Posted: November 7, 2005

Sports Psychology: Termination Among Endurance Athletes

By Michelle Cleere, Sports Psychology Consultant

A friend was training for an entire year for an Iron man triathlon with Team in Training. It took a lot of time and energy and time and energy away from other things in life: family, work, friends, social life, etc. When the event was over she would talk to me about her depression, weight gain, irritability, and lack of energy. I talked to her a about what I call “the end” of the season or seasonal termination. She spent a lot of time with the team and a lot of time training and now doesn’t which left her with very little time to spend with family and friends. And now she has no resources to deal with the aftermath of it all. She had a job, a daughter, a house, friends but those things had been on the back burner for a year. Figuring out how to get back to the rest of her life after Iron man training was a real struggle for her. What she is struggling with I call athletic seasonal termination. This is not an uncommon issue among endurance athletes.

Event or season termination distress: adjustment difficulties, occupational/financial problems, family/social problems, body image, & alcohol/substance abuse. Adjustment difficulties are the negative factors related to adaptation to event or season termination. For endurance athletes most are occupationally involved, although depending on their level of commitment to their sport may not be as involved and making as much money as necessary. At the ending of an event, a season or termination of their event or season may provide some distress. Figuring out how to become more involved with family and friends can be a huge problem for a endurance athlete, again depending on their commitment. With many of the athletes I’ve worked with, the group or team has provided a family-like/social environment and taken the place of any outside family or social activities. Transitioning back into the athletes family and outside (the sport) social contacts can provide a lot of anxiety. Body image, is particularly challenging for women, because many women do struggle with a post event, season, career fluctuation in weight and struggle in dealing with that. Alcohol/substance abuse is always a consideration when dealing with a situation where something is missing or a person needs an escape where otherwise healthy alternatives are not available.

Challenges: Seemingly many endurance athletes join teams or groups to train partially for the social aspect (which much literature states is the reason many women get involved in athletics) and as part of a life changing endeavor. Termination of season alongside a social network is a very challenging experience for them.

The length of the event or season seems to be another important consideration. I’ve found that Iron man triathlon training programs lasting a year provide many more termination challenges than a sprint triathlon training program lasting 3 months.

The coaching staff is another issue that needs addressing. Is the coach trained properly? What kind of organization backs this coach and the team? What is the philosophy of the coaching staff? What does the coaching staff use and do they understand intrinsic and extrinsic motivation? Does the coach take each individual into consideration? Does the coach allow for and make suggestion of outside interests? Do athletes work on goal setting not only for their athletic endeavors but for the rest of their lives? Coaches have a big role in the lives of endurance athletes.

What stage of life is this athlete in? Just starting a career? In the middle of a career? At the end of a career? Starting a family? Building a family? Single? Gay?

Where is the athlete athletically? Just starting? Just wanting to participate? Wanting to compete? Unlike most high school, college or professional athletes, recreational athletes are not necessarily playing to win or playing to make it their lives.

Intervention for career transition distress: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, physical & organizational. All of these are important considerations. An athlete involved in sports should try not to be enmeshed in sports. It’s important for an athlete to recognize that the sport is not the only important thing in her/his life. It’s always important to have a healthy balance. And it’s important for coaches, personal trainers and sports psychologists to emphasize this and work with their athletes to achieve this. Although the season or event is ending it’s also important to help endurance athletes understand how to physically remain active and understand how to deal with the physical challenges of probably not being as physically active as they may have been while involved in endurance training.

There is a continuum and an array of issues when dealing with event termination, seasonal termination and career termination for endurance athletes. These will all look very different within and amongst these athletes and I think further research is necessary to determine distinctly what these each look like to determine what exactly a person goes through. At least it’s important for coaches, personal trainers and sports psychologists to be aware of the effects that event/season termination has on endurance athletes.

Michelle is owner of Sports Minded, a Sports Psychology Consulting practice. She works with individuals and groups on performance enhancement. Michelle is an NASM-certified personal trainer and a USAT-certified triathlon coach. E-mail questions and comments to her at SportsMindedMC@aol.co or check out her web site at MentalStrength.com.