Athlete Development: Strategies, Capabilities and Wellbeing

• • Sport as a Career
  • - The historical context – the evolution of western sports systems, from the cold war to globalisation.
  • - The sports field as a regulated industrial workplace – the role of the player associations, collective bargaining, etc.
  • - When the fulltime whistle blows – the focus on Athlete Career Education (ACE) and the dual career notion.
  • Expected capabilities
  • - Holistic development of the athlete – the athlete as person.
  • - Preparing the body – systems that impact on performance
  • - Psychological needs and appropriate support
  • The athlete brand - The meaning of a personal brand
  • - The meaning of a personal brand
  • - Identifying relevant personal and sport related brand attributes
  • - Meeting employer and market expectations as an athlete
  • - The athlete as a person - could this be a source of competitive advantage?

In order to enrol in this subject, you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Core

• ACU-SPL-GCE-2022

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

The development of elite sports systems has traditionally focused on the optimal performance of the athlete. Increasingly however sport has been faced with the need to consider the development of its ‘star performers’ from a much more holistic and ‘human’ perspective. This subject will highlight the importance of an understanding of sport as the context and the athlete as a person to the effectiveness of the sport scientist and administrator.

Content knowledge in the subject will investigate holistic athlete development from three perspectives. Firstly, from an organisational perspective of the structures that have developed within Australian sport to cater for the needs of athletes both on and beyond the playing field. Secondly, from the perspective of the legal and ethical responsibilities which sport is obliged to assume for the well-being of its employees. Thirdly, a more strategic perspective is adopted which draws on contemporary human resources knowledge to propose an array of benefits that can accrue to organisations that develop and implement an athlete welfare program that is based on recognising the human dignity of the athlete and the spirit of sport. This unit aims to address the issue of holistic athlete development from each of these three perspectives.

In order to best enable students to achieve unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. A range of assessment strategies are used including: a written task, to assess understanding and application of the unit content and communication of argument; quizzes, to assess knowledge and understanding of the unit; and a business case, to assess critical thinking, and application of unit learnings.

• Written Assignment - Enables students to evaluate current practices and associated structures that support athletes into, within and after their sporting careers. (30%)
• Quizzes - Enables students to demonstrate understanding of and familiarity with major concepts and literature underpinning the unit content. (30%)
• Business Case - Enables students to present a case outlining the need to invest in holistic welfare and development, including reference to moral, ethical performance and business principles. (40%)