Building an Identity Through Sports Career

Abstract

Sports career involves an important educational process in the development of the human being. Through sports, each athlete achieves physical, spiritual and psychological skills that can help the social integration. The purpose of this paper aims to identify the mechanisms of internal motivation for sports career at a former basketball player. We are interested in finding out the relationship between internal motivation and building the professional identity and reaching a certain professional status. The date collected during the interview methods helps us to create a case study that reflects the building process of the identity of a professional basketball player. The date was collected in August 2017, when the interview took place. The former athlete nowadays is a 73 years old basketball coach. The interview was structured and investigated different aspects of his career: the psychological aspects of a professional athlete life style, the structure of his motivation for sports career and its implications during competition. We understood the social status of a sportsman as an important part of his identity. Our research led us to a better understanding of characteristics of the emotional support system of the basketball player and his needs identified for a complex training in sports competitive activities. The role of the sports competitive activities can be linked to the building professional identity and to the achievement of the competitive spirit and resilience in any stressful situations that can challenge emotional resources of the human being. We could emphasis the connection between the achievement of the sports educational process and the everyday life events where the resilience can make the important change between gain and loss, success and failure.