Stop Telling Former Athletes to Move On

When your career ends, the advice comes fast. Move on. Find your next thing. Figure out who you are without sport. It's well meant, and some of it is right. But the "leave sport behind" part is where the research disagrees. It's gotten more specific in the last few years, too.

The identity isn't the problem

Start with the thing everyone worries about: athletic identity. Most of the transition research treats it as the risk factor, and in my last post I got into why losing it hurts. But when Erin Reifsteck, Diane Gill and Jeffrey Labban surveyed former NCAA Division I athletes, both exercise identity and athletic identity were positively related to physical activity. Former athletes who still saw themselves as athletes tended to be more active.

To be fair, not every study likes a big athletic identity. Patricia Lally found that athletes who shrank theirs before retiring had an easier landing, and a study of German, Lithuanian and Russian athletes found that high athletic identity meant more problems adapting. So which is it?

The newer research answers that pretty clearly. It isn't how much you identify with being an athlete. It's whether that identity has somewhere to go. Zhang and colleagues followed recently retired elite athletes for a year. The ones who adjusted found what the researchers call identity continuity, through "strengthening connection with past group identity" and "forming new identities related to previous ones." A 2024 study of 21 retired elite athletes described the same move as "actively repurposing identity." And a 2026 study of 240 adults playing alumni football found athletic identity alone had no direct link to wellbeing. It mattered through social connectedness.

The identity isn't the problem. Having nowhere to put it is.

Where you put it matters

Rochelle Eime and colleagues reviewed the research on the psychological and social benefits of sport for adults. The benefits reported most often were wellbeing and less distress and stress, and club-based or team-based sport seemed to be associated with better outcomes than individual activities, because of the social side. It was a small pool of studies, but the biggest dataset we have points the same way. When Chekroud and colleagues looked at 1.2 million Americans, every kind of exercise was associated with fewer bad mental health days, and "the largest associations were seen for popular team sports," at 22.3% lower.

That matters for us, because the default after you retire is the solo version: a gym membership, a treadmill, headphones in. And a lot of former athletes don't even keep that up. A study at a Division I university found that alumni athletes exercised far less than current athletes and were no more active than people who never played at all. The rec league is doing something the treadmill isn't. It gives you a reason to show up that isn't willpower.

Giving back

Then there's giving back. Caroline Jenkinson and colleagues reviewed the studies on volunteering and health. Cohort studies showed volunteering had favorable effects on depression, life satisfaction and wellbeing, though not on physical health, and a meta-analysis of five cohort studies found volunteers had a lower risk of mortality. I'll be straight about the caveat: that evidence is observational, and the experimental studies didn't confirm it.

But the retirement research gives a reason to take it seriously. In a study of 171 retirees, Niklas Steffens and colleagues found that people with more group memberships were more satisfied with retirement and healthier, and the path ran "through greater provision, but not receipt, of social support to others." Giving support did the work, not getting it. Retired athletes say the same thing. In interviews with former British Olympic-sport athletes, providing support to others "was just as effective as receiving support."

Former athletes already seem to know this. In the Aspen Institute's National Coach Survey of more than 10,000 youth coaches, 79% said wanting to stay involved in sport was a big reason they started coaching, and 78% pointed to playing sports as a kid. Only 14% said money. And ask anyone who has coached a youth team whether they got something out of it.

Underneath all of it is people

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Timothy Smith and Bradley Layton pooled 148 studies and found "a 50% increased likelihood of survival for participants with stronger social relationships." You spent years inside a built-in community of teammates and coaches. Walking away from all of it can mean giving up one of the few things the research says protects you.

That doesn't mean every athlete should stay close to the game right away. Some step away because sport hurt them, and distance can be the right call. The point is that leaving sport behind shouldn't be the default advice.

Better advice

So here's better advice. Don't leave sport. Change your role in it. Coach a youth team. Officiate. Run a clinic. Join a rec league with people who played. Take a board seat at the club you grew up in. Every one of those keeps the identity, the team and a reason to show up, and none of them asks you to pretend you're still competing.

And sport needs you to do it. The average age of the officials who answered the biggest national officiating survey is nearly 57, and 80% of youth coaches say their community needs more coaches. More on that in The Answer to the Officiating Shortage Just Played Its Last Game.

Where we fit

That's what Next Game at The NOVA Foundation is built for. We connect former athletes of any age with volunteer, playing and social opportunities in their city. Volunteers join through each partner organization's own volunteer process, and the hangouts come naturally after the games.

If you're a former athlete, join the Next Game community. If you run a league, a youth program or a parks department and need volunteers who know the game, email us at partner@thenovafoundation.org.

Sources

Alfermann, D., Stambulova, N., & Zemaityte, A. (2004). Reactions to sport career termination: A cross-national comparison of German, Lithuanian, and Russian athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 5(1), 61-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1469-0292(02)00050-X

Anderson-Butcher, D., & Bates, S. (2022). National Coach Survey: Final report. Aspen Institute. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/11.14.22-Anderson-Butcher-Bates.-2022.-National-Coach-Survey-Final-Report_.pdf

Brown, C. J., Webb, T. L., Robinson, M. A., & Cotgreave, R. (2018). Athletes' experiences of social support during their transition out of elite sport: An interpretive phenomenological analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 36, 71-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.01.003

Chekroud, S. R., Gueorguieva, R., Zheutlin, A. B., Paulus, M., Krumholz, H. M., Krystal, J. H., & Chekroud, A. M. (2018). Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1.2 million individuals in the USA between 2011 and 2015: A cross-sectional study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(9), 739-746. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30227-X

Eime, R. M., Young, J. A., Harvey, J. T., Charity, M. J., & Payne, W. R. (2013). A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for adults: Informing development of a conceptual model of health through sport. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 10, 135. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-135

Haslam, C., et al. (2024). "I'm more than my sport": Exploring the dynamic processes of identity change in athletic retirement. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 73, 102640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102640

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLOS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316

Jenkinson, C. E., et al. (2013). Is volunteering a public health intervention? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the health and survival of volunteers. BMC Public Health, 13, 773. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-773

Lally, P. (2007). Identity and athletic retirement: A prospective study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8(1), 85-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2006.03.003

Reifsteck, E. J., Gill, D. L., & Labban, J. D. (2016). "Athletes" and "exercisers": Understanding identity, motivation, and physical activity participation in former college athletes. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 5(1), 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000046

Sorenson, S. C., Romano, R., Azen, S. P., Schroeder, E. T., & Salem, G. J. (2015). Life span exercise among elite intercollegiate student athletes. Sports Health, 7(1), 80-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738114534813

Steffens, N. K., Jetten, J., Haslam, C., Cruwys, T., & Haslam, S. A. (2016). Multiple social identities enhance health post-retirement because they are a basis for giving social support. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1519. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01519

Wang, J. (2026). The impact of alumni football on adult mental wellbeing: A serial mediation analysis of athletic identity and social connectedness. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1780689. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1780689

Zhang, Y., Haslam, S. A., Haslam, C., & Steffens, N. K. (2025). A badge, a part of my history and also a root: A longitudinal qualitative exploration of the social identity model of identity change in retired elite athletes. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64(3), e70005. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70005

The Resume Workshop Is Only Half the Job

Every athlete retires. Some get a senior night, some get hurt, some get cut. Either way, one day you're on a team and the next day you're not, and nobody hands you a playbook for that part.

That day comes for almost everyone, and it comes early. More than eight million kids play high school sports. According to the NCAA, only about 550,000 of them will ever compete at an NCAA school, and in football and basketball, only about 1 percent of those get drafted. Nearly everyone else is done by their early twenties.

When schools and leagues try to help, it usually looks like a resume workshop. Maybe a networking night, a panel, a LinkedIn headshot. I'm not against any of that. A good resume matters, and athletes ask for it, too. In the NCAA's April 2026 survey of Division I athletes, finding career opportunities and the cost of living after college were the top two worries.

But if you read the research on how athletes actually adjust after they leave, the workshop only solves part of the problem, and not the part that hurts most. The hardest part of retiring isn't finding a job. It's losing your team.

Here's the case.

What goes missing

Start with what the problem is. In 1993, Britton Brewer, Judy Van Raalte and Darwyn Linder gave it a name: athletic identity, the degree to which you identify with being an athlete. A strong one is part of what makes you good. It's also what makes the exit hurt, because when the role goes away, a big part of you goes with it.

This isn't a niche problem. Sunghee Park, David Lavallee and David Tod reviewed 126 studies on athletes' career transition out of sport, going back to 1968. What predicted how well athletes adjusted fell into two buckets: things about the transition itself, like identity, and the resources around them, like social support. Their recommendation was proactive support, not the kind that waits for someone to ask. The stakes are real, too. A 2019 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine put the prevalence of mental health symptoms and disorders among former elite athletes between 16% for distress and 26% for anxiety and depression.

How you leave matters as much as when. In a study of professional national team athletes, Pia-Maria Wippert and her co-author found that the ones who were dismissed unexpectedly had "a stronger initial reaction, a more severe crisis, and longer transition periods" than a comparison group who weren't. In an earlier study of the German national ski team, athletes whose exit involved a real conversation with their coaches reported fewer symptoms than the ones who were simply cut loose. Nearly 20% showed clinically relevant levels of traumatic stress three and eight months later. The same exit, handled with people or without them, lands very differently.

What protects you

So what actually helps? The best answer I've found is a 2021 study by Catherine Haslam and colleagues. They surveyed retired athletes in two samples, one from Western countries and one from Eastern countries. In both, losing athletic identity hurt adjustment by reducing meaning in life and a sense of control. But in their words, "both maintained and gained social group memberships counteracted the negative effects of athletic identity loss on adjustment." Athletes who held on to their groups, or joined new ones, were protected.

Newer work keeps landing in the same place. A 2026 study of 240 adults playing alumni football found that athletic identity on its own had no significant direct link to mental wellbeing. What carried the effect was social connectedness, which the author called the "core mediator." It's one city and one point in time, so I wouldn't hang everything on it. But it points the same direction as everything else.

When Brown and colleagues interviewed retired British Olympic-sport athletes about who actually helped them, the most effective supporters were family and other retired athletes. And one finding stuck with me: "Providing support to others was just as effective as receiving support." The athletes didn't just need a group to lean on. They needed a group to be useful to.

This isn't wishful thinking about friendship, either. Haslam's team built a program called Groups 4 Health that helps people build and strengthen group memberships on purpose. In a randomized controlled trial with adults in psychological distress, it cut loneliness more than usual care did. In a later trial with young people, it held its own against cognitive behavioral therapy for depression and did slightly better on loneliness. Groups aren't a nice extra. You can build them deliberately, and it works.

Notice what's not in any of this. No job skills. No resume. Groups.

When to start

Patricia Lally adds the timing. She followed university athletes through their last season and into retirement. It was a small study, six athletes, but she followed them closely. The ones who had already started loosening how much of themselves rested on sport didn't hit a major identity crisis afterward. Her takeaway, basically: start redefining yourself before the career ends, not after.

Planning helps, to be fair. A study of German, Lithuanian and Russian athletes found that planning for retirement led to better adjustment across the board. So the question isn't whether to plan. It's what you plan for. Right now, most of the planning we do is about the job.

Why workshops aren't enough on their own

Careers are what athletes say they worry about, and they're right to. But on their own, workshops aren't landing. In the NCAA's 2026 career planning report, a survey of more than 20,000 athletes, only 42% said they were satisfied with the career counseling services they had.

Even the big policy fixes point at the degree and the body. The Protect College Sports Act, which passed the Senate in September, would guarantee scholarships for ten years after eligibility so athletes can finish their degrees, and require Division I schools to cover sports-related injury costs for five years. Good. Athletes should have both. But none of that is about the team.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 advisory on loneliness says the mortality impact of being socially disconnected "is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day," and that about half of American adults report loneliness, "with some of the highest rates among young adults." That's the exact age most athletes retire.

What it would look like instead

Put the research together and the prescription is pretty simple. Start early. Keep your people. Find new ones. A workshop can't do any of that. A team can. Here's what could sit alongside what athletic departments already do, and none of it is expensive:

Start in the final season, not after the banquet. Lally and the planning research both say the work starts before the last game. Build it into senior year.

Hand athletes off, don't just check them out. Replace the exit interview with a warm introduction to an actual group: a rec league, an alumni team, a youth program that needs a coach, a local officials' association that needs a crew.

Put retired athletes in the room. Other former athletes were the most effective supporters in Brown's study, and giving support helped as much as getting it. Recent grads mentoring this year's seniors helps both sides.

Count groups, not just placements. Schools track job placement. A year out, also ask: are you part of a team of any kind? If the answer is no, that's the number to fix.

Where we fit

That's the bet we're making with Next Game at The NOVA Foundation. We connect former athletes of any age with ways to coach, officiate, play and hang out in their city, so the thing that goes missing when the season ends is still there: a group that gets it. At our rec softball games, nobody shows up to work on their resume.

If you want the other half of this argument, read Stop Telling Former Athletes to Move On.

If you're a former athlete, join the Next Game community. If you work with college athletes and want to bring this conversation to your team, email us at info@thenovafoundation.org.

Sources

Alfermann, D., Stambulova, N., & Zemaityte, A. (2004). Reactions to sport career termination: A cross-national comparison of German, Lithuanian, and Russian athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 5(1), 61-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1469-0292(02)00050-X

Brewer, B. W., Van Raalte, J. L., & Linder, D. E. (1993). Athletic identity: Hercules' muscles or Achilles heel? International Journal of Sport Psychology, 24(2), 237-254.

Brown, C. J., Webb, T. L., Robinson, M. A., & Cotgreave, R. (2018). Athletes' experiences of social support during their transition out of elite sport: An interpretive phenomenological analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 36, 71-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.01.003

Cruwys, T., Haslam, C., Rathbone, J. A., Williams, E., Haslam, S. A., & Walter, Z. C. (2022). Groups 4 Health versus cognitive-behavioural therapy for depression and loneliness in young people: Randomised phase 3 non-inferiority trial with 12-month follow-up. British Journal of Psychiatry, 220(3), 140-147. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2021.128

Gouttebarge, V., et al. (2019). Occurrence of mental health symptoms and disorders in current and former elite athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(11), 700-706. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-100671

Haslam, C., Cruwys, T., Chang, M. X.-L., Bentley, S. V., Haslam, S. A., Dingle, G. A., & Jetten, J. (2019). GROUPS 4 HEALTH reduces loneliness and social anxiety in adults with psychological distress: Findings from a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87(9), 787-801. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000427

Haslam, C., et al. (2021). When the final whistle blows: Social identity pathways support mental health and life satisfaction after retirement from competitive sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 57, 102049. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102049

Lally, P. (2007). Identity and athletic retirement: A prospective study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8(1), 85-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2006.03.003

NCAA. (2026). NCAA GOALS study: Student-athlete career planning and development. https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/research/goals/2026RES_GOALS-CareerPlanningReport.pdf

NCAA. (2026). NCAA SNAP study, April 2026 survey: Executive summary. https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/research/snap/2026RES_SNAP-AprilExecSummary.pdf

NCAA. (n.d.). Probability of competing beyond high school. https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2013/12/17/probability-of-competing-beyond-high-school.aspx

Office of the Surgeon General. (2023). Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

Park, S., Lavallee, D., & Tod, D. (2013). Athletes' career transition out of sport: A systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 6(1), 22-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2012.687053

Wang, J. (2026). The impact of alumni football on adult mental wellbeing: A serial mediation analysis of athletic identity and social connectedness. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1780689. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1780689

Wippert, P.-M., & Wippert, J. (2008). Perceived stress and prevalence of traumatic stress symptoms following athletic career termination. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 2(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.2.1.1

Wippert, P.-M., & Wippert, J. (2010). The effects of involuntary athletic career termination on psychological distress. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 4(2), 133-149. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.4.2.133

Welcoming Our Newest Next Game Fellows: Empowering College Athletes!

Meet the New Next Game Fellows: Calissa Minatee & Audrey Kroeger

Please join us in welcoming Calissa Minatee and Audrey Kroeger to the Next Game Fellowship Program! 🏆✨

🏐 Calissa is a senior volleyball player at the University of Minnesota. She hopes to continue competing after college for as long as possible and is eager to explore future opportunities in marketing and project management within the emerging volleyball landscape. Following volleyball season, Calissa is looking forward to supporting NOVA Foundation marketing and event planning for key Chicagoland programs.

🥍 Audrey is a sophomore lacrosse athlete at Lake Forest College majoring in business and communications. Looking ahead, she is eager to dive into a career in PR or event planning after her athletic career. Audrey will be partnering with current Fellow, Sadie Fry, to bolster Lake Forest College community-building efforts and Chicago-based athlete meetups.

We are thrilled to support Calissa and Audrey as they build their post-sport career pathways and excel both on and off the field!

---

Whether you are a student-athlete looking for an internship, a university administrator, or a local Chicago organization interested in mentoring top athletic talent, we invite you to get connected!

Community & Mentors: Want to learn more about Audrey and Calissa’s backgrounds or be a part of our growing network? Check out the Fellows' bios or get involved.

Student-Athletes: head to this link to learn more about the Fellowship and to apply.