Sport, and Living a Regular Life. My analysis of the first theme revealed that the retired athletes told very similar stories about their athletic lives: they were very dedicated to their sports that they loved unconditionally despite experiencing injuries, eating disorders and ‘cut-throat’ competition. When I analyzed the second theme, I found that the retirement experiences were all unique. Seven participants perceived their transition to be quite smooth, while three participants experienced a difficult retirement with periods of intense struggles. My analysis of the final theme, Living a Regular Life, revealed that most of the former athletes had found new meanings in their lives, that included family, education, or career. The retired athletes also identified certain skills, such as time management and perfectionism, that were helpful during their athletic lives, but did not transfer well in life-after-sport. They further suggested that hearing other former athletes’ stories and having connections with other former athletes would have been beneficial for a positive transition out of elite sport. My lifespan analysis, thus, revealed that the athletes’ retirement stories were complex and unlinear: a positive athletic life did not necessarily convert into a smooth retirement experience or vice versa.
My narrative study expanded the previous research by demonstrating the importance of examining the entire athletic lifespan to reveal the complexities of women athletes’ retirement experiences. This allowed me to move beyond focusing on a single aspect of retirement experience, or one narrative framing (e.g., performance narrative), to obtain a more holistic understanding of elite athletes’ retirement as a process
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