To Plan or Not to
Plan: The Five-Step
Career Planning
Strategy
Prof. Natalia Stambulova
Halmstad University, Sweden
<[email protected]>
Mental Strength Congress
Heidelberg, 2014-11-01
Overview

Introduction:
• Career assistance interventions
• The 5-step career planning strategy (5-SCP)

Practical drill on the 5-SCP

Group reflections & discussion
2
Career Assistance

Career assistance (CA) in sport psychology focuses on
helping athletes with various issues related to their
careers in and outside of sport

Career Assistance Programs (CAPs) and independent
consultants most often help athletes with:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Educational and vocational guidance
Career planning and goal setting
Balancing lifestyle/prioritizing
Career/life/performance skills training
Preparation for a career transition
Coping with a crisis-transition
Developing/improving social support system
Dealing with relationship/communication problems
3
Seven Major Types of Career Assistance
Interventions
Crisis/negative
consequences coping
perspective
Preventive/
educational
perspective

Career
Planning

Life Skills
Training

Lifestyle
Management

Identity
Development


Crisis-coping
Educational
Clinical
Interventions
Cultural
Adaptation

Danish et al., 1993; Gould & Carson, 2008; Gordon et al., 2005; Lally, 2007; Lavallee, 2005;
Petitpas et al., 2009; Petrie & Sherman, 2000; Reints & Wylleman, 2009; Schinke et al.,4
2007; Stambulova (2010; in press), and others.
Career Planning (CP)




CP interventions are aimed at helping athletes to increase their
self-awareness, to set realistic career goals bridging their past,
present, and future, and to prepare in advance for the
forthcoming transitions
CP is supported mostly by athletic retirement research, where
retirement planning was shown to be a factor facilitating
adaptation to the post-career
Examples of tools:
• The athlete’s guide to career planning (Petitpas et al., 1997)
• The 5-SCP (Stambulova, 2007; 2010)
Reported effectiveness for increasing athletes’ self-awareness
and decision making
5
The 5-SCP

The 5-step career planning strategy (5-SCP) is a
framework for a dialogue between a consultant and an
athlete-client aimed at helping the client (a) to increase
awareness of his/her past experiences, present situation
and future perspectives in sport and life; (b) to be better
prepared for the forthcoming demands/events in sport
and life

The 5-SCP belongs to the preventive perspective in
career transition interventions, and it is based on:
The developmental model of transitions faced by athletes
(Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004).
• The athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003; 2009)
• Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory

6
Developmental Model of Transitions faced by
Athletes (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004)
AGE
Athletic career
10
Initiation
Individual
development
Childhood
Psychosocial
development
Parents
Siblings
Peers
Academicvocational
development
15
20
Develop
ment
Puberty
25
Mastery/Perfection
Adoles
cence
Peers
Coach
Parents
30
Young
adulthood
Partner
Coach
Primary Secondary Higher
education education education
35
Discontinuation
Adulthood
Family
(Coach)
Vocational training
Professional occupation
Athletic Career Transition Model
(Stambulova, 1997, 2003)
Transition demands
Dynamic balance between
CT resources & barriers
Crisisprevention
interventions
Coping
Effective
(=successful
transition)
Psychological
crisis-coping
interventions
Effective
Negative
consequences coping
interventions
Ineffective
(=crisis transition)
Need in intervention
Ineffective or no
intervention
“Costs” for failure
to cope with CT
8
Vygotsky’s (1898-1934)
ideas employed

Zones of actual (ZAD) and proximal development (ZPD) and
their links to clients’ past, present and future

The quintessence of lifelong learning is a transportation of skills
from the ZPD to the ZAD with the help of experienced mentors

The socio-cultural theory has contributed the following ideas to
the development of 5-SCP:
• planning for the future is closely linked to past experiences and
present situation in the client’s life
• clients can assimilate career planning skills by working with a
consultant to be able to implement them independently in the
future.
9
The 5-SCP
(Stambulova, 2007; 2010 updated)
2. Structure
your past
A
1. Make a
3. Structure
5. Bridge your
framework
your present
past, present
and future
B
C
4. Structure
your future
10
Step 1: Make a Framework

Draw a life/time line and mark your birth (e.g.,
the year) as an initial point in the left

Mark your current age (or year) as the second
point on the line. Now you have a framework: the
past, the present, and the future
For example:
t
11
Step 2: Structure Your Past

Please, think sometime and then tell about the most
important events in your life before today.

When those events happen? Mark their time
points and write down key words for them on the
lifeline.
12
Step 3: Structure Your Present

What are the most important parts of your life
right now? Write them down as a column.

Please, rank these parts of life 3 times in regard of:
(a) personal importance, (b) time spent; (c) stress
level. An alternative is to use “pie-charts method”
for this task.

Analyse your ranking: Do you devote enough time
to your priorities (i.e., the most important areas)?
How stressful are your priority areas? Why?
13
Example of Ranking
Importance
Time spend
Stress level
Sport
3
1
2
Family
1
3
4
Studies
2
2
1
Peers
4
4
3
Note: Rank 1 means the highest importance, time spent,
and stress level
14
Example of Using Pie-Charts
A. Importance
P
F
Sp
F = family
P = peers
Sp = sport
St = studies
St
C. Stress level
Sp
Sp
B. Time spend
F
P
St
F
St
P
15
Step 4: Structure Your Future

Think and tell about the most important events you
can/wish to expect in the future:
a) During your whole life. Mark them on the lifeline.
b) During next 10 years (a bit more detail)
c) During next 5 years
d) During next 3 years
e) During the next year (the most detailed)
Note: It is also possible to use “pie-charts method” here
for the categories “b-e” to reflect the importance of
different areas of life at that time point.
16
Step 5: Bridge Your Past, Present and
Future (A)

A. From the present to the past and back:
• What were the most difficult moments/periods in your
life before today?
• How did you cope?
• What lessons did you learn from your hard experiences?
• * What were the most successful moment/periods in
your life before today?
• * What lessons did you learn from your positive
experiences?
17
Step 5: Bridge Your Past, Present and
Future (B)

B. From the present to the future:
• What do you want to achieve in your current priority
areas? Let’s formulate your goals (e.g., for the nearest
six-month/one year period).
• Analyse your internal/external resources to reach your
goals in your priority areas.
• Analyse your internal/external barriers to reach your
goals. Think about how to overcome them.
• Make your action plan to reach your goals. Think about
how to best use the lessons you learned from your past
experiences.
18
Step 5: Bridge your Past, Present and
Future (C)

C. From the future to the present (balancing
present and future priorities):
• Come back t your plans (wished for/expected events)
for the next 3-5 years. Can you do anything today to
develop readiness to the coming events/challenges?
• Do you still think that you have the right priorities
right now? If not, try to adjust them to your future
plans.
Appendix (optional): Determine the date (year/milestone) of
updating your career plan: __________
19
Practical Drill

Create pairs

In each pair one person plays a role of practitioner
implementing the 5-SCP and the other plays a role of
client

Use the 5-SCP handout as a guidance in the
practical use of the strategy

Work in pairs and then come back to reflect on your
experience with the 5-SCP
20
Some Reflections on the 5-SCP

It is theoretically “inspired” counseling model

It works since the age athletes start to think about the
future (i.e., adolescence)

It allows to do a career planning during 1-2
counseling sessions

It is possible to use it as a homework with mature
clients

The 5-SCP is not sport specific, and therefore can be
used in counseling coaches or retired athletes

Limitations can be related to the client’s age and
mental health status as well as the status of the
consultant-client relationship.
21
Client’s Reflection
” The whole career planning procedure was useful. It
shed a light upon my life. Now I am more aware
about where I stand right now, what I have in my
“backpack”, and where I would like to go. My
future plans are mostly dreams but today I feel more
confident about them because I know what I should
do to make them come true”
(Orienteering female athlete, 30 years old)
To plan or not to plan?
“Failing to plan means planning to fail”
22
Reading list: If you got interested


Stambulova N. (2010). Counseling athletes in career transitions:
The five-step career planning strategy. Journal of Sport
Psychology in Action, 1, 95–105.
Stambulova, N. (2010). Professional culture of career assistance
to athletes: A look through contrasting lenses of career metaphors.
In T. V. Ryba, R. J Schinke, and G. Tenenbaum (Eds.) Cultural
turn in sport psychology (pp.285-312). Morgantown, WV: FIT.

Stambulova, N. (2011). The mobilization model of counseling
athletes in crisis-transitions: An educational intervention tool.
Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 2, 156-170.

Stambulova, N., & Ryba, T. V. (Eds.) (2013). Athletes’ careers
across cultures. London, UK: Routledge.

Wylleman, P., & Reints, A. (2010). A lifespan perspective on the
career development of talented and elite athletes: Perspectives on
high-intensity sports. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science
23
in Sports, 20 (Suppl. 2), 101–107.
To plan or not to plan? The 5-SCP
Thank you!
Good luck in your
careers !
24
Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 1:95–105, 2010
Copyright © Association for Applied Sport Psychology
ISSN: 2152-0704 print / 2152-0712 online
DOI: 10.1080/21520704.2010.528829
Counseling Athletes in Career Transitions:
The Five-Step Career Planning Strategy
NATALIA STAMBULOVA
Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden
This article presents the Five-Step Career Planning Strategy (5-SCP)
that is a counseling framework for helping athletes with career
transitions. The first four steps in this strategy deal with mapping
out the client’s past experiences, current situation, and perceived
future. The last step involves integrating their past, present, and projected future into a career and life strategy. Starting out with basic
ideas about career transitions, the author proceeds to describe how
the 5-SCP framework was developed and tested, provides a detailed
step-by-step description of the 5-SCP, and finishes with reviewing
consultants’ and clients’ reflections on the 5-SCP application.
KEYWORDS
tions
career counseling, career planning, career transi-
One of the major recent trends in applied sport psychology is a focal shift
from the performance-enhancement perspective to the holistic lifespan perspective (Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007; Stambulova, Alfermann, Statler, &
Côté, 2009; Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004). The advocates of the holistic lifespan perspective treat athletes as individuals doing sports alongside other
things in their lives. Within this perspective, an athletic career is seen as
an integral part of a life-long career. Helping athletes achieve both athletic
and personal excellence and use athletic experiences for the benefit of a
life-long career have become the major objectives of career assistance to
athletes (Gordon, Lavallee, & Grove, 2005; Stambulova, 2010).
The author is grateful to Dr. Melissa Chase and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an early draft of the article, as well as to all colleagues, students
and athlete-clients who provided feedback on the Five-Step Career Planning Strategy. She is
thankful to Dr. Maria Cypher for improving overall readability.
Address correspondence to Natalia Stambulova, Halmstad University, School of Social
and Health Sciences, Box 823, 301 18 Halmstad, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]
95
96
N. Stambulova
One specific area of career assistance is supporting athletes through athletic and non-athletic career transitions (Petitpas, Brewer & Van Raalte, 2009;
Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004). Transitions are defined as turning phases in career development that manifest themselves by sets of demands athletes have
to meet in order to continue successfully in sport and/or other spheres of life
(Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007). Transitions can be normative (predictable),
such as from junior to senior sports or from school to college/university, and
non-normative (less predictable), such as injury, moving to a different club,
or divorce. Successfully coping with transitions improves the athlete’s odds
to have a long and successful life in sport and effectively adjust to the postcareer. Alternatively, failure to cope with a transition leads to a crisis that
is often followed by negative long-term consequences, such as premature
dropout from sport, neuroses, alcohol/drug abuse, and others (Stambulova
et al., 2009). One way to prevent crisis-transitions is helping athletes with career planning to raise their awareness of the forthcoming transition demands
and to enable them to develop all the resources necessary for effective coping (Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007). The Five Step Career Planning Strategy
(5-SCP) presented in this paper is a counseling framework that guides career
consultants through career planning sessions with athlete-clients.
HOW AND WHY THE 5-STEP CAREER PLANNING STRATEGY
WAS DEVELOPED
The 5-SCP strategy is based upon three types of the author’s professional
experiences over the past two decades and three theoretical frameworks.
The first type of professional experience involved extensive research on
career development and transitions of Russian and Swedish athletes (e.g.,
Stambulova, 1994; see also Stambulova & Alfermann, 2009). This research
was consolidated into the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003),
which served as the first theoretical framework for the 5-SCP. In this model, a
transition is pictured as a process of coping with a set of transition demands.
Effectiveness of coping depends on a dynamic balance between the coping resources and barriers. Resources are the various internal and external
factors that facilitate the transition (e.g., athlete’s knowledge, competencies
and skills, social support, etc.). Barriers are the various internal and external
factors that interfere with the coping process (e.g., lack of certain competencies and skills, lack of financial or social support). The model entails
two primary transition outcomes: successful transition and crisis-transition.
Crisis transition can have two possible secondary outcomes: delayed successful transition and unsuccessful transition associated with negative long-term
consequences of not coping with a crisis. Each outcome dictates a distinct
set of career transition interventions, such as preventive interventions, crisiscoping interventions, and negative-consequences coping interventions (see
Career Planning
97
overview in Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007). The 5-SCP belongs to the preventive intervention set aimed to inform athletes of the forthcoming transition
demands and stimulate development of the necessary coping resources. The
take home message of the athletic career transition model is that career
planning is not as simple as setting some goals for the future. In order to
evaluate how realistic the goals are and what strategies might be helpful in
reaching them each goal should be carefully leveraged against an athlete’s
internal/external resources and barriers.
The second type of professional experience that contributed to the 5SCP was the author’s applied work as a career consultant with Russian and
Swedish sport participants. The lessons learned from this experience can be
summarized as follows: (a) athletes often need help in career planning, especially when they approach an important athletic or non-athletic transition,
(b) active athletes have as much interest in career planning as retiring athletes, and (c) coaches often wish for assistance with their own career planning. Searching for counseling frameworks for career planning sessions, the
author could not simply borrow the career management strategies used in
work psychology (see Inkson, 2006 for an overview) because of their somewhat narrow focus on making a professional choice and proceeding from that
point. Instead, the second theoretical framework for the 5-SCP was drawn
from the developmental psychology perspective of lifelong learning and
development, using Lev Vygotsky’s (1896–1934) socio-cultural theory. Especially relevant for the 5-SCP were Vygotsky’s ideas on how an individual’s
past experiences are accumulated in his/her zone of actual development, and
how the past and the present are associated with future capabilities in the
individual’s zone of proximal development. The zone of actual development
covers a range of tasks and related strategies that an individual has learned
in the past and is presently able to perform independently. The zone of
proximal development represents an individual’s “developmental agenda,”
or a range of tasks he/she can only perform with assistance. According
to Vygotsky (1983), the quintessence of lifelong learning is a transportation of skills from the zone of proximal development to the zone of actual
development with the help from experienced mentors/professionals. The
socio-cultural theory has contributed the following ideas to the development
of 5-SCP: (1) planning for the future is intricately linked to past experience
and present situation in the client’s life, and (2) athlete-clients can assimilate
career planning skills by working with a consultant to be able to implement
them independently in the future.
The third type of professional experience that contributed to and was
largely responsible for the creation of the 5-SCP was the author’s experience as a teacher/supervisor of applied sport psychology students in Russia
and Sweden. Through her teaching and supervisory activities, the author
observed that students were more comfortable working on performance
enhancement and providing mental training services than working with an
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N. Stambulova
athlete as a whole person on broader career issues. To facilitate and structure
students’ counseling work with their clients, the author integrated her own
career planning experiences into the 5-SCP framework. The developmental
model of transitions faced by athletes (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) served
as the third theoretical framework for the 5-SCP. This model champions a
holistic view of athlete’s life and deals with stages and transitions for each of
the four major dimensions of athletes’ development (athletic, psychological,
psychosocial, and academic-vocational). The idea of close interrelatedness
of sport and other spheres of athletes’ life became the final crucial element
in the 5-SCP.
Brief descriptions of the first version of the 5-SCP were published in 2007
as short abstracts in conference proceedings (Stambulova, 2007a, 2007b).
Since that time, the author has conducted several international workshops
on this strategy, including some for the European Master’s Program in Sport
and Exercise Psychology (2008–2010), and received a number of reflections
from international students and colleagues. She also collected feedback from
the athlete-clients engaged in the 5-SCP career planning. These materials
provided the basis for the updated version of the 5-SCP (see Appendix) that
is shared in this article.
THE FIVE-STEP CAREER PLANNING STRATEGY
The 5-SCP is a framework for a dialogue between a consultant and an
athlete-client aimed at helping the client (a) to increase awareness of his/her
past experiences, present situation, and future perspectives in sport and
life, and (b) to be better prepared for the forthcoming transitions in sport
and life. Therefore, the 5-SCP involves planning for a life career that deals
with all parts of the athlete’s life (not only sport or work). The five steps
in this strategy deal with the client’s past experiences, current situation, and
perceived future in various spheres of life, followed by bridging the past with
the present and the present with the future. These bridging exercises are the
distinctive feature of this strategy, where the present situation is a focal point
integrating the past and the perceived future in the athlete’s development. A
step-by-step description of the strategy is given below (also see Appendix),
followed by a summary of reflections on its utilization by consultants and
athletes.
In the first (preparatory) step, entitled “Create a framework,” a consultant
directs an athlete to draw a lifeline, marking his/her birth and present age.
Thus, the athlete symbolically divides his/her life into past, present, and
future (see Appendix). It is recommended to make the lifeline on a big sheet
of paper (e.g., A3) to have enough space for the client’s further writings and
drawings during the career planning session.
99
Career Planning
In the second step “Structure your past,” the athlete is encouraged to
describe the most important events in his/her life, noting them on the lifeline.
The events may refer to sports or any other sphere of the athlete’s life. The
consultant might ask probing questions clarifying the client’s background as
an athlete and as a person (What were the most meaningful events in your
sport, education, and family life? Did these events trigger major changes in
your overall life, and if yes, in what way?). This step in the 5-SCP helps the
client to review his/her background and structure it on a lifeline in a personally meaningful way. For the consultant, this step provides a comprehensive
view into the client’s background, which might be particularly important if
career planning is just a first step in the long-term intervention program.
In the third step “Structure your present,” the athlete is asked to define
and write down the most important spheres of his/her current life, followed
by ranking them on three different scales. The first scale deals with subjective
importance of each activity/life sphere, second reflects the time spent on each
activity/life sphere, and third deals with the associated stress levels. Table 1
shows an example of such ranking made by a 17-year-old Swedish football
player.
To help visualize the rankings, a pie-chart method can be used to plot
out the athlete’s priorities as shown in Figure 1. Here, the first pie chart shows
the relative importance of the athlete’s activities/life spheres, the second
chart shows the time devoted to each activity/life sphere, and the third chart
reflects the stress levels associated with each activity/life sphere.
Subsequent analysis of the ranking and/or pie charts helps reveal the
major strengths and weaknesses in the athlete’s current life arrangement. For
example, the football player whose rankings and pie charts are shown in
Table 1 and Figure 1, seems to have supportive and understanding family
and friends (the least stressful areas), but experiences “friction” between
sport and school (highest time allotments and stress levels). The consultant
may stimulate the analysis by asking questions. In this case, the obvious
questions would be: “What are the major sources of stress in your studies?”
“Do you think you devote enough time to your studies?” “Why is it that
sport, being less important than studies, takes so much time and is still
rather stressful?”
TABLE 1 Example: Ranking Made in Step 3 of the 5-SCP by a 17-Year-Old
Football Player
Sport
Family
Studies
Peers
Importance
Time spent
Stress level
3
1
2
4
1
3
2
4
2
4
1
3
Note: Rank 1 means the highest importance, time spent, and stress level.
100
N. Stambulova
A. Importance
P
F
S
F-family
P-peers
S-sport
E-education
(studies)
E
B. Time spent
C. Perceived stress
S
S
F
P
E
E
P
F
FIGURE 1 Example: Pie-charts made in Step 3 of the 5-SCP by a 17-year-old football player.
In summary, step 3 in the 5-SCP helps the client to take a closer look
at different spheres of his/her current life and analyze a balance between
them. It allows the consultant to set the stage for step 4 and have an insight
into the client’s current needs and problematic issues to focus on in further
work (in case of a long-term cooperation).
In the fourth step, “Structure your future,” the athlete is stimulated to
think forward and project the most important events he/she expects to occur
in the future: during the whole life, then during the next ten, five, three,
and one year periods. It is possible to use pie charts reflecting the relative
importance of different life spheres in the future, for the ten, five, three, and
one year periods. This step helps the athlete-client to project and organize
his/her future priorities and desired events. Simultaneously, it allows the
consultant to extrapolate for how long the athlete sees him/herself in sports
and which activities are most likely to be prioritized in the post-sports career.
The fifth step, “Bridge your past, present, and future,” involves three
sub-steps labeled as 5A, 5B, and 5C.
The sub-step 5A directs the client “from the present to the past and
back,” focusing on lessons learned and coping resources developed. The
consultant stimulates the athlete’s “journey” by asking questions about the
most difficult and the most successful moments/periods in the client’s past
life, his/her coping strategies, and the lessons learned from both hard and
successful experiences. In this sub-step, the client observes the past from
a different perspective than in step 2, although the most important events
reported in step 2 often overlap with the most difficult and successful ones
defined here. The focus in 5A is on reviewing the client’s coping resources
developed in the past, for example: “Tough moments in life taught me to
Career Planning
101
be patient, to proceed step-by-step, and acknowledge people who provided
help,” “To succeed I must trust, appreciate and respect myself,” “I must
understand the meaning of my goals and why I want to achieve them,” and
so forth. Discussing past experiences and lessons learned, the consultant
prepares the client for a more definitive planning for the future in 5B.
The sub-step 5B turns the client “from the present to the future” and
involves goal setting in priority areas, resource/barrier analysis, and development of an action plan. This sub-step helps to map out the client’s nearest
future and ensure that the goals set are realistic and achievable. First, the
consultant stimulates the client to set specific short term goals for sport and
other spheres of life (for the nearest six month/one year period). Then they
discuss which of the athlete’s personal characteristics (mostly, knowledge,
competencies, skills, and strategies/lessons learned) and external factors (social support) might help to reach these goals and which personal and other
factors might function as barriers (lack of technical, tactical, mental, communication skills, or lack of financial support). If based on the resource/barrier
analysis the goals look realistic, they are approved, and the action plan (i.e.,
what to do to reach the goals) is designed. In the opposite situation, the
goals are discussed again and reformulated. Overall, the sub-step 5B should
clarify for the client what needs to be achieved in the nearest future and
how. At the same time, it should help the consultant form some ideas about
the future work with this client.
The sub-step 5C brings the athlete-client “from the future to the present,”
and is aimed at balancing current and future priorities. The consultant invites
the athlete to revisit his/her plans for the next three to five years from
step 4 and answer the following questions: “Can you do anything today to
prepare for the forthcoming events?” “Do you still think that you have the
right priorities today?” If the latter question is answered “no,” the consultant
should help the athlete to adjust his/her perception of the current situation
to fit with the perceived future. In keeping with a dynamic nature of careers,
this sub-step ends with an option for the client to set up a date (it can be a
year or a specific career milestone; e.g., “when I graduate college,” “after I
have a baby,” etc.) for the next update to the career plan.
CONSULTANTS’ REFLECTIONS ON IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE 5-SCP
Although the 5-SCP can be successfully applied from the age athletes first start
to think about the future (usually adolescence), its full potential is exploited
with mature athletes, especially those who approach athletic retirement. One
of the advantages of this strategy is the flexibility of format. For example, it
is possible to fit career planning into either one or two counseling sessions.
Typically athletes have difficulties talking about their future plans, in which
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N. Stambulova
case it makes sense to finish the first session with step 3 and ask the client to
be ready with ideas about the future for the next session. It is also possible to
use the whole 5-SCP as “homework” with mature athletes and review it during the single session. It should be noted that career planning sessions based
on the 5-SCP provide truly holistic information about the client. Therefore,
these sessions may help consultants and clients to identify the target issues
to resolve during the career assistance intervention. Finally, the 5-SCP is not
only a sport-specific strategy, so it can be applied in counseling coaches,
retired athletes, or anyone who finds themselves at a career crossroads.
The limitations of the 5-SCP deal with the client’s age/maturity level
and mental health status, consultant’s training level, and the status of the
consultant-client relationship. As found empirically, the 5-SCP works well
with athlete-clients of 17 and older, because younger athletes typically find
it too difficult to think holistically about their life careers. The best way
for career consultants to prepare for the 5-SCP implementation is not only to
read this article and supporting materials, but also to explore this tool in their
own career planning. Athletes using the 5-SCP for the first time are urged to
seek professional guidance. Finally, it is not recommended to implement the
5-SCP at the very first meeting with a client. Clients are asked to share a lot of
personal information in the career planning session. Therefore, the 5-SCP can
be implemented only after a good trust is established in the consultant-client
relationship. Moreover, a prior history of working with the client allows
the consultant to ascertain that he or she does not have any clinical concerns/symptoms (e.g., injury-related depression, eating disorder, or neurotic
reactions) that might impair their ability to think holistically about their past,
present, and future. The 5-SCP is a preventive educational intervention tool
that assumes that clients are free from clinical concerns. But it is possible for
the client’s prior unresolved problems or psychological traumas to resurface
during the 5-SCP sessions (especially in the sub-step 5A that deals with the
most difficult periods in the client’s past) and generate emotional reactions.
Under these circumstances, the client needs some additional time and support from the consultant to cope with emotions before continuing with the
5-SCP. However, if the consultant thinks that such “past problems” still have
an impact on the client and cannot be promptly resolved, a special treatment
program or even a referral to a clinical psychologist should follow.
CLIENTS’ REFLECTIONS ON USING THE 5-SCP
Athlete-clients involved in the 5-SCP career planning most often found it
interesting and insightful. They appreciated the “whole person” approach,
bridging the different spheres of their lives and taking into account their
past, present, and projected future. A 25-year-old elite female power-lifter
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commented: “Going through career planning . . . I realized that in order to understand how to be successful in athletic career, other spheres of life should
be taken into consideration . . . I definitely improved my career awareness
by finding what things from my past can be exploited to meet my current
and future challenges.”
Following the 5-SCP, athlete-clients felt that they understood how to
proceed with career planning in the future and reported an increased sense
of control over their present situation and the forthcoming transitions. As
commented by a 30-year-old female orienteering athlete, “ . . . the whole
career planning procedure was useful. It shed a light upon my life. I am
more aware about where I stand right now, what I have in my “backpack,”
and where I would like to go. My future plans are mostly dreams, but today
I feel more confident about them because I know what I should do to make
them come true.”
REFERENCES
Alfermann, D., & Stambulova, N. (2007). Career transitions and career termination.
In G. Tenenbaum and R. C. Eklund (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (3rd
ed., pp. 712–736). New York, NY: Wiley.
Gordon, S., Lavallee, D., & Grove, J. R. (2005). Career assistance program interventions in sport. In D. Hackfort, J. Duda, & R. Lidor (Eds.), Handbook of research in
applied sport and exercise psychology: International perspectives (pp.233–243).
Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
Inkson, K. (2006). Understanding careers: The metaphors of working lives. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Petitpas, A. J., Brewer, B. W., & Van Raalte, J. L. (2009). Transitions of the studentathlete: Theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives. In E. F. Etzel (Ed.),
Counseling and psychological services for college student-athletes (pp. 283–302).
Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
Stambulova, N. (1994). Developmental sports career investigations in Russia: A postperestroika analysis. The Sport Psychologist, 8, 221–237.
Stambulova, N. (2003). Symptoms of a crisis-transition: A grounded theory study.
SIPF Yearbook (pp. 97–109). Örebro, Sweden: Örebro University Press.
Stambulova, N. (2007a). Career planning strategy: How to balance the past, the
present and the future? In Y. Theodorakis, M. Goudas, & A. Papaioannou (Eds.),
Book of abstracts of the 12th European Congress of Sport Psychology (p. 131).
Halkidiki, Greece: FEPSAC publication.
Stambulova, N. (2007b). Career planning strategy bridging an athlete’s past, present
and perceived future. In Association for Applied Sport Psychology—2007 Conference Proceedings (p. 77). Louisville, KY: AASP.
Stambulova, N. (2010). Professional culture of career assistance to athletes: A look
through contrasting lenses of career metaphors. In T. V. Ryba, R. J. Schinke,
and G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), Cultural turn in sport psychology (pp. 285–312).
Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
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Stambulova, N., & Alfermann, D. (2009). Putting culture into context: Cultural and
cross-cultural perspectives in career development and transition research and
practice. International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 7(3), 292–308.
Stambulova, N., Alfermann, D., Statler, T., & Côté, J. (2009). ISSP Position Stand:
Career development and transitions of athletes. International Journal of Sport
& Exercise Psychology, 7(4), 395–412.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1983). Istoriya razvitiya vysshih psihicheskih funkcii [History of
the development of higher mental functions]. In A. V. Zaporozhets (Ed.), L. S.
Vygotsky, Complete work (Vol. 3, pp. 5–328). Moscow, Russia: Pedagogika.
Wylleman, P., & Lavallee, D. (2004). A developmental perspective on transitions
faced by athletes. In M. Weiss (Ed.), Developmental sport and exercise psychology: A lifespan perspective (pp. 507–527). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information
Technology.
APPENDIX
C Stambulova, 2007, 2010
The 5-Step Career Planning Strategy (updated)
Step 1: Make a Framework
• Draw a life/timeline and mark your birth (e.g., the year) as an initial point
on the left.
• Mark your current age (or year) as the second point on the line. Now you
have a framework: the past, the present, and the future.
For example:
−→
Step 2: Structure Your Past
• Please take some time to think and then tell about the most important
events in your life before now. When did these events happen? Mark their
time points on the lifeline.
Step 3: Structure Your Present
• What are the most important parts of your life right now? Write them down
as a column.
• Please rank these parts of life on three different scales:
(a) personal importance
(b) time spent
(c) stress level
Use 1 as the greatest importance/time/level.
• Analyse your ranking: Do you devote enough time to your priorities (i.e.,
the most important areas)? How stressful are your priority areas? Why?
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Note: It is possible to use “pie-charts” here if the client finds it more comfortable
than ranking.
Step 4: Structure Your Future
• Think and then tell about the most important events you wish for/expect
in the future?
b During your whole life. Mark them on the lifeline
b During the next 10 years (a bit more detail)
b During the next 5 years
b During the next 3 years
b During the next year (the most detailed)
Note: It is also possible to use “pie-charts” here for “the next 10 years,” “the
next 5 years,” “the next 3 years,” and “the next year” categories to reflect the
importance of different areas of life at that time point.
Step 5: Bridge Your Past, Present, and Future
A. From the present to the past and back:
b What were the most difficult moments/periods in your life before today?
b How did you cope?
b What lessons did you learn from your hard experiences?
b What were the most successful moments/periods in your life before
today?
b What lessons did you learn from your positive experiences?
B. From the present to the future:
b What do you want to achieve in the priority areas for you right now?
Let’s formulate your goals (e.g., for the nearest six-month/one-year
period).
b Analyse your internal/external resources (helping conditions/factors) to
reach your goals in your priority areas.
b Analyse your internal/external barriers (interfering conditions/factors)
to reaching your goals. Think about how to overcome them.
b Make an action plan to reach your goals. Think about how to best use
the lessons you learned from your past experiences.
C. From the future to the present (balancing present and future priorities):
b Come back to your plans (wished for/expected events) for the next
3–5 years. Can you do anything today to prepare for the coming
events/demands/challenges?
b Do you still think that you have the right priorities right now? If not, try
to adjust them to your future plans.
Optional: Determine the date (year/milestone) of updating your career plan: