Many of us enjoyed tuning into the coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games this summer. The highlights included Dame Sarah Storey’s 17^th gold medal in eight Paralympic games, making her the most decorated British Paralympian ever; David Smith defending his Boccia title and bearing the GB flag for the closing ceremony; Ellie Robinson’s moving post-race interview after the S6 butterfly event; and cheering George Peasgood onto the podium not only in triathlon but cycling too.

For TASS, it was wonderful to see 52 of our former athletes head to the Games and bring home a total of 34 medals, including 8 golds.

Whilst seeing top level performances on the world stage is worth celebrating, support services for athletic development is only part of the support  required. The education, career development, and wellbeing of these athletes are equally important. With many Paralympic athletes now considering their options after the Games, these topics are of vital importance. In response, TASS conducted research , with the aim of understanding what organisations can do better to support para-athletes in higher education in the UK. The research is targeted at stakeholders, such as National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of sport, universities, BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) (and TASS. The research identified some of the great work being done in this area by theabove organisations, with para-athletes attributing their success to the support they received:

“I had no idea that the uni that's 25-minute drive from my flat could help me get better in my sport. It's with their support… that I got to Rio”

and reports from staff that highlighted the unconventional route into elite sport that can occur in higher education: “We ran an inclusive climbing session, and we've had a student coming in who was classifiable for climbing… she started coming to the sessions regularly. She's been selected for part of the GB para climbing team, so really excelled.”

Despite examples of best practice, challenges were also discussed in the report. There are limited numbers of disabled people participating in para sport in general, which leads to an even smaller number of para-athletes in higher education. Combined with this, there has historically been limited investment in para-sport at the higher education level and limited competitive opportunities. These challenges are not ones that can be addressed by any one organisation, rather, it needs to be a collaborative effort from all stakeholders to drive positive change.

The report presents some recommendations to address these issues such as:

· ​Upskilling coaches, practitioners, and university staff through the inclusion of disability training/education in coaching courses and practitioner qualifications

· Establishing para-sport specific roles within NGBs and university sport

· Promoting disability sport participation and competition within sport and university environments, and

· Utilising talent identification and sport development opportunities within higher education.

At TASS, we recognise that the stakeholders themselves are best placed to decide how to bring about positive change within the area. Therefore, the main intention for the document is to initiate discussion on enhancing support for current and prospective para- athletes within higher education.

For more information the full report can be found at: https://www.tass.gov.uk/resource/developing-the-para-dual-career-athlete-landscape-recommendations-for-organisations/

The famous words of my Aircraft Performance teacher in flight school. He was always telling us to prepare for the worst conditions (be that snow, rain, ice, anything that makes aircraft performance worse) and hope for the best! In 2020 and 2021, I am finding this sentence is fairly applicable to life in general!

It’s nearly been a year since the pandemic hit Europe. I remember this time last year news was reaching us that the aviation sector in China was shutting down and there were whispers of lockdowns happening over there in an attempt to manage the spread. Did I think one year on, I would still find myself sitting in my flat with no work? No. I thought at worst I would only have a few months of little to no flying.

The pandemic has put me in a strange situation where, for the first time in my life, I do not have anything specific to do. This has meant I have struggled to set myself goals, to be motivated and seeing where my life is going is difficult too. As an athlete, you become so used to having goals, motivation and a direction in life; so this is a new and slightly scary concept! Nonetheless, I manage by living very much in the moment (something my Grandma taught me). I take each day as it comes and don’t put pressure on myself to feel I have to do anything specific. As someone who has been used to an entire life of routine, discipline and hard work, this has been hard to accept and sometimes I have punished myself for exhibiting this behaviour. But over time, I have realised living in the moment is what works best for me during this pandemic.

However, in September I realised that if summer 2021 is not busy for the civil aviation industry, it has the potential to collapse in a way we have not seen before. If this happens, I will find myself facing a significant halt in my flying career and probably will need to come to terms with facing another career change, a mere six years after putting my previous career behind me. I have never been someone to sit around and wait to see what will happen, and I am certainly not going to let this situation be the exception. So of course, I began investigating.

When I retired from Alpine Skiing in 2015, I had no interest in keeping that door open. I completely closed it because at the time it was the best way for me to cope with my transition out of competitive sport. However, since my graduation from flight school in 2017 (when I received an email from a member of the IOC who was researching where the first generation of Youth Olympians were five years down the line) the door has gradually begun to inch open again. About two years later, I received an email from TASS inviting me to be a panellist at their annual conference and later to join TAAG, the door has opened even more. Now (oddly thanks to the pandemic) I’ve flung it wide open.

In a bid to prepare myself for a worst case scenario of losing my job, I have been investigating my strengths. What am I good at? What makes me stand out? What do I enjoy? My immediate answer was art and writing, but that is very hard to make a career out of. You need contacts and connections, which I don’t have access to. During the pandemic I have often found myself in a reflective state and casting my mind back to my athletic career, along with looking at the journey I have been on since. Due to my own experiences, specifically the struggles and limitations I faced, I have known for a while athlete welfare is something I am passionate about. I reached out to TASS to discuss possible paths for me should the worst case happen. I discovered the area which most interests me is lifestyle support and I am now aiming to do the TALS qualification when a course next becomes available. In the meantime, it was recommended to me to gain experience working with athletes in an NGB setting. I reached out to Snowsport England and I am now working voluntarily as their Performance Lifestyle Advisor for Alpine Skiing. My role currently involves participating in athlete & parent meetings, assisting the Alpine Manager with the team and providing input towards the regeneration of the Pathway Programme.

Although I do not know what the next year or so has in store for me with regards to where I am going with my life, there is one thing I am sure of. As a pilot, I am not directly qualified to do anything else (I also do not have a degree). However as a pilot-athlete, I would say I have a fair number of skills I can bring to the table, regardless of where life takes me next. Whatever happens in the short-term future, thanks to my experiences of being an athlete and the subsequent transition out of sport, I believe I have the resilience and creativity to adapt to what lies ahead and weather any storm ahead. Ultimately I will be ok.

My Takeaway Tips:

1. Self Kindness - “Be Kind. Think First. Have Fun.” (Jeff Shiffrin, father of Mikaela Shiffrin). When I look back on my athletic career, I sometimes get hit by a wave of pain because I realised how unkind and harsh I was on myself. As athletes, we tend to get overly focused on results and outputs goals that when we do not achieve what we are looking for, we can be hard on ourselves and forget to be kind.
2. Be flexible and adaptable - entering this pandemic, you, like me, may have had a clear path ahead of you. Now it is hard to know where we are going next and what lies ahead. That’s ok! Just go with the flow, do things in the moment that your future self will be thankful for and be open to the idea that when the path becomes clear again, it may not be the same as the one you had in mind prior to the pandemic.
3. ‘Your Best’ - one thing I have come to appreciate as a pilot since transitioning out of sport (and wish I had appreciated as an athlete!) is that ‘my best’ fluctuates from day to day. Today, I may not be as good as I was yesterday, but that is ok! On the rare occasion I do fly at the moment, I have learnt to not put pressure on myself by having high expectations because I know right now ‘my best’ is lower than ‘my best’ before the pandemic when I was flying regularly. As long as I go and do ‘my best’ and I am safe, that is all that matters. Similarly with sport, when you do get to compete again, do not expect ‘your best’ to be the same that it was before the pandemic. If it is, great! If it isn’t, that’s ok too! Adapt the concept of ‘doing your best’ to the level that your best is now.

Rachelle Rogers

Over recent years, in the UK, certain environments have developed a reputation for supporting the athletic and educational development of athletes. For example, schools, colleges, or universities that are becoming hubs for high-performing athletes. The advantage in attending a dual career environment is the enhanced support athletes will receive towards managing their education and sporting demands. For many practitioners working within these environments, they will question how they can better support athletes whilst maximising the resources they have.

Recent research investigated seven different environments across Europe in their ability to support dual career athlete development. All these environments had their own approach to supporting athletes that depended on the education level they were targeting, the type of athletes they had within the environment, and the resources they had available. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all model. However, the research was able to identify ten essential features. Practitioners are encouraged to consider the solutions to incorporate these key features within their environment.

1. There is a person or team of people that are dedicated to dual career support.

A minimal requirement of a dual career environment is to have a team or person who is responsible for coordinating sport and education for athletes. This team can act as a central point of contact for dual career athletes, rather than having to contact the sport practitioners and education providers separately.

Example from practice:

A Swedish university support team included a dual career coordinator, a performance team coordinator, and coaches within their high-performance centres, working side-by-side in a shared office, communicating daily, and having divided their roles and responsibilities.

2. Athletes have access to the appropriate expert support.

Successful environments must consider the support needs of the athletes they work with, such as nutrition, physiotherapy, sport psychology, and medical services, and determine access or a referral pathway for this support. It is also important that the support related to the education and sporting level the athletes are currently at.

Example from practice:

TASS provide athletes with access to their “core services” of lifestyle, nutrition, sport psychology, physiotherapy and medical support services or workshops. These services are delivered by qualified staff at accredited TASS delivery sites.

3. There is collaboration across the whole environment.

The staff from the sport and education domains of a dual career environment are required to communicate with each other and coordinate support. Regular communication can ensure that dual career athletes are not provided with conflicting demands or information.

Example from practice:

Within the Belgian system, a representative from the elite sport school, the sports federation and the boarding schools regularly communicate and work together to solve athletes dual career issues.

4. There is an understanding of dual career from the whole environment.

For point 3 to be achieved, it also requires the sport and education domains to understand the benefits and demands of a dual career and be willing to support dual career athletes. This means that dual career athletes are supported to prioritise sport or education at different time points depending upon their key priorities.

Example from practice:

Some sport organisations within the UK have developed links with education providers due to recognizing the benefits of dual career within and beyond sport.

5. Athletes have role models and mentors.

Athletes can benefit from direct support (mentorship) or through learning their behavioural expectations by watching older athletes in the environment (observational learning). This can be facilitated through a culture of willingness to help and support athletes within the environment. As opposed to a culture of competitiveness and rivalry that could lead athletes to be unwilling to share their experiences.

Example from practice:

A Danish university setup a virtual community, through which stories of older athletes experiences where shared. These athletes tended to be alumni of the university program to support the feeling of a shared experience with the current athletes.

6. The environment supports the whole person.

A dual career environment should consider the sporting, educational and personal development of the individuals they support. This holistic approach includes the short- and long-term development of dual career athletes. For this to be achieved, members of the environment from different domains (i.e., sport or education) must recognise the demands of the other domains. Rather than sport focusing solely on sport and education focusing solely on education.

Example from practice:

In a UK university example, S&C coaches took an interest in their athlete’s education by regularly asking them how they were progressing. This approach also means that any issues could be raised within the dual career support team (fulfilling point 3).

7. The environment empowers athletes.

An approach that empowers athletes provides them with regular opportunity to manage their own dual career and make their own decisions, rather than an excess of control over decision-making by staff and no active involvement of the athletes. The best environments will carefully balance this with appropriate support and provide athletes with the information to make these decisions. This approach can also support athletes to develop key transferable skills, such as self-responsibility and decision-making.

Example from practice:

A Danish university program adjusted their support to incrementally provide athletes with more responsibility for managing their dual career. For example, new athletes are approached and receive proactive support from the support team in the first year. Following this, the responsibility lies with the student-athlete to contact the dual career support team if they need additional support or flexibility.

8. There are individual, flexible solutions to athletes demands.

Due to each individual having their own ambitions in sport, education and their personal life, it is important for dual career environments to enable athletes to pursue their own dual career pathway. This includes studying the subjects they are interested in. With many different individual pathways, not all solutions will benefit all athletes. Therefore, practitioners need to be flexible in the support that they provide.

Example from practice:

A national governing body in the UK, recognised that athletes in their junior pathway need to focus on their education during exam periods and therefore reduce the demands placed on them for a short period of time.

9. There is care of athlete’s mental health and wellbeing.

It is important to recognise the responsibility of dual career environments, not only towards athlete’s sport and educational development, but also for their wellbeing and mental health. The best environments encouraged athletes to communicate their mental health concerns and there was an openness for talking about mental health, as opposed to a “Gladiator” or stoic culture of: sport is hard, and athletes should toughen up.

Example from practice:

In a Spanish sport program, a clinical psychologist and sport psychologist were embedded in the environment and responsible for mental health issues. Athletes could get access to them and support providers could refer to them.

10.  There is an open approach to the development of the environment.

Since there is not a one-size-fits-all model for dual career environments and individuals require unique solutions to their support, it is important for environments to learn from what is successful and what can be improved. This requires regular evaluations of environments from various stakeholders, including athletes and practitioners. It might also include the tracking of athletes in their educational and sporting development to evaluate success. Practitioners can also consider their own effectiveness and the on-going professional development they require to continually develop.

Example from practice:

In a British university, the staff were open to feedback and evaluation, they engaged with sports research conducted at the university, and evaluated their efforts at the end of each academic year to adapt the support provided.

For more information on this topic area, an article titled ‘Ten Essential Features of European Dual Career Development Environments: A Multiple Case Study’ (Storm et al., 2021) is available in pre-print version in Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029221000364

I grew up in the sport of gymnastics and spent my childhood in the gym. By the time I started secondary school, I was training 15 hours a week. As an athlete who trained on the Isle of Man, this is likely to be fewer hours than my equivalent peers who trained in the UK. It is not unusual for gymnasts as young 10 years old to miss hours or even days of school to get additional time in the gym.

When we think about dual career, our mind skips to athletes in further education or higher education… the thought of a 10-year-old doing a dual career is crazy, right?

Morning training, school, training, homework, bed, repeat – This is the routine I lived through my secondary school days. Going straight from school to the gym, training for 3.5 hours, and completing homework until at least 10pm each evening became a routine that no-one questioned.

By the time I was 15 years old, I was only 4 years away from the peak of my gymnastics career. I completed my A-Levels whilst qualifying and preparing for the Commonwealth Games.

For many athletes, their development years in sport coincide with their school and potentially even their university years, reaching the peak of their sporting career in the years to follow. Young athletes in early specialisation sports are balancing their core school years and adolescence, with the demands of elite sport and the hours of professional adult athletes. Although the average age of female artistic gymnasts is increasing, with many gymnasts staying in the sport well into their 20s, the hours teenage athletes are expected to train is yet to see a significant shift.

Our education system is pretty set in the progression students follow through it – GCSEs at 14-16, further education at 16-18, and higher education, apprenticeships, or work at 18+. The progression of athletes through their sporting careers can, however, be worlds apart… think of a gymnast vs. a rower. These sports collide so differently with the set education periods that individuals are expected to work their way through.

As individuals working within sport and supporting athletes through their dual career journey, what might we need to do differently with a 16-year-old female gymnast, now competing at the senior level in the sport and eligible for all major events… in comparison to a 16-year-old rower who has recently began their potential 15+ years in the sport?

The physical and mental demands placed upon athletes in early specialisation sports are huge… professional-level expectations are placed upon young athletes who are not only training extraordinary amounts, but balancing this alongside their core years in their education and in their adolescent development.

So… what does this all mean? Below are some key questions to consider when thinking about how to best support the dual career progressions of young athletes in early specialisation sports:

· Does lifestyle support need to be embedded into early specialisation sports at younger age groups?

· Do school teachers, particularly at primary school/early secondary school level, have any understanding of the sporting demands placed upon the young athletes within their classes?

· How can support programmes be implemented at the school/college level to best support young athletes and prevent possible educational dropout? Should schools/colleges shift their support mechanisms to meet the needs of early specialisation athletes, i.e., making talented athlete programmes accessible to those in younger age groups?

· What can the NGBs of early specialisation sports do to support their young athlete’s dual careers, whilst optimising talent and keeping athlete wellbeing and welfare at the fore?

· Do international sports organisations need to consider raising the minimum age for athletes to become senior competitors, i.e., raising the women’s artistic gymnastics senior age from 16-years to 18-years?

Although we often hear about how challenging a dual career at university can be for athletes, what happens when they approach the end of their final year and get ready to leave the university bubble?

Athletes encounter various points in their careers where they must make difficult decisions about their future pathway. These include whether they should migrate to a new country, start university, move to a national training centre, drop out of a talent pathway, move to a new club, and many more. However, one of the big transitions that athletes face that can significantly change their pathway is when they leave university. Athlete’s may have been combining their sport with education for many years, have received various support services through their university, and have status as a top athlete within the university environment. These factors can make this transition complicated for athletes.

In the UK, a growing number of talented and elite level athletes are choosing to follow a university dual career pathway. Several British universities are now high-performance centres where athletes can receive a range of services to support their holistic development. A study from 2018 found there to be as many as 95 university sport scholarship programmes now in operation in the UK, meaning there is a lot of support on offer for talented and elite UK athletes. Compared to the US, where statistics suggest as many as 99% of collegiate athletes don't progress further in their sport, what do UK athletes do when they leave university? Considering that the main body of elite sport development takes place within an external sport club system that lies separate to education, does this mean many athletes continue with their elite sport development?

What pathways do UK athletes take post-university?

When UK athletes leave university, there are many routes that they take, including:

· Postgraduate and sport pathway (UK or abroad) – some athletes will decide to continue their university journey by staying in postgraduate study. In some cases, postgrad study can provide more flexibility for athletes and is a great opportunity to continue their personal development. However, with this comes even more responsibility to co-ordinate independent study. If athletes are only motivated to stay at university to further their sports career (through the receipt of specialist services), this could lead to non-completion. Postgrad opportunities in the USA are also attracting many UK athletes. This can be an exciting new experience for athletes, however, this route may be suited to specific athlete populations. Ongoing research on US pathways (being conducted by TASS) suggests that different NGB's have 'different approaches' to how they support athletes who go to the USA (stay tuned for updates on this work!).

· Full time sport (funded pathway) – some athletes will exit university programmes and enter either professional club programmes or UK sport funded pathways. This can be a positive route for athletes, but they should be aware of the new challenges that being a ‘full-time’ athlete may bring. These include pressures to perform, potential instability if they are dropped from the programme/contract, and no longer having other focus areas that could be a ‘positive distraction’.

· Full time sport (the make or break year) – a common route for athletes who are not quite at the top level in their sport, is to put their all into their sport for one year to see if they can break onto a funded pathway or gain a professional contract. This is often with the financial backing of parents. This can be a difficult experience for athletes, if they don’t have enough support to progress, they can become stagnant, and it can impact on their wellbeing. Athletes who take this route often have the perception that if they don't become full-time athletes, they have 'failed'.

· Work and sport dual career pathway – another popular route for athletes is to start full or part time work alongside their training and competitions. Often this is a challenging route as there are few jobs that provide enough flexibility for athletes to fulfil their sporting commitments. Many athletes will choose a vocation that is not in line with their ‘vocational career goals’. The biggest challenge of this path is the loss of support services that were provided through the university environment. Many support programmes in the UK are connected to education and almost no support is available for ‘working athletes’.

· Dropping out of sport and taking an alternate route– for some athletes, the end of university signals the start of a new journey, such as full-time work and retirement from high-level sport. This 'double transition' means adapting to significantly new norms and roles. Interestingly, this pathway is often taken involuntarily (due to injury or lack of opportunities for example), which can impact on wellbeing, and also mean that athlete's are not prepared for the next step. Sport eventually becomes a recreational activity for these athletes.

We are now aware of the pathways that athletes could take, but what is important for practitioners to understand is what factors underpin athlete’s reasons for taking specific routes.

Motives vary amongst athletes and link to specific pathways. They include:

· Qualify for major upcoming major events (e.g., Olympic Games)

· Lack of dual career opportunities post-university

· Vocational career aspirations

· Financial status & funding availability

· Athletic career aspirations

· Motivation and enjoyment

· Physical status (injured vs. good physical health)

· Social support (e.g., parents supportive of route)

· Physical support (e.g., S&C, physio)

· Perception that any other route would be 'failure'

If athletes make the wrong decision about their post-university pathway, it could negatively impact wellbeing, and lead to stagnation in their sport and future vocational career.

Key advice for stakeholders:

· Practitioners should support athletes to critically reflect on their motivations and future goals when they are about to complete university and come to a decision around what their most suitable pathway should be.

· Due to the important influence of specific stakeholders, parents, NGB’s, and university stakeholders should use a collaborative approach to support the athlete to critically examine their opportunities post-university.

· The risks of taking a ‘make or break year’ as a full-time athlete after university without funding secured should be communicated to athletes.

· National governing bodies (NGBs) should consider how they can incorporate dual career opportunities into their centralised programmes for athletes who have completed university (e.g., do training times mean athlete's cannot work alongside training).

· Universities are advised to offer specialised postgraduate athlete support programmes (e.g., postgrad athletes may require more remote support if they are not on campus as much).

Key advice for athletes:

· Take your time to prepare - don't leave university and assume things will fall into place.

· Discuss your university exit plan with your sport, university practitioners, and family. Together, you will come to an optimal decision about your pathway.

· Reflect on your motives and what's important to you - discuss these with your performance lifestyle advisor.

For more information on this topic area, an article titled ‘Pathway decisions during the student-athlete transition out of university in the United Kingdom’ (Vickers & Morris, 2021) will be available in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology in the coming weeks. Watch out for the release at @InsightTASS.

January blues plus another dose of endless weeks in isolation are a recipe for a big hit on mental health. I will be honest and admit the night another lockdown was announced I really, really struggled. A lot of tears were shed in anger, frustration and sadness. Selfishly I was bemoaning the fact I once more had to train on my own again whilst thousands of NHS staff are putting their lives at risk every day. Once the tears were shed, I tried to pull myself together and plan how to get through this… but I was all out of ideas, motivation and optimism. Doing this a third time round was hard to get my head around.

I moped around for a few days, frustrated, negative and in the complete wrong mindset for any kind of productivity. The morning of the 4^th day I hit a real low and the effort just to get myself to warm up and on the bike for my morning session was immense. Normally I feel better after doing a session, but it did nothing to brighten my mood. Full of despair, I had to somehow get myself ready for a maximal session next, despite being in the worst mindset possible. It is so easy on your own for thoughts to spiral and despair to engulf you, and I eventually realised I somehow had to find a way out of this and talk to someone. I began composing an email to my lifestyle advisor. It’s been too long since I spoke to him and about time I turned to someone different for help. Then, turning to the session I managed to put everything out my brain as best I could, give it my all and just get on with it.

A PB immediately lifted my mood and seemingly all my anxieties disappeared. But what if I hadn’t achieved that? What then?

As athletes we often resort to getting on with things, immersing ourselves in our training sessions to forget about any problems we have in the outside world. Don’t get me wrong- most of the time this works, and we leave sessions feeling a lot lighter and relieved, with a renewed optimism for the rest of the day. But those issues don’t always go away. Sometimes we need to face them head on before they come back to haunt us again.

Despite my mood lifting and positivity returning I still made sure I sent that email to my lifestyle advisor. It can feel like a big step reaching out to someone and admitting to yourself you need support, when really the hardest part is clicking the send button.  I could not be more relieved I had that chat and to speak to speak to someone different, get his advice and come up with different strategies going forward was hugely satisfying. I only wish I had done it sooner!

So, I challenge you this lockdown: talk to someone. Talk to someone different. A friend, a relative, a member of staff, your lifestyle advisor! On TASS you have also unique access to Care First,  give them a call if you’re struggling. Take that step and get all those things off your chest that deep down are bugging you. It might just help you in the long term.

Hopefully 2021 will get brighter and we can soon get back to training normally and competing again. But before that we face an uncertain few weeks which might be long and difficult. Let’s make sure we all get there in once piece.

Tips for mental health this lockdown:

· Telling yourself to “pull it together” or “man up” aren’t the most proactive things to do- talk to someone, arrange a chat, get things off your chest and feel refreshed.

· Keep the things that make you tick in your routine. What have you learnt from previous lockdowns that you know work?

· Don’t be hard on yourself. Lockdown is tough. Allow yourself to have a break, do something different and look forward to something each day.

· Get outside. Fresh air and sunlight can really help brighten a mood. Do a session outside for once or go for that daily walk- even if you have to drag yourself out the house, it will help!

· Use the TASS Community. There are so many different individuals you can speak to, athlete catch ups which you can attend and resources you can access. Make the most of it!

Interested in Dual Careers, Transitions, and Athlete Wellbeing? - Join us at the Virtual TASS Research Forum!

For the third year running, TASS will be hosting a research forum to showcase some recent pieces of work being completed by both TASS themselves and researchers across the UK & Ireland.

Join us on December 10^th on Zoom – 9am-12pm – to listen to 7 presentations about dual careers, athlete wellbeing, and transitions.

Transitions are a key point within any athlete’s career, when they may be faced with tough decisions around their future pathway. With the significant role change and new demands, challenges, and expectations that transitions can bring, support is integral to assist athletes through the process. The research forum will shine a light on the transition into the USA Collegiate system within two specific sports. The USA transition is increasing in popularity, with almost 2000 UK athletes making the transition in 2019. The forum will also focus on the transition from the academy to the senior level within The FA Women’s Super League, a league that has significantly developed within the last few years.

Following the delay of the 2020 Olympic Games and challenging Covid period, athlete wellbeing has been an important topic of discussion recently. In the last week, UK Sport announced a ‘shift’ in their funding strategy based on the rising concerns over athlete welfare. The CEO of UK Sport said; “When it comes to the funding decisions that we take, things like an enhanced integrity system, more athlete support, better provision for mental health, those things will be the first names on the team sheet when it comes to our investments of funding.” The research forum will explore recent developments in athlete wellbeing and how our knowledge in this area can be translated into practice, and the impact that Covid has had on elite athlete wellbeing.

The order of the day will be as follows:

The forum is free to attend and open to all. To sign up for the forum, please follow this link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tass-research-forum-tickets-126567804711

After signing up, you will receive a zoom link to the conference in your confirmation email. We will email you directly prior to the conference with a presenter overview and a reminder of the zoom link.

Research, supported by TASS and Loughborough university, has recently been published that suggests dual career athletes can, in fact, be split into three different groups or types. The different groups showed different psychological characteristics and should be supported by practitioners with this in mind.

This research supports and extends our understanding of the Mind the Gap model as a framework for dual career pathways and the ‘gaps’ that each pathway can lead to, therefore guiding the support that is needed for athletes in each pathway.

What the research did?

116 dual career athletes gave their responses to a questionnaire that asked about the career identity (i.e., the value they place on their role as a student or in work), athletic identity (i.e., the value they place on their role as an athlete) and self-efficacy (i.e., their confidence in their ability to achieve their goals in sport, education or work).

What the research found?

Student-athlete

More strongly relate to their student role but sport is still an important feature of their live

e.g., BUCS national league athlete studying at university

Dual career athlete and student

Both student and athlete roles are equally important

e.g., an aspiring international level athlete currently studying at university

Athlete-student

More strongly relate to their athlete role but education is still an important feature of their live

e.g., Athlete competing internationally whilst studying part time or distance learning

How to support different types of dual career athletes?

An athlete-student is more likely to prioritise their athletic career to the detriment of their career goals. These individuals will require support to prepare in advance for their post-sport career (e.g., part-time study and distance learning techniques), but are likely to require the most support in their transition out of sport (e.g., support with a changing identity and starting a new career – educational and vocational skills gap).

The dual career athlete and students will aim to achieve both career and sporting goals, however, this pathway requires substantial amounts of support and flexibility from sport and education/vocation organisations.

Finally, a student-athlete suggests a reduced commitment to competitive sport. This pathway is problematic for sport because it signifies a potential loss of future talent from sport, rather than a continued sporting development that could enable late developers to succeed (i.e., the talent gap). It is important, therefore, for practitioners and sporting organisations to understand the typologies of dual career athlete that they support and how best to support their career decisions, including the continuation of sport.

A summary of the research can be found in the TASS research database - https://www.tass.gov.uk/resource/typologies-of-dual-career-in-sport-a-cluster-analysis-of-identity-and-self-efficacy/

Welcome to the second research newsletter from TASS. The newsletter will be sent approximately three times each year and will provide updates on the latest findings from our master’s projects, PhDs, internal and external funded research projects, and the ERASMUS projects that TASS are involved in. The main aim of the newsletter is to help translate academic research into practice and help you to use the research to enhance your own systems/support services.

The Ecology of Dual Careers (ECO-DC)

TASS was recently involved in an ERASMUS+ project, the Ecology of Dual Careers, as an expert adviser. The project ran between January 2018 - January 2020. The aims of the project, managed by Dr Robert Morris, were to

1.       Develop a comprehensive understanding of the dual career development environments (DCDEs) across Europe

2.       Provide guidelines for the development and optimisation of DCDEs supporting talented and elite athletes in their pursuit of sporting and academic excellence

A DCDE is defined as ‘a purposefully developed system that aims to facilitate athletes' investment in combining their competitive sporting career with education or work.’

The figure above highlights the 8 different types of DCDE’s that emerged across Europe. This includes sport led systems (red), education/vocation led systems (blue), and combined dual career systems (orange).

For more information, please read the following publication ‘Taxonomy of dual career development environments in European countries’ (Morris et al., 2020) -

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16184742.2020.1725778

The project identified 9 categories of criteria for assessing the success of a DCDE:

· Perceptions of dual career

· Wellbeing of athletes

· Academic achievement of dual career athletes

· Sport achievement of dual career athletes

· Athlete resources and skills

· Program flexibility

· Dropout from dual career

· Facilities and service provision

The project also found that organisations can use 5 criteria to determine the efficiency of the DCDE, these include:

· Resources – e.g., identify where resources are wasted and provide support to maximum number of athletes possible

· Communication – e.g., distribution of roles for each service provision to ensure each service is adding value

· Policies and Procedures – e.g., putting in place policies and procedures for common practices, problems or situations to be solved with minimal time and resources.

· Individual Efficiency – e.g., Individual dual career athletes’ efficiency in time spent studying or on athletic pursuits compared to their result of goal attainment in these areas.

· Service Specific Efficiency Considerations – e.g., academic support, including speed of processing requests for additional flexibility.

Do you want to evaluate the dual career environment you operate within?

The end goal of the project was to develop a DCDE monitoring tool (DCDEM). The questionnaire takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. The DCDEM can be used by researchers, practitioners, or dual career athletes to evaluate a dual career environment. The person completing the questionnaire is required to respond to 50 statements about their DCDE, on a scale of ‘very strongly disagree’ to ‘very strongly agree’. Using a specified scoring system, it is then possible to assess which features are a strength of the environment, and which features are areas to improve practice within.

The final stage of ECO-DC project was to develop educational modules:

· Module 1 - supports dual career support providers to understand the different DCDEs that they work in and the dual career landscape for the athletes that they work with

· Module 2 - supports dual career support providers to understand the DCDE in which they are embedded, including its features, structures and philosophies

· Module 3 - supports dual career service providers to evaluate the effectiveness of the environment in which they work using the DCDEM tool.

For more information on the ECO-DC project, including more detailed project findings from each stage, and an overview of the monitoring tool and educational modules, please visit: https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/projects/dual-careers

If you have any further questions about the project, please contact Dr Robert Morris who has recently moved to the University of Stirling at robert.morris@stir.ac.uk

TASS PhD

One of the PhDs that TASS are supporting at LJMU is currently investigating how to maintain a balanced lifestyle within a dual career and its impact on sports performance. Libby Mitchell, a former GB swimmer, has outlined the below recommendations for practitioners working with dual career athletes based on the findings of her first PhD study:

1. What is a balanced lifestyle within a dual career?  

The definition of a ‘balanced lifestyle’ is subjective and individualistic to student-athletes. The dual career experience is idiosyncratic and a student-athlete’s perception of ‘feeling balanced’ is personal to them and their identity. Balance is a fluid and dynamic concept and is likely to shift throughout the dual career.

Practitioner role: It is important for practitioners to discuss and understand what experiences and emotions student-athletes associate with feeling balanced/imbalanced within their dual career. How? Defining what ‘balance’ means to a student-athlete can highlight critical events that could trigger feelings of uncertainty or instability that, consequently, may impact their dual career success. When? During 1:1 sessions.

2. The feeling of 'balance’ is underpinned by meaning, values, and sense of purpose

The feeling of ‘balance’ is underpinned by the meaning student-athletes attach to certain areas of their lifestyle (e.g., social life, family, and friends). This meaning normally aligns with a student-athlete’s personal values. The meaning and importance of these values gives that student-athlete a sense of purpose, which leads to the prioritisation and motivation towards those life areas and establishes a sense of self satisfaction and fulfilment in the areas deemed important to them. Practitioner role: Practitioners should engage in activities to encourage reflection around what is meaningful to the student-athlete and what values are important to them to encourage life/dual career satisfaction. How? Develop written tasks which question student-athletes about what is meaningful to them and how this has and will impact their dual career. When? During the athlete’s own time or in 1:1 sessions.

3. A journey of self-knowledge and discovery

A dual career is an opportunity for a student-athlete to learn about themselves in a challenging, but supportive environment. It is important for student-athletes to be aware of their behaviours/decisions to promote personal development and consequently, the feeling of balance and success within their dual career. Practitioner role: Practitioners should be inquisitive and provide opportunities for student-athletes to reflect on their dual career and develop tasks/skills that promote student-athlete self-awareness. How? A reflective journal can be used to acknowledge the student athlete’s strengths and weaknesses, for goal setting, and

to write letters to their past and future self. When? During the athlete’s own time or in 1:1 sessions.

4. The concept of a ‘successful’ dual career

The definition of a successful dual career is individualistic and was framed in the context of, “what is doing your best?” and “reaching potential in both sport and academia.” Individuals described the benefits and success outcomes of a dual career with a future focus perspective. Practitioner role: Practitioners should work with student-athletes to define what a successful dual career is and explore the opportunities (e.g., personal and professional) that will facilitate this outcome goal. How? Establish short, medium, and long-term dual career goals. Goal setting techniques can help direct effort and attention towards goal-related activities/opportunities and can impact a student athlete’s persistence in tasks relevant to their dual career goals. When? During 1:1 sessions.

5. The transfer of success between sport and other areas of life

The psychological characteristics required to be successful in sport, academia, and other life areas differ and are contextually specific. However, there are certain core characteristics that are applicable in various life areas (e.g., motivation and commitment). Although student-athletes were aware of the characteristics developed throughout their dual career, it was apparent that they were unsure as to how these characteristics could be applied to other life areas (e.g., when applying for/starting a future career). The link between success in sport and academia was mainly reliant on the events experienced within the sporting environment (e.g., deselection), causing adverse situations. These situations allowed the student-athletes to develop specific psychological characteristics (e.g., resilience), which could then be transferred to other life domains (e.g., academia, social life). Practitioner role: Practitioners should work with student-athletes to increase their awareness of the transferable skills that they possess and how they can be applied to different life domains. How? Simple role-play exercises including ‘speed date’ networking and simulating interview scenarios between the practitioner and student-athlete, can be a beneficial way to assess and develop student-athletes’ responses in those specific situations. When? During 1:1 sessions and in group workshops.

For more information, please contact Libby Mitchell on: l.a.mitchell@2018.ljmu.ac.uk

Academic Publication Update:

Within the TASS network, alongside the article on DCDE’s, there have been 2 new publications within dual careers (both of which were TASS masters projects). Below the link to the article, you will see some of the key findings from these research papers. If you are unable to access these papers, please let me know and we can share them with you:

1. Elite female soccer players’ dual career plans and the demands they encounter (Harrison, Vickers, Fletcher, & Taylor, 2020)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10413200.2020.1716871

Key Findings:

- A pull toward engaging in a dual career was the opportunity to attend university in America. The large investment into supporting student-athletes was a key factor in players desire to move to the US.

- Players’ choice of where to study was found to impact upon their dual career experience and their success in both pursuits. This emphasises the importance of supporting players to make an informed choice of where to study, with both their education and soccer aspirations in mind.

- Dual career difficulty was found to increase as players’ level of education increased (i.e. increasing difficulty from school to university and university to a vocation).

- As players’ level of education/vocation become more advanced, the priority players placed on soccer began to decrease. The unique challenges faced by dual career athletes within employment were identified, highlighting a need to further research this area of dual careers.

2. Sport migration from the UK to the US: The student-athlete experience (Garrett, Vickers, Fletcher, & Taylor, 2020)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19357397.2020.1736487

Key Findings:

- Perceptions of the US collegiate experience often do not match actual experiences

- Coaches use recruitment tactics to pull athletes into the Collegiate system – athletes need to be more informed about what these tactics are

- The high-level coaching, perception of athletic development, financial scholarships, available resources, and representation of Collegiate sport in the media were a pull factor for UK athletes to become part of the US system

- Athletes felt the training load of the Collegiate system was higher than what they had experienced before, with some athletes experiencing burnout

- Education on what to look out for, questions to ask, and potential challenges related to the experience should be delivered to young talented athletes considering the move

Over the past few years, TASS research staff and PhD students have taken academic articles within the areas of dual career and athlete lifestyle and condensed them into lay summaries. These summaries of published research articles can now be found on the TASS Dual Career Research Database, within the TASS Extra section of our website https://www.tass.gov.uk/tass-extra/

What is the aim of the database?

Dual career research papers often sit within academic journals, many of which are inaccessible to those outside of academia. We have recognised this as a barrier to disseminating the research findings to practitioners, who could have a positive impact on dual career practice. Our aim, therefore, was to make these articles easy to find, easy to read, and easy to translate into practice. The summaries have been split into themes allowing the reader to access their chosen area of interest. The database is also fully searchable.

Which research is included?

Research to be included in the database is as follows:

• Research from Europe, Australia, and Africa
• Research exploring the experience or areas within athletes’ dual career and lifestyle, not simply using student-athletes as a participant base
• Research published in an academic journal

Who is the database for?

The TASS dual career research database is targeted at multiple populations. These include:

• Dual career athletes
• Coaches
• Athlete lifestyle practitioners
• National governing bodies
• Wider university sport staff
• Sports schools and colleges
• Dual career policy makers
• Researchers
• Anyone generally interested in learning more about dual careers.

The database will be updated periodically by TASS staff, however, if you see an article that has not been included, please contact emma.vickers@tass.gov.uk

Welcome to the first research newsletter from TASS. The newsletter will be sent three times per year and will provide updates on the latest findings from our master’s projects, PhDs, internal and external funded research projects, and the ERASMUS projects that TASS are involved in. The main aim of the newsletter is to help translate academic research into practice and help you to use the research to enhance your own systems.

On 6th November, TASS held its second ‘Dual Careers in Sport Research’ Forum at Senate House, University of London. 65 delegates attended and listened to researchers from across the UK and Europe discuss various dual career related projects. These presentations included topics such as supporting student-athletes in an Irish system (Emma Saunders), enhancing dual career support providers’ professional practice (Dr Simon Defruyt), and creating the conditions to promote positive stress adaptation of dual career athletes (Dr Paul Davis). The forum will be back in 2020, so please keep an eye out for updates! You will also see a word cloud above developed by participants at the forum detailing what research they would like to see developed in the field of dual careers.

The focus of this first newsletter is to highlight Dr Emily Cartigny’s PhD research findings. Throughout her PhD, Dr Cartigny worked closely with TASS to produce the ‘Mind the Gap’ model, that challenges practitioners and athletes to consider the implications of different dual career approaches. Below, Dr Cartigny identifies what the model represents and how the model could be used in practice.

Introducing the ‘Mind the Gap’ Model of Dual Careers in Sport

What does the ‘Mind the Gap’ model represent?

The model outlines the different ways a dual career athlete can prioritise their two careers and how the approach they select can impact their career pathway in the long term. The three pathways are:
1) a sporting pathway, that represents a greater focus on the sporting career and can lead to being unprepared for life after sport

2) a dual career pathway, that represents an equal focus on sport and education or vocational career, but is in reality demanding and difficult to manage
3) an educational or vocational pathway, that represents a greater focus on their career outside of sport and presents concerns for sporting organisations in the loss of potential talent.

How can practitioners use the ‘Mind the Gap’ model?

As a practitioner, you can use the model to understand the different approaches to a dual career that your athletes might take. In doing this, you can then target your support to address the negative consequences of that approach.For example

- If an athlete shows a greater focus on their sporting pursuits than their education or work (i.e., the sporting pathway), then as a practitioner you would need to encourage them to consider the importance of preparing early for athletic retirement, exploring vocational career interests, and developing interests outside of sport. If athletes do not do this, then they are more likely to need greater support in their athletic retirement.

- For the dual career pathway, as a practitioner, the focus should be on supporting dual career athletes to manage their demands through developing their planning, time management and organisational skills. You can also encourage them to select universities, schools, or sports programs that are supportive towards a dual career.

Can athletes be encouraged to engage with the ‘Mind the Gap’ model?

The model could also be used to help athletes to understand and map out their own pathway, including the consequences of the path they choose. This way, athletes can make informed career decisions and select a dual career approach that suits them.

What are the wider implications of the ‘Mind the Gap’ model on sporting policy/practice?

The educational or vocational pathway, in particular, presents considerations for sporting organisations. The research showed there were a number of key barriers to pursuing sport that lead athletes down this path:
1) a lack of opportunity to pursue sport as a profession (mostly seen in female sports)

2) a culture in sport that promotes the idea that to ‘make it in sport you must sacrifice everything’. This idea was found to discourage some athletes from pursuing elite sport, in particular those individuals who did have interests outside of sport and did not want to give them up

3) the premature deselection from talent pathways that discourage late developers from elite sport or athletes to transfer to different sports (both of which have shown to be legitimate pathways to success in sport).

Therefore, sporting organisations should consider:

1) the equal opportunities to pursue professional sport
2) if professional support is not available, the promotion of the possibility of a dual career at the highest level
3) the promotion of the possibility of a dual career as an alternative to an exclusive focus on sport
4) the development of talent pathways that promote sport participation for the maximum number of athletes for as long as possible
5) the promotion and support of talent development rather than talent selection
6) the encouragement of talented athletes, who have experienced deselection, to consider talent transfer programs.

What are the key take away messages around the ‘Mind the Gap’ model that practitioners should consider ?

1)  There is more than one way to balance a dual career

2)  Practitioners should aim to understand the dual career athlete they are working with and their career pathway

3)  Practitioners can then use this understanding to support the dual career athlete to access the benefits of their pathway and avoid the negative repercussions

If you would like to read more about the model, Dr Cartigny’s work has been recently published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (there are access rights): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10413200.2019.1654559?journalCode= uasp20