| Description |
Little research has focused on collegiate athletes voluntarily taking a long-term break from training and competition for religious or humanitarian reasons. One specific group of such athletes is those who take 2 years off from their sport, typically from age 19 to 21, to serve as religious missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of the returned-missionary athlete (RM athlete) in returning to collegiate competition after a 2-year break from sport to provide full-time volunteer missionary service. The study was exploratory and descriptive, providing an increased understanding of the phenomenon of what it means to be an RM athlete. This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach, specifically Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which emphasizes the description and interpretation of the lived experience under investigation. The study involved in-depth semistructured interviews with 10 former RM athletes and used an inductive analysis of interview transcripts to identify four superordinate themes with accompanying subordinate themes. The four overarching superordinate themes that emerged were the effects of 2-year missionary service on the athlete, the process involved in the return, individuals who were influential in the process, and the timing and structure of the return. The study concluded that (a) the mission experience affected RM athletes in meaningful ways, as they changed emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically, and such changes affected their return-to-sport experience; (b) RM athletes faced many physical challenges, but not enough to outweigh the benefits gained from the mission experience, with some becoming better athletes because of the experience; (c) coaches were crucial to the return experience, providing the understanding and structure necessary for the challenges of the return process; (d) RM athletes needed considerable time to regain the physical and mental skills necessary to return to sport and benefited from not being rushed through the process and not facing unrealistic expectations or undue pressure; and (e) timing was crucial to RM athletes' return to sport, with redshirting and the timing of the mission facilitating the return. |
