Feature: Selected Sport and Physical Education Career OpportunitiesNo.52
January 2008
 
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A Career as a Professional Athlete
Kruger van Wyk
 

Being a professional athlete in today’s world where entertaining is big business is an opportunity that looks very inviting to aspiring professional athletes. Sport, over the last decades, has progressed into the professional arena and the days of ‘a-kick-around’ and having a laugh when you play professional sport are long gone. Many factors influence the life of a professional athlete and make it an attractive career option for younger athletes. What follows below are personal reflections and experiences from a professional sport career spanning eight years.

Income potential
Lucrative television rights can be the professional athlete’s best friend when it comes to generating huge amounts of money as the profile of the sport itself, as well as that of the athlete, is raised by television coverage. There could be countless opportunities for athletes who are good enough to make a living out of sport. Professional sport presents marketing and sponsoring opportunities to the athlete. Meeting potential sponsors and marketers at high profile sport competitions presents opportunities to “sell” yourself and create career paths after professional sport. Astronomical salary tags attached to highly successful professional athletes are huge draw cards for aspiring athletes. This however could be a corrupting factor and the deals of sports agents sometimes border on unethical. Spending time away from one’s family can be testing and when a solid support base is lacking, sacrifices to achieve personal goals might not seem worth the effort.

Transfer of skills
Globalisation has shrunk the world and international sport makes it possible for athletes to compete on different continents and under different conditions. Traveling to different continents presents opportunities but also challenges to cope with diverse conditions and environments. Competing in different countries brings you into contact with diverse cultures and their approach to sport. Living abroad clearly teaches the athletes life skills that are not only valuable in sport contexts but also in everyday life, such as mastering a new language. Exposure to different scientific dimensions of elite sport e.g. nutrition, psychology, sponsorship, sport management and motor learning can be transferred from the playing fields to coaching and the boardroom.

Challenges
Although professional sport as a career might seem very glamorous, athletes have to deal with harsh realities. The biggest challenge professional athletes probably have to face is injury, that could cause the end of a lucrative career. A career in professional sport has a limited shelf life and contracts are performance related. It is therefore essential to set up a strategy for life after sport. Financial skills and business knowledge become essential survival skills. Too many professional athletes live in a cocoon and are under the impression that the good life will last forever. This attitude clouds decision-making and the reality of life-after-sport is not handled well. In professional sport, like in most walks of life, it is survival of the fittest. Pressure unfortunately ends a lot of very talented athletes’ careers. Pressure to perform in front of thousands of spectators to secure a contract can influence sustained performances at high levels.
Dealing with the media also poses a challenge to professional athletes. The media can build an athlete up or criticize undeservingly. Fans and supporters are necessary for professional sport to survive but it can also be a threat to an athlete’s personal life. Being a professional athlete becomes a way of life as your job goes with you wherever you go. Being a role model requires constant responsible behavior.

The decision to turn professional
Aspiring athletes should be brutally honest to determine if they have the potential and talent to excel in professional sport. Professional sport can be a great career choice, as it is a career that tests human character everyday but the satisfaction that comes from the career is highly rewarding.


Contact
Kruger van Wyk
Captain, Canterbury Cricket team
Canterbury, New Zealand





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