1. An evaluation of athlete perceptions of ACE assistance upon
Time management skills: A prerequisite for all Australian elite athletes?
An evaluation of athlete perceptions of ACE assistance upon
athletic performance
The Asics Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport, Port Douglas, 2010
Lisa Fraser1, Gerard Fogarty2, Majella Albion2
1University of the Sunshine Coast, AUSTRALIA
2University of Southern Queensland, AUSTRALIA.
Introduction
Interest in the holistic development of athletes emerged from studies indicating that athletes experience many difficulties with development of life skills, career planning, decision-making, identity foreclosure, and transition away from sport.
The National Athlete Career and Education (ACE) program aims to support Australia’s elite athletes to achieve a more balanced life perspective by assisting them to develop important life skills, and preparing them for their future careers beyond retirement without compromising their sporting goals.
Previous evaluations of the program have revealed positive results, with most athletes shown to be aware of the various services offered through the program and to be generally satisfied with the usefulness, delivery, and quality of those services.
However, these evaluations have not measured the perceptions of the athletes using these services in relation to the impact that ACE assistance may have had in relation to their sporting performances.
Areas of ACE assistance rated:
Time management skills
Long-term career planning
Issues related to education
Issues related to employment
Issues related to financial situation
Results
Of those athletes who indicated that they had accessed one of the five ACE services investigated, at least 78% of athletes in any one instance reported that accessing the service contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance.
As shown in Figure 1, 91% of the athletes who have been assisted with time management skills felt that these services contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance.
This study aimed to gauge whether the athletes who have used ACE services perceived that the service had contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance in any way.
Figure 1. Response percentages for time management skills
Figure 2 shows 86% of the athletes who accessed assistance with long-term career planning felt that these services contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance.
Methods
Participants. 286 athletes (171 females) linked with the Australian institutes and academies of sport, who had indicated that they had previously used ACE services, were included in the sample.
256 participants were current sporting scholarship holders, while 30 participants had retired from elite sport and were therefore no longer on scholarship.
Procedure. Each athlete was asked to respond to a brief questionnaire designed for the study which asked them to indicate whether:
Figure 2. Response percentages for long-term career planning
Figure 3 indicates that 84% of the athletes who accessed assistance for issues related to education felt that these services contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance.
Figure 3. Response percentages for education issues.
In addition, 78% of the athletes (N = 108) who accessed assistance for issues related to employment and 89% of the athletes (N = 28) who accessed assistance for issues related to their financial situations felt that these services contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance in some way.
Age, sex and group status (current vs retired) were investigated in order to develop a better understanding of the types of individuals who were finding the services useful. The results suggested that all five services are perceived as being of benefit to a range of athletes, regardless of age or gender.
they had accessed ACE services in five specific areas, and if so
to what degree they felt that the assistance that was provided to them by ACE contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance
Conclusion
Overall, the results show that the athletes who accessed these ACE services valued the assistance that they were given, perceiving it as having a mostly positive impact on their athletic performance. However, it remains unknown whether this translates into better actual performance results for these athletes. Those athletes that indicated they had accessed ACE assistance with regard to time management skills were the most likely to say that these services contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance.
It is important to note that this is not based upon each athlete’s actual performance results, but is an expression of each athlete’s perception of the value, in relation to their performance, that they gained from accessing ACE services.
Acknowledgement: This study was supported by an Australian Sports Commission Grant.
Correspondence: Lisa Fraser,