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.
  • Sport as a Career - The sports field as a regulated industrial workplace – the role of the player associations, collective bargaining, etc.
  • Sport as a Career - 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.
  • Expected capabilities - Preparing the body – systems that impact on performance
  • Expected capabilities - Psychological needs and appropriate support
  • The athlete brand - The meaning of a personal brand
  • The athlete brand - Identifying relevant personal and sport related brand attributes
  • The athlete brand - Meeting employer and market expectations as an athlete
  • The athlete brand - The athlete as a person - could this be a source of competitive advantage?

• Study resources

  • Instructional methods

    • Podcasting/Lecture capture
    • Discussion forum/Discussion Board
    • Web links
    • Overview Notes
    • Online Quizzes/Tests
    • Online assignment submission

  • Online materials

    • Resources and Links
    • Printable format materials

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

Core

• ACU-SPL-GCE-2020

Special requirements

No special 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.

This subject aims to address the issue of 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.

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

• Written Assignment (30%)
• Quizzes (30%)
• Business Case (40%)