The Isolation of Pro Athletes Upon Retirement

One of the few things discussed when professional hockey players retire is the issue of isolation. It can be a significant problem when athletes leave the game. Isolation plays a role for several different reasons.

First, imagine for the vast majority of your formative years you were surrounded by hockey players and the falderal that is the game. You retire. Instantly, the structure, rituals and people that have defined your existence, for lets say conservatively, 15 years, are gone.

Now if you are the athlete retiring, you will soon realize that you can NEVER plug back into that lifestyle. Ever. It is impossible. That is the first ‘gotcha’ in the retirement cycle. The second issue that will arise is your inability to figure out what to do next. This relates to the structure issue. You have been told what to and when to do it for a long time. Now your time is your own. This is a frightening reality. What do you actually do?

The initial reaction is to focus on the family and your spouse. These are great instincts, but it doesn’t take into account that your spouse is now struggling significantly with her loss of status, your loss of status, the sudden change in income, the fact that you are now around ALL THE TIME cutting into her independence and she doesn’t know what to tell you to do.

So you now have a scenario where:
- The spouse is dealing with significant issues related to athletic retirement and therefore may find it difficult to act as a resource for support.
- The support structure provided by teammates and the organization is long gone the moment the locker room door closed. They think if you’ve got money, you’ll be fine.
- You have valuable skills but you are not employable in the traditional sense.
- You have gaping hole of time available and no real sense on how to use it or manage it.

The result is an athlete who is forced to retreat into himself in order to deal with the issues of athletic transition. Limited access to support and resources make for a challenging transition. The lack of support and isolation opens the athlete up to depression, which compounds the isolation issue further as the athlete pushes away or retreats from support. All of this is magnified significantly if the retirement is brought around through de-selection or serious injury.

How do you defeat the issue of isolation? The answer is education. Providing education to athletes and families about the realities of the transition process and the dangers of isolation. Information should be provided to teams and organizations about what athletes are experiencing. Teams can help minimize issues by providing avenues for retired athletes to stay connected to the team and organization, even at a bare minimum level.. Athletes need to be informed about what they will experience in retirement and the dangers of isolation as coping strategy.

If teams, families and the athlete, working in concert with support programs, are informed about isolation related issues in the transition phase of an athletic career, hopefully the negative consequences of isolation can be reduced.