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Our aim in this invited commentary is to stimulate discussion among sport psychology researchers and practitioners regarding the unique developmental challenges and possibilities that Olympic and Paralympic athletes are undergoing during their final – extended year of the Tokyo 2020 quadrenium. We begin the commentary with COVID-19 pandemic (C-19) context setting, proceed with discussing transitional and holistic perspectives on athletes' Olympic/Paralympic journey, outline three potential pathway scenarios and "C-19 as a possibility-provider" coping (meta-) scenario for Olympic/Paralympic athletes, and finalise our commentary with a summary of messages intended to invite further discussion and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of this paper share how they developed and validated an applied framework termed the career-long psychological support services in Swedish handball (CPS-H). The CPS-H is grounded in career research within Swedish handball and examples of efficient career assistance practice complemented by applied experiences of the first author. The authors used a heuristic approach to sketch the CPS-H initial version, which later was validated in three focus groups with end-users (handball players, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners) and transformed into the validated CPS-H. Promoting a combination of the proactive, educational, whole career, whole environment, and whole person approaches, the framework is structured as having interrelated parts addressing questions: where (changes in the contexts), when (ages, career stages), what (athletes' needs and potential working issues), who (support providers), why (philosophy shared by the stakeholders), and how (forms of services) of psychological support. The authors further reflect on the CPS-H and its implementation and provide general and stage-specific recommendations for support providers. Although the CPS-H is contextualized in a specific sport and culture, some lessons can be applicable across countries and sport boarders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study is guided by the holistic ecological approach and aimed at (a) providing a holistic description of an athletic talent development environment using a table tennis club in Sweden as a case study and (b) examining the factors perceived as influential to the effectiveness of the club's talent development. The holistic ecological approach's two working models informed the data collection (through interviews, observation, and analysis of documents) and were subsequently transformed into empirical models, acting as a summary of the case. Findings revealed that the environment's success in talent development can be seen as an outcome of the following key features: (a) flexible and supportive training groups, (b) opportunities to learn from senior elite athletes, (c) support through the club and sport-friendly schools, (d) support of the development of psychosocial skills, (e) regular and intensive training, (f) focus on long-term development and athletes as whole persons, (g) strong and coherent organizational culture centered around the basic assumption, "we are a community of committed members," and (h) integrated efforts among the club and sport-friendly schools to support athletes' development. This case study can inform other athletic talent development environments on how to optimize talent development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a comprehensive update of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) Position Stand on career development and transitions of athletes issued a decade ago (Stambulova, Alfermann, Statler, & Côté, 2009, ISSP Position Stand: Career development and transitions of athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 7, 395–412.). A need for updating the 2009 Position Stand has grown out of the increasing inconsistency between its popularity and high citation, on the one hand, and its dated content that inadequately reflects the current status of athlete career research and assistance, on the other. During the last decade, sport psychology career scholars worked on structuring the athlete career knowledge and consolidating it into the athlete career (sport psychology) discourse (ACD). The aims of this paper are to: (1) update the decade-long evolution and describe the current structure of the ACD, (2) introduce recent trends in career development and transition research, (3) discuss emerging trends in career assistance, and (4) summarise in a set of postulates the current status and future challenges of the ACD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of this study was to describe gender-specific career paths of Swedish professional handball players. A reanalysis of Ekengren et al. (2018) career interviews with nine male and nine female players led to creating two composite vignettes using the athletes' own words, accounted for typical features in the male and female players' career paths. Seven themes were identified in the analysis of the men's transcripts and eight themes derived from the women's transcripts. Further, the themes of both vignettes were aligned with career stages described in our previous study (Ekengren et al. 2018). The male players' vignette is interpreted as a performance narrative congruent with elite handball culture that promotes performance success and profitable professional contracts. The female players' vignette is more holistic, embracing handball, studies, motherhood, and how they ought to be as Swedish women. Recommendations for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Athlete development can be described through transitions that mark turning phases throughout athletes' careers. Our authors explored media data to unpack the career developments of two prominent world champion boxers from their early lives to world championship status. Employing thematic analysis, five themes were identified: (1) weathering hardships of early life (subthemes: the rough life of an innercity kid; abject poverty in war-torn Philippines), (2) entry into sport (subthemes: groomed to fight; boxing to escape poverty), (3) amateur experience (subthemes: Olympic medallist en route to the pros; struggling amateur with dreams of greatness), (4) launching a professional career (impressive American prospect; a charismatic unpolished slugger) and (5) capturing a world title (subthemes: the much-anticipated world champion; the unexpected world champion). This exploration augments our understanding of how two world-renowned boxers' career developments were represented through sport media and interpreted by the researchers, suggesting parallel pathways for future career boxers and those who work with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Athletes frequently describe the junior-to-senior transition (JST) as the most difficult within-career transition, and many athletes have acknowledged that they failed to cope well with it. Athletes' development in the JST is influenced by narratives existing within relevant contexts and settings. This study served as a follow-up to the quantitative longitudinal study to gain a deeper understanding of individual JST paths through a qualitative narrative approach. The aim was to explore 2 team sport athletes' (John, the football player, and Anna, the basketball player) JST pathways, emphasizing psychosocial factors that were perceived as facilitating and debilitating the process. Narrative type interviews were conducted, and the holistic-form structural analysis was used. Through their narratives, John and Anna reconstructed their JST paths, attaching meanings to certain events, recounting the people involved, and making personal reflections. John had a performance and family narrative and Anna had an enjoyment and relationship narrative. They perceived their key facilitating persons to be their family members and teammates. The debilitating factors were some coaches' behaviors. At the time of this study, John and Anna had already terminated their athletic careers and had refocused on getting an education. Although they did not reach elite senior levels in their sports, they found their athletic careers to be meaningful life experiences. Lay Summary: The aim was to explore two team sport athletes' junior-to-senior transition (JST) pathways, emphasizing psychosocial factors involved in the transition process. The findings revealed two narratives. John (football player) storied his JST as a performance and family narrative and Anna (basketball player) as an enjoyment and relationship narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined feeling states prior to, during, and after best ever and worst ever competition in 85 skilled Russian athletes using metaphor-generation method (Hanin, 2000). Six situations elicited 510 idiosyncratic and functionally meaningful metaphors (67% animate and 33% inanimate agents) and 922 interpretative descriptors. Metaphors and descriptors reflected high action readiness in best ever competition and low action readiness in worst ever competition. Athletes used different metaphors to describe their feelings prior to, during, and after performance. Accompanying idiosyncratic descriptors had multiple connotations with different components of psychobiosocial state. Aggregated content of descriptors had high scores on optimal and low scores on dysfunctional state characterstics in best ever competition but not in worst ever competition, Future research directions and practical implications are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olympic-medal performances represent peak accomplishments in athlete development. Seanor, Schinke, Stambulova, Ross, and Kpazai identified environmental factors in a high-performance Canadian trampoline sport environment that developed decorated Olympic medalists. The current intrinsic case study was authored to further highlight the idiosyncrasies of a high-performance trampoline environment (re)presenting stories garnered from this localized Canadian sport environment. Through guided walks, a mobile method of conversational interviews, three contextual experts who are engaged in the development of Olympic athletes provided tours of their sport environment. Each contextual expert’s guided walk played out uniquely in relation to his or her ascribed role (i.e., Olympic coach, assistant coach, and Olympic champion). Three main themes were identified through interpretive thematic analysis: creating lift (subthemes: facility design, sport-culture paragons), providing a tailwind (subthemes: establishing athlete–coach partnerships, team interactions), and soaring onto the Olympic podium (subthemes: preparing athletes to be untethered, competitive collaboration). Each theme is presented through three portrait vignettes, with discrete vantages derived from each contextual expert to illuminate the context from idiosyncratic ascribed roles within the environment. These stories create a rich (re)presentation of a high-performance sport environment through the interplay of the contextual experts’ narratives, their surrounding context, and their Olympic-podium accomplishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in coaching and coaches, as well as coach–athlete relationships, has for a long time been a traditional and solid part of talent development literature. In recent times, talent development research has employed a holistic ecological approach and emphasized the important role of a broader athletic environment in athletes’ development and a constitutive role of organizational culture in the success of such an environment. This case study uses the holistic ecological perspective to examine coaching practices and philosophy through the lens of organizational culture in a Danish high-performance swimming environment. The environment was selected based on its performance success but also because of its nontraditional organization compared to typical Danish swimming clubs. Data were generated from in-depth interviews with six coaches, 30 h of participant observation of training and meetings, and analysis of related documents. Thematic data analysis was guided by Schein’s model of organizational culture. The findings revealed the organizational culture that incorporates specific features of coaching practices and philosophy through cultural artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. In the artifacts, coaching practices were explicit (e.g. flexible training groups and schedules) and philosophy implicit (e.g. ongoing flow of feedback), while in the espoused values, coaching philosophy was explicit (e.g. swimmers as whole persons, long-term development focus) and consistent with basic cultural assumptions (e.g. swimmers’ autonomy as a basis for progress). The study revealed that the cultural lens was helpful in exploring consistency between what coaches communicate about what they do (and how and why they do it) and what they actually did (and how they did it). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health is a major resource for athletes in relation to their performance and development. Concurrently, athletes experience additional mental health risk factors compared to non-athletic population, such as high training loads, tough competitions, and a stressful lifestyle. Contemporary statistics demonstrate a substantial growth in athletes’ mental health-related problems, such as concussion, overtraining, and identity crisis. Therefore, the International Society of Sport Psychology through this Position Stand provides support to sport psychology researchers, practitioners, sport participants, and stakeholders in understanding: (a) mental health phenomenon based on continuum-type models outlining mental illness (prevalence vs. absence) and mental health in association with peak performance, (b) major findings of research dealing with athletes’ performance, career and personal (e.g. identity) development in relation to mental health issues, and (c) interventions aimed at monitoring and maintaining athletes’ mental health as well as preventing various forms of mental ill-being. Five major sections reflect the logic outlined above (i.e. from definitions and theories to research and practice), complemented by 10 postulates summarising the International Society of Sport Psychology message intended to spur further discussions on how to make athletes healthier and, thus, more resourceful for (and through) sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the psychological description of the sports career, including the history of the topic in Russian sport psychology before and during perestroika, two theoretical models of the sports career (synthetic and analytic), and conclusions drawn from the empirical research of sports careers of more than 200 Russian athletes representing different sports specializations and levels of achievement. Seven predictable crises of elite sports careers are considered from the perspective of typical problems and difficulties of athletes in each crisis, general symptoms and possible circumstances that reinforce crisis symptoms, ways to resolve a crisis, the influence of a crisis on sport performance, forms of "payment" for failure to resolve crises, and ways of providing psychological assistance to athletes in crisis periods of the sports career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Call for Papers for this Special Issue (SI) we encouraged researchers to share their original studies addressing various transitions in sport life in different contexts and athletic populations; we also invited relevant theoretical and methodological contributions based on a dialogue between transition researchers representing different sport sciences (Kiuppis and Stambulova [1]). All the authors contributed with the research-based applied messages illuminating different aspects of helping athletes to strive for career excellence in sport and life. " Athletes' Transitions in Sport and Life: Positioning New Research Trends within Existing System of Athlete Career Knowledge.". [Extracted from the article]

The historically unprecedented pace of internationalising sport industry and transnational movement of athletic talent in the last 20 years has heightened the need for developing new competencies in research and daily practice of sport psychology professionals. While academic literature in cultural sport psychology and praxis has been increasing, sport professionals and local organisations seem to give scant time and resources to stay abreast of complex social changes in transnational industry and to the development of cultural competencies. Stemming from the continuing need for qualified athletic personnel to support transitioning athletes and to achieve intercultural effectiveness in daily practices, our objectives in this position statement are to critically review and analyse the growing scholarship pertinent to various forms of transnational mobility and acculturation of athletic migrants, and subsequently provide recommendations for further use in research and applied contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific objectives of this study were: (a) to identify adjustment patterns in the junior-to-senior transition (JST) based on athletes’ dynamics of adjustment during a two-and-a-half-year period, and (b) to describe the athletes’ demographic, personal and transitional characteristics at the beginning of the JST that were related to the different adjustment patterns. This quantitative longitudinal study consisted of five measurements conducted approximately every six months over a two-and-a-half-year period. One instrument was used to measure the transition variables and three instruments to measure personal characteristics. In the first measurement, 101 club-based Swedish athletes with the mean age of 16.51 (SD = 1.32) took part. The latent profile analysis on athletes’ perceived degree of adjustment provided three profiles with different patterns in the JST. Profile 1 had a progressive adjustment pattern, whereas the second profile had a regressive adjustment pattern, and the third profile had a sustainable adjustment pattern. The descriptive statistics and Cohen’s d indicated that there were differences (with variation in magnitude) between the three profiles at the first measurement in terms of how athletes perceived different transitional characteristics. Keeping a primary focus on sport (but also having attention to other spheres of life), high athletic identity and motivation to reach senior level were characteristics relevant for both progressive and sustainable adjustment patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we continue to explore the junior-to-senior transition process in Swedish ice hockey by validating the empirical model ‘Phases in the junior-to-senior transition of Swedish ice hockey players’ created in our previous study.1 More specifically, we collected opinions and critical reflections of 15 senior professional players and expert coaches about the empirical model as a whole and about the content of each junior-to-senior transition phase and then converted the original empirical model into its validated version. Professional ice hockey players and first league coaches formed three focus groups, while three senior coaches were interviewed individually. All were encouraged to critically reflect on the empirical model. The data from all sources were analysed following guidelines of the thematic (deductive) analysis complemented by quantitative measurements of the participants’ agreement with the content of the empirical model. Results supported the sequence and designations of the junior-to-senior transition phases (i.e. preparation, orientation, adaptation and stabilization), as well as duration of the junior-to-senior transition (i.e. up to four seasons) outlined by the empirical model. We were also able to validate the psychological content (perceived demands, resources, barriers, coping strategies and outcomes) of each transitional phase. Accordingly, five themes were reformulated, 17 new themes were added and some themes were re-ordered during the conversion of the original empirical model into the validated model. To improve the readability of the validated model (from the bottom to the top), we also re-ordered sub-categories describing the psychological content of each junior-to-senior transition phase. We conclude by discussing the validated model in relation to theoretical frameworks and previous research and providing some methodology, future research and practice-oriented reflections addressed to researchers, coaches and sport psychology practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olympic athletes' training environments influence their abilities to develop and excel as Olympians. Our authors considered a Canadian trampoline training environment with a history of developing Olympic medal-winning athletes from the grassroots through to Olympic podium. The sport environment is presented, drawing upon guided walks, through a cursory description in accordance with the Environmental Success Factors model derived from a holistic ecological approach to talent development. This presentation of the Skyriders Training Environment (STE) reveals how environmental factors facilitate Olympic talent development culminating in the highest level of artistic sport performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a summary of the positive and less positive experiences of several authors on their context-driven sport psychology practices (CDP) in the form of nine postulates. The definition of CDP as sport and exercise psychology practice covers reciprocal interactions between consultants, clients, adn the cultural and subcultural contexts they are into. The authors also claim that CDP helps improve consultant-client relationship.

The purpose of this study was to explore a temporal structure (i.e. sequence of phases and relevant psychological content) of the junior-to-senior transition in Swedish ice hockey players. The study was a qualitative exploration of the junior-to-senior transition process designed in three steps. First, the athletic career transition model coupled with a holistic developmental approach and analysis of the Swedish ice hockey context were used to create a conceptual fourphase (preparation, orientation, adaptation and stabilization) junior-to-senior transition framework and interview guides. Second, seven active semi-professional ice hockey players were interviewed about their junior-to-senior transition experiences and asked for their feedback on the conceptual framework. Finally, based on the empirical data and the participants' feedback, the conceptual framework was transformed into an empirical model of the junior-to-senior transition. In the empirical model 'Phases in the junior-to-senior transition of Swedish ice hockey players', the authors provided a summary of the players' transition experiences (i.e. perceived demands, resources, barriers, coping strategies and outcomes) within each of the four (i.e. the preparation, the orientation, the adaptation and the stabilization) juniorto-senior transition phases. Further, the authors discussed the empirical model in relation to theoretical frameworks and previous research and also provided methodology-, future research- and practice-oriented reflections addressed to researchers, coaches and sport psychology practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the specific foci were as follows: (1) to identify profiles of athletes in the junior-to-senior transition (JST) based on their personal characteristics (athletic identity, self-esteem and goal orientation) and (2) to describe the JST pathways relevant to the profiles. This quantitative longitudinal study included five measurements that were conducted approximately every six months. The following package of four instruments was used: the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993), the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, 1989), the self-esteem sub-scale from the Physical Self-Perception Profile - Revised (Lindwall, Hagger, & Asci, 2007) and the Transition Monitoring Survey (Stambulova, Franck, & Weihull, 2012). In the first measurement 100 cluh-based Swedish athletes (73 male and 27 female) with the mean age of 16.51 (SD = 1.32) participated. The Latent Profile Analysis resulted in three profiles of athletes. Further, several similarities and differences were found in the JST pathways between athletes representing the three profiles. Athletic identity appeared to be a key personal characteristic that influenced the dynamics of the JST adjustment. Different styles of coping strategies were also associated with different JST pathways. The JST pathivays relevant to the profiles are discussed based on the theoretical framework and previous research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 aspect of their transnational athletic careers. The aims of the study were to identify the developmental tasks of cultural transitions and strategies/mechanisms through which cultural transitions were enacted. Three underlying mechanisms of the transition process that assisted athletic career adaptability were social repositioning, negotiation of cultural practices, and meaning reconstruction. Based on the data analyses, a temporal model of cultural transition is proposed. The results of this research provide professionals working in the fields of career counseling and migrant support with a content framework for enhancing migrant workers' adaptabilities and psychological wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Olympic Men's Boxing Team was once among the most successful contingents in the world in its sport discipline but then lost this prominent status. At present, Canada's Boxing Team has begun preparation for the 2016 Olympics with the “Own the Podium” (OTP) Program providing financial support to the National Boxing Team and targeted Olympic candidates expected to podium at the 2016 Olympic Games. The authors reveal in this paper the first step of the project “Psychological Support for the Canadian Olympic Boxing Team in Meta-Transitions through the National Team Program” aimed at planning for the boxers' progressions through the 2013–2016 Olympic cycle. Integral to this program, the athletes' progressions are supported through the development of a system of National Team Psychological Support Services (NT-PSS). Within this submission, the authors further develop a vision of the 2016 Olympic Games as a career transition and consider how the Canadian Men's Boxing Team's staff, located within a broader national sport system, proactively map six meta-transitions for the boxers throughout the 2013–2016 Olympic cycle and plan the NT-PSS' content accordingly. The forthcoming meta-transitions are seen as turns between the phases of progressing Olympic cycle: (A) entering the National Team Program, (B) entering major international tournaments, (C) Olympic qualification, (D) focused preparation for the Olympics, (E) to the Olympic podium, and (F) to the post-Games. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this review article, a content area of athlete career in sport psychology is analyzed through the cultural lens: that is, through paradigmatic perspectives of cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and cultural studies. Based on previous review papers, but mainly on the chapters of the anthologyAthletes' Careers across Cultures, we identified three dominant (North American, Australian, and European) and two emerging (Asian and South American) cultural discourses in the career topic. These discourses are characterized by research foci, theoretical frameworks, and career assistance programs in action. Our critical analysis of career research and assistance around the world further indicates a need for more contextualized and culturally competent career projects, which blend theory/research, applied work, and lived culture into cultural praxis. To satisfy this need, a new paradigm termedcultural praxis of athletes' careersis suggested. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of review papers in negotiating emerging terminology, values, principles, and approaches underlying the career topic, and share some ideas for future reviews in career research and assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The multicultural landscape of contemporary sport sets a challenge to rethink sport and exercise psychology research and practice through a culturally reflexive lens. This ISSP Position Stand provides a rigorous synthesis and engagement with existing scholarship to outline a roadmap for future work in the field. The shift to culturally competent sport and exercise psychology implies: (a) recognizing hidden ethnocentric philosophical assumptions permeating much of the current theory, research, and practice; (b) transitioning to professional ethics in which difference is seen as not inherent and fixed but as relational and fluid; and (c) focusing on meaning (instead of cause) in cross-cultural and cultural research projects, and cultural praxis work. In the paper, we first provide an overview of the concepts of cultural competence and ethics of difference. Second, we present a step-by-step approach for developing a culturally competent project rooted either within cross-cultural or cultural research. Third, we focus on cultural praxis as a project that blends theory, research, and lived culture of practice. Finally, we summarize main points in nine postulates and provide recommendations for enhancing cultural competence in the field of sport and exercise psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]