A longitudinal qualitative exploration of elite Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences

The purpose of this study was to explore elite Korean tennis players’ career transition experiences, focusing on psychological components (i.e., self-identity, life skills development, and coping strategies) and socio-cultural influences through the process. A longitudinal qualitative method was employed, and Korean tennis players (N= 5; two males and three females; mean age 29.8 ± 5.54 years) who were considering retirement participated in the current study. Data were analyzed by interpretative phenomenological analysis and resulted in three super-ordinate themes: (a) sense of self and process of identity shift, (b) available resources during the career transition process, and (c) decision-making processes and consequences of decisions. These results provided practical implications for supporting athletes’ career transitions (e.g., developing a balanced self-identity and life skill during their athletic careers, providing proactive intervention) and future research directions (e.g., examining athletes’ retirement decision-making process, the need of cross-cultural research)