Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the transitions present in the process of female basketball players’ development. Thirty-one athletes and two coaches from a top-rated development basketball club of Santa Catarina/Brazil participated on the study. Data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed by the technique of content analysis, with the support of NVivo 9.2 software. Results revealed the importance and the challenges around the simultaneous experiences of sporting and non-sporting transitions, highlighting that athletes experienced the transition from initiation to specialization in basketball at the same time that they experienced the transition from childhood to adolescence. The athletes who experienced transitions to more intense specialized training also experienced significant psychosocial transitions, especially related to social life (friendships), leisure and study (transition from Elementary School to High School). Finally, while transiting from the young categories to the adult one, players have gone through transitions both in interpersonal relationships (dating) and from high school to college. The evidence found allow us to conclude about the importance of deepen the understanding of the lived transitions and how they affect the development of female basketball athletes, as well as to identify the intrinsic and extrinsic features and strategies used to the successful overcoming of these different transitions.
Athletes; Sport; Training; Career