"That is why I gave in to age my competitive ability but not my soul!" : a spiritual journey in endurance running

In this article, I explore the spiritual dimensions of running. I draw on theological and existential perspectives, athletic career research as well as post-sport ideologies to construct a multi-voiced representation of the spiritual meanings of endurance running current in Finnish running culture(s). Through narrative, analysis, reflexivity, interpretation and theorizing this study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of how distance runners negotiate dominant discourses on sport and exercise in the process of making running meaningful to them. In the analysis I examined the Finnish runner’s magazine Juoksija for the years 2001-2010. Over this time span studied, I found a variety of data d…

Meta-Study

Meta-study is a method for analysing the content and the process of knowledge production in a body of qualitative research. Conducting a meta-study involves four steps: (1) meta-data-analysis which involves the study of empirical findings; (2) meta-method which examines the epistemological soundness and rigour of methods; (3) meta-theory which examines the structures, assumptions, and principles underpinning the primary research studies; and (4) meta-synthesis which brings the three steps together and considers the plausibility of existing accounts, what has been neglected, and what new avenues have been opened for advancing knowledge. Qualitative researchers in sport and exercise psycholog…

Oppiminen urheilun kautta : elämää varten ja elämästä itsestään

Beyond life-skills: talented athletes, existential learning and (Un)learning the life of an athlete

Following developments in educational discourse more broadly, learning discourses in youth sport have been shaped by outcome-based and instrumental goals of developing useful life-skills for ‘successful’ lives. There is, however, a need to expand such traditional understandings of sport-based youth development, which we undertook by exploring existential learning in sport through encountering discontinuity. We conducted in-depth qualitative research with 16 Finnish athletes (seven men/nine women, aged 19–20), five of whom had recently disengaged from the athlete development pathway. In the interviews, we used creative non-fiction vignettes to invite reflections on learning experiences in sp…

Rethinking age in athletic retirement: An existential-narrative perspective

The aim of this paper is to examine theoretical understandings of athletic career and career termination from an existential-narrative perspective. Our critical analysis suggests that career models and many research texts have an implicit understanding of sport as a profession and propose a normative end to the career when athletes no longer improve their results. Being framed by Western cultural narratives of ageing as decline, the aforementioned career models disregard athletes’ subjective careers and their agency in bringing meaning to experiences of ageing and decline in athletic performance. While the main focus of this paper is on theoretical analysis, some empirical findings from our…

‘Don’t ever mix God with sports’: Christian religion in athletes’ stories of life transitions

Sport psychology researchers have increasingly recognized the need to adopt a holistic perspective when seeking to understand athletes’ adaptation to life transitions. The present study sought to understand how religion influences athletes’ journeys in sport and experiences of life transitions. Two Christian elite athletes participated in life story interviews which we analyzed via narrative analysis. Although the participants narratively separated religious belief from sport, religion, as a source of basic world assumptions and values, provided a broader framework of meaning and continuity in their sport lives. Yet, both stories involved a growing distance to institutional religious practi…

The Work of Cultural Transition: An Emerging Model

In today’s uncertain, fluid job market, transnational mobility has intensified. Though the concept of cultural transition is increasingly used in sport and career research, insight into the processes of how individuals produce their own development through work and relationships in shifting cultural patterns of meaning remains limited. The transnational industry of sports, in which athletes’ psychological adjustment to cultural transitions has implications for both performance and meaningful life, serves as a backdrop for this article. This study applied the life story method to interviews with 15 professional and semi-professional athletes, focusing particularly on the cultural transition …

Hobby, career or vocation? Meanings in sports coaching and their implications for recruitment and retention of coaches

Rationale/Purpose: Traditional European sports clubs are facing increasing pressures to professionalise their services, while also encountering difficulties in the recruitment and retention of the coaching workforce. We used the concept of meaningful work to explore why coaching is worthwhile to coaches and how they have responded to the changes in the structural and narrative context of their work. \ud \ud Methodology: Drawing on narrative inquiry, we explored the various meanings and justifications that athletics (track and field) coaches assign to coaching in Finland and England. Twenty-three coaches (8 women, 15 men) aged 22 – 86 participated in narrative interviews that were analysed u…

Negotiating a transnational career around borders: Women's stories in boundaryless academia

The study aimed to give voice to two women sport scientists' life stories to centralize the challenges and ways of coping their career journeys entailed, and enlighten our understanding of the lived experience and meaning of academic migrating. They shared transnational career stories through interviews and ongoing conversations which we re-story in a creative non-fiction story where we blended the two. Our data collection, analysis and representation were informed by theoretical, methodological and interpretive bricolage. As the creative non-fiction story shows, the academic entrepreneur ideal was somewhat disrupted in the women's lives, as migration experiences, aside from thrills, also i…

Narrative and discursive perspectives on athletic identity : Past, present, and future

Abstract Objectives The dominant role-based conceptualisations of athletic identity have recently been challenged in favour of theoretical perspectives that view identity as a complex cultural construction. In the present study, we analysed empirical studies on athletic identity positioned in narrative and discursive approaches to gain an insight into the use and subsequent contribution of these approaches to knowledge production in this research topic. Design and method A total of 23 articles, of which 18 narrative studies and five discursive studies, were identified in a systematic literature search. We used the meta-study method to analyse these studies in terms of basic assumptions, met…

Rethinking validity in qualitative sport and exercise psychology research: a realist perspective

Over the last two decades, the relativist approach has significantly shaped debates about the quality and rigour of qualitative research in sport and exercise psychology (SEP). In the absence of any published critiques of relativism in SEP, this paper problematises its central claims with a focus on the most recent contribution offered by Smith and McGannon (2018 Smith, B., & McGannon, K. R. (2018). Developing rigor in qualitative research: Problems and opportunities within sport and exercise psychology. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11, 101–121. doi: 10.1080/1750984X.2017.1317357[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]. Developing rigor in …

A realist approach to thematic analysis: making sense of qualitative data through experiential, inferential and dispositional themes

Thematic analysis (TA) is the most widely used method for analysing qualitative data. Recent debates, highlighting the binary distinctions between reflexive TA grounded within the qualitative parad...

Developing narrative identities in youth pre-elite sport : bridging the present and the future

Narrative research has contributed to understandings of athletic identity as an evolving story of the self that is creatively put together by the agentic individual but necessarily dependent on broader narratives within which we all live our lives. However, most studies in sport have focused on retrospective ‘big stories’ of athletes’ lives, rather than on-going, future-oriented identity construction through storytelling. In this study, we explored Finnish pre-elite athletes’ emerging stories of the self to understand the processes associated with the narrative selection and the resources they tap into in making sport meaningful to them. Nine women and eight men aged 17–18 were invited to c…

What can gender tell us about the pre-retirement experiences of elite distance runners in Finland?: A thematic narrative analysis

Abstract Objectives This study explores gendered experiences of the mastery stage in endurance runners' athletic careers in terms of (a) key themes in this period of life, (b) retirement decision-making and (c) changes in athletic and runner identities. Design and method Ten male and nine female athletes aged between 25 and 62 participated in individual interviews. The data were analyzed via thematic narrative analysis. Results and conclusion Gendered meanings permeate career decision-making and retirement patterns of Finnish runners. Female athletes reported many difficulties, including health problems, loneliness, societal pressure and lack of social support during the final years of thei…

A tale of three seasons: a cultural sport psychology and gender performativity approach to practitioner identity and development in professional football

The present study explored how the organisational and cultural experiences of a trainee Sport Psychology Consultant (SPC) working in professional football shaped her identity and professional development. Drawing on Cultural Sport Psychology (CSP) and gender performativity as guiding frameworks, we explored the first author’s identity development as a sport psychology practitioner-researcher within one professional football club over a 3-year duration. Traditional ethnographic data collection methods were employed, including, field notes and a reflective journal. Through creative non-fiction vignettes, we show that the traditional masculine discourse in professional football shaped the firs…

Staying Active under Restrictions: Changes in Type of Physical Exercise during the Initial COVID-19 Lockdown

Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated governmental restrictions suddenly changed everyday life and potentially affected exercise behavior. The aim of this study was to explore whether individuals changed their preference for certain types of physical exercise during the pandemic and to identify risk factors for inactivity. An international online survey with 13,881 adult participants from 18 countries/regions was conducted during the initial COVID-19 related lock-down (between April and May 2020). Data on types of exercise performed during and before the initial COVID-19 lockdown were collected, translated, and categorized (free-text input). Sankey chart…

Supporting Identity Development in Talented Youth Athletes: Insights from Existential and Cultural Psychological Approaches

The purpose of this article is to present existential and cultural psychology approaches to understanding athlete identity, and offer strategies for the development of well-rounded, reflexive and s...

An existential perspective on meaning, spirituality and authenticity in athletic careers

This research examines athletes’ career paths and reflections of meaning in their sporting practices through an existential psychological lens. Through notions of spirituality and authenticity, we examined how competitive sport practices and bodily movement gain meaning, and often fundamentally shift meaning, in athletes’ lives. Reflective writings with a follow-up from 10 athletes were interpreted through an existential-narrative analysis. The results suggest that while the early years of sport practice are most often characterised as highly enjoyable experiences, for some, the later career development involves existential challenges such as value conflicts, losing a sense of authenticity,…

Superwomen? Young sporting women, temporality and learning not to be perfect

New forms of neoliberal femininity create demanding horizons of expectation for young women. For talented athletes, these pressures are intensified by the establishment of dual-career discourses that construct the combination of high-performance sport and education as a normative, ‘ideal’ pathway. The pressed time perspective inherent in dual-careers requires athletes to employ a variety of time-related skills, especially for young women who aim to live up to ‘superwoman’ ideals that valorise ‘success’ in all walks of life. Drawing on existential phenomenology, and in-depth interviews with 10 talented Finnish sportswomen (aged 19–22), we explored their experiences of lived time when pursui…

Me, Myself, and My Thoughts: The Influence of Brooding and Reflective Rumination on Depressive Symptoms in Athletes in the United Kingdom

Individual differences in vulnerability to depression are still underexplored in athletes. We tested the influence of different brooding and reflective rumination profiles (i.e., repetitive thought processes in response to low/depressed mood) on the odds of experiencing clinically relevant depressive symptoms in competitive athletes (N = 286). The Patient Health Questionnaire–9 and the Ruminative Responses Scale–short form were utilized to measure depression and rumination, respectively. Compared to athletes with a low brooding/reflection profile, athletes with a high brooding/reflection profile had significantly higher odds of experiencing clinical levels of depressive symptoms (OR = 13.40…

Developing mixed methods research in sport and exercise psychology: potential contributions of a critical realist perspective

Notwithstanding diverse opinions and debates about mixing methods, mixed methods research (MMR) is increasingly being used in sport and exercise psychology. In this paper, we describe MMR trends within leading sport and exercise psychology journals and explore critical realism as a possible underpinning framework for conducting MMR. Our meta-study of recent empirical mixed methods studies published in 2017–2019 indicates that eight (36%) of the 22 MMR studies explicitly stated a paradigmatic position (five drew on pragmatism, two switched paradigms between qualitative and quantitative elements of the study, and one was situated in relativist-interpretivism). The remaining 14 (64%) studies d…

A meta-study of athletic identity research in sport psychology: Current status and future directions

ABSTRACTThe aim of this meta-study is to provide a critical synthesis of qualitative research on athletic identity in sport psychology. A total of 108 empirical studies were identified, including 63 quantitative studies, 40 qualitative studies, and five mixed methods studies. Qualitative and mixed methods studies were reviewed with the meta-study method, which involves a meta-analysis in terms of theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and findings. In our discussion we focus on evaluating and critiquing the current status of qualitative research on athletic identity and outlining recommendations for improving methodological rigor. It is concluded that both quantitative and qualitative stu…

Coaches' reflections on the meaning and value of Masters athletics

Masters sport is a growing social movement offering the opportunity to participate in competitive sports in later life. Although many studies have explored Masters athletes' experiences, little is known about how other actors in the sport subcultures construct meaning in Masters sport and whether their stories work to support or hinder participation. Our study explored the cultural narrative resources and life scripts surrounding sport and ageing that coaches draw upon in two European countries, England and Finland, where sport policy has put different emphasis on elite sport and sport for all. We analysed interviews from 23 athletics (track and field) coaches (8 women) to understand how th…

Learning in sport : from life skills to existential learning

Youth sport is habitually promoted as an important context for learning that contributes to a person’s broader development beyond sport-specific skills. A growing body of research in this area has operated within a life skills discourse that focuses on useful, positive and decontextualised skills in the production of successful and adaptive citizens. In this paper, we argue that the ideological discourse of life skills, underpinned by ideas about sport-based positive youth development, has unduly narrowed the research on learning in sport to only what is deemed functional, teachable, and economically productive. After considering the problems associated with the currently dominant life skil…