at

Hall

Received in revised form2 May 2013Accepted 4 May 2013Available online 18 May 2013

Keywords:

Objectives: To explore: (i) How elite and professional sport culture might steer individuals towards

arenes

derstandings of human lives, identities, development, and

mized, leading the cause of problematic experiences to be locatedwithin individuals as opposed to cultures. Criticisms have also beenmade (e.g., Hammack & Cohler, 2009) of a tendency for sociologicalstudies to obscure the ways individual agency shapes identity,behavior, and experience. According to Hammack and Cohler(2009, p. 11), a need exists to appreciate lives as more than mere

inherently driving development.ent sport and ex-oth of which givege (McGannon &ltural phenomena.ne approach thatme to understandf their immersionannon & Mauws,

2000, p. 153). Discursive psychology has generated new un-derstandings of sport and exercise experiences in several studies(e.g.,McGannon & Spence, 2010; Thomsson, 1999).

Narrative psychology provides a second approach on the basisthat stories individuals tell of their lives offer insights into thecultural settings in which they are immersed. In McLeods (2006, p.207) terms, the concept of narrative provides a bridge between thestories told by specic persons, and the dominant discourses andnarratives within which we all collectively live our lives. In this

* Corresponding author.

Contents lists available at

po

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Psychology of Sport and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708E-mail address: d.carless@leedsmet.ac.uk (D. Carless).behavior. Crossley (2003, p. 288), for example, suggests there isscant space in mainstream contemporary psychology to investigatequestions of self and identity from a perspective that retains a senseof both psychological and sociological complexity and integrity. ForMcGannon and Spence (2010), a key reason for this is that psy-chology has tended to conceptualize the self as processes and/ormechanisms within the mind (p. 18). Consequently, Crossley(2000) suggests, sociocultural context has historically been mini-

Two approaches have been employed in recercise psychology research to bridge this gulf, bprimacy to the process and outcome of languaSpence, 2010, p. 18) as a way to explore sociocuDiscursive psychology has been proposed as orecognizes how living, breathing organisms cothemselves and behave as persons as a result oand participation in particular discourses (McGquarters of a gulf between psychological and sociological un- simultaneously resisting simplistic portrayals of social structure asCultureIdentityMental healthProfessional sportStoryWellbeing

Over the past two decades aw1469-0292/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.05.003particular stories, identities, and actions; (ii) How athletes navigate or respond to these cultural pressures.Design: Cross-sectional qualitative methodology.Method: Narrative interviews and focus groups with 21 elite and professional athletes followed by anarrative analysis of structure and form.Results: Athletes demonstrated one of three processes. Individuals who live the part of athlete story theirlife and act in ways that conform to a culturally dominant performance narrative. Here, identity isforeclosed, relationships sacriced in the pursuit of success, and long-term wellbeing threatened. Overtime, alternative narrative types may provoke moral reection on their story and actions. Individualswho resist the part of athlete sustain a life story and identity that deviates from the performance narrative,drawing on alternative narrative types. Their resistance is typically overt as they publicly demonstrateactions that align with their multidimensional story. Individuals who play the part of athlete modify theirstory and actions depending on sociocultural context. These individuals covertly maintain a multidi-mensional life story, but silence this story when powerful others require performance stories.Conclusions: Although some elite/professional athletes life stories revolve around performance out-comes, this is not a prerequisite for excellence. Other athletes achieve excellence while sustaining amultidimensional life story and identity. To do so, they navigate a culture that expects a performancefocus, through overt resistance or covertly manipulating their public stories and actions.

2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

s has grown in some products of some biological or psychological sequence whileArticle history:Received 4 February 2013a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tLiving, resisting, and playing the part ofelite sport

David Carless a,*, Kitrina Douglas b

a Institute of Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure, Leeds Metropolitan University, FairfaxbUniversity of Bristol, United Kingdom

Psychology of S

journal homepage: www.elAll rights reserved.hlete: Narrative tensions in

, Headingley Campus, Leeds LS6 3QS, United Kingdom

SciVerse ScienceDirect

rt and Exercise

vier .com/locate/psychsport

f Spsense, narrative provides away of studying lives that acknowledgesthe connection between the possible trajectories of developmentand the construction of those possibilities by a given social structure(Hammack & Cohler, 2009, p. 11). Narrative approaches avoidprivileging structure over agency, viewing the relationship be-tween culture and the individual as reciprocal and co-constitutive.

Strong rationales have been offered for narrative research insport and exercise psychology (e.g., Smith, 2010; Smith & Sparkes,2009a) and narrative approaches have increasingly been used inrecent years across a number of sport and exercise contexts. Theseinclude, for example, spinal cord injury (e.g., Smith & Sparkes,2002; Sparkes & Smith, 2003), mental health (e.g., Carless &Douglas, 2008; Carless & Sparkes, 2008), eating practices (e.g.,Busanich, McGannon, & Schinke, 2012; Papathomas & Lavallee,2006), ow (Sparkes & Partington, 2003), aging (e.g., Phoenix &Smith, 2011), and professional sport (e.g., Douglas & Carless,2006a, 2009a, 2009b). Building on this growing tradition, we usea narrative approach in this study to explore the stories shared byelite and professional sportspeople; the cultural narratives thesestories draw upon; and their implications for identity developmentand life experiences.

Narrative theory

In common with discursive approaches, narrative theory chal-lenges the notion of a natural and obvious separation of self andsociety (McGannon & Spence, 2010, p. 18). Instead, self and iden-tity is seen as inuenced by social categories that precede the in-dividual (McLeod, 1997), shaped through interactions in specicsociocultural contexts (Holstein & Gubrium, 2000), and thereforesocially constructed (Gergen, 1999). Critically, identity is under-stood as developed and sustained through story telling processes eas Smith (2007, p. 391) puts it: people understand themselves asselves through the stories they tell and the stories they feel part of.Thus, identity is construed not as residingwithin the individual, butas a sociocultural project created through stories (Crossley, 2000).

From the perspective of narrative theory, stories are understoodnot merely as portrayals of lives but as active agents in the con-struction of those lives. In Franks (2010, p. 3) terms: Stories workwith people, for people, and always stories work on people,affecting what people are able to see as real, as possible, and asworth doing or best avoided. Particularly signicant are thosenarratives that have become culturally dominant e stories that arewidely and routinely told and retold within a particular context.When a single narrative type becomes dominant, it overrides orsilences alternative stories. As a result, it can come to exhibit adisproportionate inuence on individuals lives, to the point that itmay colonize an individuals sense of self, constricting identityoptions to those that are problem saturated (Neimeyer, Herrero, &Botella, 2006, p. 132). A potential solution is the availability ofalternative types of story that provide narrative resources to sup-port a re-storying of self and identity through resisting a dominantnarrative (see Busanich et al., 2012; Carless & Douglas, 2008, 2009b;Frank, 2010; Freeman, 2010; McLeod, 1997; Phoenix & Smith, 2011;Sparkes & Smith, 2003).

Narratives in elite sport

The need to integrate sociocultural and psychological perspec-tives is particularly acute if we are to better understand the lives ofelite and professional sportspeople. Athletes inhabit a culture awashwith public stories relating to (preferred) identities, (expected) be-haviors, and (assumed)developmental trajectories. These stories arewidely circulated and amplied by the sport media. We have sug-

D. Carless, K. Douglas / Psychology o702gested, however, that one particular narrative type is dominantwithin elite sport culture: a performance narrative (Douglas &Carless, 2006a). The plot of performance stories revolves aroundachieving performance outcomes (e.g., winning and/or being thebest), underlying many stories recited by the media, coaches, sportpolicy makers and governing bodies, and athletes (Carless &Douglas, 2012). It is a story of single-minded dedication to perfor-mance to the extent that phrases like winning is everything areroutine. In this narrative, performance-related concerns come toinfuse all areas of life while other areas are diminished or relegated.

Drawing on narrative theory, we have suggested (Carless &Douglas, 2009) that the performance narrative is a monologuedistinguished by a strong but rigid hierarchy of self-positions withone or a few positions dominating the repertoire (Hermans, 2006,p. 152). The self-position that dominates the repertoire in perfor-mance stories is that of athlete or sportsperson, and it is from thisposition that life is narrated. Because performance stories are ori-ented towards a singular outcome, they can be understood, inEzzys (2000) terms, as a linear narrativewhich assumes people cancontrol their lives, tending to down play the signicance of otherpeople and of environmental constraints on their actions (p. 616).Monological or linear narratives often privilege the individual andpersonal agency, encouraging separation over connection (seeJosselson, 1996). This may be considered a further hallmark ofperformance stories.

Although a performance discourse has been discussed inrelation to youth sport pedagogy (Ingham, Chase, & Butt, 2002), wehave found no published studies specically using narrative ap-proaches to explore elite athletes experiences (aside from our ownwork). However, the concept of athletic identity (Brewer, VanRaalte, & Linder, 1993) is relevant as an exclusive athletic identityis often portrayed in performance stories. Warriner and Lavallee(2008, p. 302) articulate a widely held view that: Achievingexcellence in elite sport typically involves incredible sacrice anddedication, which often prevents athletes from engaging inadequate exploration of different roles and behaviors associatedwith identity formation. This belief falls in line with the perfor-mance narrative, but is troubling when it is recognized that:Commitment of ones identity to the sport role without explora-tion of alternatives indicates a state of identity foreclosure(Warriner & Lavallee, 2008, p. 302). While our research with pro-fessional golfers (Carless & Douglas, 2009; Douglas, 2009; Douglas& Carless, 2006a, 2009a) supports the second statement, it chal-lenges the rst by demonstrating how some golfers achieveexcellence without sacricing identity development. These in-dividuals are able to resist the performance narrative by storyingtheir lives around the contours of a discovery or relational narrativeand, by doing so, mitigate the dangers of the performance narrativeand an exclusive athletic identity. To achieve this, however, athletesmust navigate considerable cultural pressures.

Despite these insights, a number of questions remain unan-swered: How does sport culture act on individuals to steer themtowards particular stories? How do individual athletes navigate orrespond to these cultural pressures? Howdo these processes unfoldin sports other than golf? What might be the consequences for in-dividual athletes? These are the questions this study explores, witha view to generating new insights into the psychosocial dynamics ofelite and professional athletes lives.

Methods

Working within the interpretive paradigmwe aim to understandand illuminate human experience, striving to elucidate meaningand interrogate existing assumptions regarding social experience.We see knowledge as socially constructed and therefore our goal is

ort and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708to sustain conversation and debate, rather than attempt to act as a

f Spomirror to nature, as a source of foundational, universal truth(McLeod, 1997, p. 142). In keeping with this position, we advocatethe relativist position described by Sparkes and Smith (2009) asthe most suitable way to judge our research. Here, criteria areselected to suit the particular purposes of the study. For this study,we suggest the following criteria, proposed by Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber (1998, p. 173): (i) width, which relates to thecomprehensiveness of the ndings; (ii) coherence, which concernswhether different parts of the interpretation create a meaningful,complete picture; (iii) insightfulness through a sense of innovationor originality in the presentation and analysis; (iv) parsimonythrough offering a succinct, elegant, or aesthetically appealinganalysis.

Participants and procedures

The data for this study were collected during a research projectcommissioned by the UK Sport Council (Douglas & Carless, 2006b)and approved by the ethics committee at Kitrinas institution. Theparticipants comprised 21 elite and professional athletes (11 fe-male, 10 male) between 18 and 44 years of age and registered onthe UK Sport Councils athlete support program. Participants weredrawn from the following sports: track and eld athletics, rowing,rugby union, swimming, cricket, judo, canoeing, hockey, andnetball.

Because researching elites raises challenges in terms of accessand recruitment (Hertz & Imber, 1995), we needed to be exibleand adaptable in terms of, for example, how andwhenwe collecteddata to take account of participants schedules and geographicallocation. To balance this requirement with our aims, we employedtwo methods of data collection: focus groups and one-to-one in-terviews. Initially, a series of ve focus groups were arranged andconducted for those individuals who were able to make pre-arranged times and locations. Subsequently, ve one-to-one in-terviews were conducted to suit those individuals whowere unableto attend a focus group. All interviews and focus groups wererecorded and transcribed verbatim.

Weutilized a similar approach in the interviews and focus groupsthat sought e in line with narrative life story approaches (seeCrossley, 2000; Lieblich et al., 1998; Plummer, 2001)e biographical,historical, and cultural context for each participants current lifesituation and experiences. Kitrina conducted the in-depth in-terviews and led the focus groups. As a professional sportsperson,Kitrina is an insider to the population of study and this, we felt,increased the depth of conversations, helping participants feel suf-ciently secure to be candid in the stories they shared. David playedan active role in focus groups, noting key issues as theyemerged andengaging in the conversation to clarify, contrast, or prompt furthernarrative development. Being an outsider to the population, Davidbrought an alternative perspective to the focus groups and subse-quent analysis and interpretation.

Analysis and interpretation

After immersing ourselves in the data through reading and re-reading the transcripts, we collaborated in a two stage processesof analysis and interpretation. The rst stage was a within-casethematic analysis (see Riessman, 2008) conducted to identify andexplore moments when participants stories portrayed narrativetension. Because, as previously discussed, stories are both personaland social, moments of narrative tension can provide insight intotimes when psychological and sociocultural factors interact orcollide. Thesemoments could, for example, bewhen an individualsstory of personal experience clashed with a cultural story operating

D. Carless, K. Douglas / Psychology oaround them.The second stage of analysis comprised what Sparkes (2005, p.195) terms a narrative analysis of structure and form in recognitionthat the formal aspects of structure, as much as the content, ex-press the identity, perceptions, and values of the storyteller. Here,we focused on building an understanding of the processes throughwhich (i) sport culture steers participants towards particular storiesand (ii) individual athletes respond to these cultural pressures.Examining the narrative organization and plot/s of participantsstories extended our understanding of how culturally availablenarrative types informed each individuals personal story andbehavior. (For in-depth accounts of the kinds of analytical andinterpretive practices we employed, see Lieblich et al., 1998;Riessman, 2008; Smith & Sparkes, 2009b.)

Findings

We found three distinct processes in action as athletes negotiateand respond to the culture of elite sport. For clarity, we summarizethese here, before exploring them in detail by drawing on thestories of three particular participants who serve as exemplars thatdemonstrate these subtle and complex psychosocial processes inaction. This representational strategy has been used in severalnarrative studies (e.g., Phoenix & Smith, 2011; Sparkes & Smith,2003).

Individuals who live the part of athlete story their life and act inways that conform to the plot of the performance narrative. Atcertain times, however, they experience moments of signicanttension, typically when their personal experience deviates from theperformance script. The availability of an alternative narrative type(a counter-story) may provoke reection on their story and actions.Individuals who resist the part of athlete maintain a life story thatdeviates from the performance narrative, drawing on alternativenarrative types. Their resistance is typically overt as they publiclydemonstrate a range of actions that align with their multidimen-sional story. Individuals who play the part of athlete consciouslymodify their story and actions depending on sociocultural context.These individuals covertly maintain a multidimensional life story(demonstrating alternative narrative plots) but silence their storyin public settings when they perceive powerful others expect aperformance story.

Living the part of athlete

The story shared by Suzanne (a 29 year-old member of theBritish hockey team) provides an illustration of the process bywhich some individuals live the part of athlete.

This excerpt portrays a distinct sense of tension arising fromthis:

I have to say that relationships have suffered because of myhockey. So if I hadnt been playing hockey then I still thinkmaybe I would have still been with a certain person. So I chosehockey really ultimately. Yeah. But things like family illnesses,cause with hockey you do so much travelling and you know youcould be on the other side of the world, and if somethinghappened Im surewithin the drop of a hat Id be home. But thenwhen I was younger, sometimes you can be so blinded by thefact that its so good to be an elite sportsperson that youdsacrice absolutely anything for it. Ive seen things where peoplehave done certain things and I think: will you regret that in, like,a couple of years time?

Can you give us an instance of that?

Yeah, I probably can. A teammates sister had a miscarriage and

rt and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708 703she was away on a training camp and her sister really wanted

Within Alexs story is a sense of deviance e even mischievous-

f Spher to go home. And the coach kind of suggested she shouldntgo home so she didnt. And, you know, as her teammate I e[pause]. Its your sister e you cant ever forget that. If someoneneeds you at the time then e [pause]. To them its just her sister.Its: shes away playing hockey. And hockeys just, you know,pathetic. And in the grand scale of things it is just a game. And Ithink a lot of people just lose sight of that. I think you do justhave to keep one eye on reality because when you are sur-rounded by people who want the same goal you can be blindedby it. And coaches can be blamed for that, totally for that. Theycan totally blind you and in some instances they can, you know,emotionally bribe you about things.

Suzannes life story largely conformed to a performance script.This is illustrated above when Suzanne says, you can be so blindedby the fact that its so good to be an elite sportsperson that youdsacrice absolutely anything for it. Here, her story connects to thevalues of a performance narrative where being an elite athlete isstoried as desirable and achievable only through sacrice. Themagnitude of sacrice Suzanne describes (absolutely anything) isin line with the tendency for performance stories to be totalitarian,prioritizing sport performance ahead of other values, story plots,and ways of being.

We suggest that particular characteristics of the performancenarrative discussed earlier (e.g., monological/linear story,privileging the individual and personal agency) underlie the ten-sion in Suzannes story, present from the rst sentence (relation-ships have suffered because of my hockey). By contemplating nolonger being with a previous partner and whether or not to be withfamilymembers at times of illness andmiscarriage, Suzanne evokesa counter-story e a relational narrative e which prioritizes inter-connectedness, relationships, and living or being with and foranother (Douglas & Carless, 2006a). These characteristics are, at afundamental level, at odds with the individual agency that un-derlies the performance script, directly challenging the mono-logical and linear nature of the performance narrative. Thereforethese two aspects of Suzannes story exist in some degree ofnarrative tension.

According to Frank (2010, p. 14), Stories act in human con-sciousness, with individuals sometimes being aware of what storyis acting and sometimes not. Suzannes story portrays how theculture of elite sport acts upon not only athletes thoughts andstories, but also their behaviors. In this example, Suzanne experi-ences expressions of the performance narrative by others asshaping her own actions, as well as those of teammates (the coachkind of suggested she shouldnt go home so she didnt). WhenSuzanne says, you do just have to keep one eye on reality becausewhen you are surrounded by people who want the same goal youcan be blinded by it, she reveals how, as recent research has alsoshown (e.g., Busanich et al., 2012), sport culture operates throughrelationships between people via the circulation and reproductionof a dominant storyline. Suzannes account suggests that immer-sion and participation in a culture where performance stories weretold and retold over time blinded her to alternative stories.

Within Suzannes story, however, is a sense of personal changeover time. Like several of the older and more experienced athleteswe interviewed, Suzanne came to question the performance scriptas she moved through her sport career. Evident in her reections(when I was younger.) and the questions she asks (will youregret that in a couple of years time?), is a sense of temporalprogression that sees her weighing or even judging her own andothers prioritization of sport ahead of family and personal re-lationships. The challenge, Freeman (2010, p. 12) writes, is toidentify the ways in which these cultural narratives have perme-

D. Carless, K. Douglas / Psychology o704ated ones being and, in the process, to break away from them andness e as this multiple Olympic medal-winning athlete is able todisregard the terms of the expected performance script, yet stillreach the highest level in sport. His story challenges the argumentthat achieving excellence prohibits exploration of alternative rolesand behaviors (Warriner & Lavallee, 2008) and requires the sacriceof relationships (Holt & Dunn, 2004). It also contravenes a corepremise of the performance narrative that the only way to besuccessful in elite sport is to place sport performance at the centerof ones life story (Douglas & Carless, 2006a) in four ways: Alex (i)puts happiness before performance; (ii) places maintenance offriendships alongside or ahead of training; (iii) believes there ismore to life than just swim, swim, swim; and (iv) refuses to besap them of their coercive power. Suzannes account reveals howshe came to recognize the ways the performance narrative hadpermeated her own life and reject some of the moral and ethicalassumptions that underlie it. For Freeman (2010, p. 5), the narrativereection possible through hindsight plays an integral role inshaping and deepening moral life. Similar to some other elitesportspeople (see Carless & Douglas, 2013; Douglas & Carless,2009a), Suzanne seemed to achieve e through reection overtime e new self-understanding of a moral and ethical kind that ledher away from a performance story and towards the values of arelational narrative.

Resisting the part of athlete

In contrast to individuals like Suzanne whose stories align withthe performance narrative, some athletes stories do not follow theperformance plot. Instead, their stories and actions overtly resistand contravene its script. The following excerpts shared by Alex (a29 year-old British Paralympic swimmer) provide an illustration:

Where I live is a prime example. I live there because I want to behappy. And I have to travel 8 miles to get to my training venue,which isnt far anywhere else in the country, but I have to do itthrough London trafc so sometimes it can be a 45 minutejourney and I knew that when Imoved to London. But I thought Iwouldmuch rather be in London and be surrounded by all of myfriends and able to almost check in and out of a swimmingtraining session. I can just leave it behind. I knew that when Imoved to London, that just my sort of living costs would gothrough the roof but I thought it would be worth it in terms ofjust being happier. Cause I was training in Manchester beforeand it was all swim, swim, swim. Id moved to Manchester and,as you can tell, Im not from the north, and I moved there and Ididnt. know anyone who lived in Manchester.

Education was very important to me . I didnt want to bebeholden to swimming because sometimes the people you getmixed up with in sport at a management level are just the worstpeople on earth. Theyre bad managers, poor communicators.Im talking about performance managers, team managers, per-formance directors. Sport is littered with them. One of thethings that has been great when Ive been on the team is Ive justthought if I want to I can just quit this now and I can go out and Ican get a job earning the same amount of money and my life,where I live, isnt in danger and all that sort of thing. There are,you know, a lot of people on the sports teams now, on theswimming team now, and I think in a lot of sports now, wherethey havent got an education, any sort of further or higher ed-ucation, and you do kind of look at them and think, what are yougoing to do if you dont swim? Literally, what are you going todo?

ort and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708beholden to swimming.

sustaining a multidimensional life story and set of behaviors based

f SpoAccording to McLeod (1997, p. 94): Even when a teller isrecounting a unique set of individual, personal events, he or she canonly do so by drawing upon story structures and genres drawn fromthe narrative resources of a culture. In other words, personalstories draw on culturally available narrative scripts. Evident withinAlexs story are (at least) two alternative narrative types. As otherstudies suggest (e.g., Busanich et al., 2012; Phoenix & Smith, 2011),these alternatives are important because they provide a point ofresistance to the dominant narrative. The rst of these is the pre-viously described relational narrative, in which relationships withothers are storied as equally important as e or more importantthane training or performance outcomes. Gilligan (1993) describesa host of positive developmental consequences that arise throughsuccessfully sustaining a relational orientation. The second is adiscovery narrative (Douglas & Carless, 2006a) that may beconsidered the antithesis of the performance narrative (p. 22). Indiscovery stories, self-worth is not related to sporting achievementand the need to explore and discover a full life takes precedenceover the need to perform in sport, regardless of the expectations ofothers.

The two excerpts illustrate how Alexs story, rather than beinglinear and monological like the performance narrative, is insteaddialogical or polyphonic. According to Lysaker and Lysaker (2006, p.59), dialogical models of the self:

Conceptualize the self and its many narratives as the products ofongoing conversations both within the individual and betweenindividuals. According to these models, complementary andopposing aspects of the self, or self-positions, are thought tobring signicance to one another through their interaction ordialogue, leading to the experience in the moment of a sense ofpersonal depth.

In much the sameway, Ezzy (2000, p. 613) describes polyphonicnarratives as characterized by overlaid, interwoven and oftencontradictory stories and values. Alexs story is notable in that it istold from multiple self-positions, in contrast to the singular self-position from which performance stories are articulated. Incontrast to tellers of linear or monological stories, Ezzy suggests,polyphonic narrators embrace many of the contradictions andtensions in their accounts rather than suppressing them (p. 613).

Research suggests that the distinction between a monolgical(linear) story and a dialogical (polyphonic) story has implicationsfor both psychosocial wellbeing and long-term personal develop-ment (Ezzy, 2000; Hermans, 2006; Lysaker & Lysaker, 2006). Notleast of these, Ezzy observes, is the assumption underlying linearnarratives that individuals can control their life, minimizing thesignicance of other people and of environmental constraints. Incontrast, Ezzy (2000, p. 616) writes, polyphonic narrativesrecognize the limited control humans have over their environmentand that outcomes are contingent on these environmental andsocial factors. In polyphonic narratives people are both activeagents and passive recipients, pushed around by forces beyondtheir control.

A sense of this two-way or reciprocal psychosocial processunfolding is present in Alexs story when, although recognizing thelimits to the control he has over his sport career (e.g., through theinuence of managers and directors), he creates and sustains futureoptions for himself through conscious, concrete actions. Critically,these actions (e.g., choosing to live where he can maintain re-lationships, continuing his education) provide the embodied ma-terial or resources for authentic relational and discovery stories.These actions are important because, as Gergen and Gergen (2006)note, building a life story is never simply a matter of inventing adiscourse. Rather, they suggest, the individuals story need to be

D. Carless, K. Douglas / Psychology obelievable (i.e., connected to current life conditions) and actionableon alternative narrative types. Tony (a 24 year-old professionalrugby union player) is one such individual, whose life story dem-onstrates relational and discovery threads. This excerpt, sharedwhile talking about his attempts to regain a place in the rst teamfollowing an injury, provides an illustration:

[I] went to see him [the coach] and said, Look, I thought Ivebeen playing well for the second team, whats happened the lastcouple of months? And he said, Well, you havent been to seeme. Your attitude stinks. Basically my tness coach had snakedme and said I hadnt done any extras and what killed me was Ihad to go and see him for him to tell me this. If I had known thatthat was the way I was being perceived then I would have donesomething about it. I wouldnt have done anything drasticbecause I felt like I was working hard anyway but I would haveprobably done something so that they know Ive been workinghard, sort of thing. For an example, they do a core group e likecore stability through here every morning at 8 oclock. Theresspecial people need to do it, so once I got this bollocking forbeing last, being perceived as being lazy, the next day I went tothis core groupe and to be quite honest with you I dont think itmakes any difference e and I went and did it for a week.

So the sole reason youre doing it is to be perceived as more serious?

Yeah. So I go in there, get my folder, Im in there at 8 oclockevery morning with one other bloke, something like that, andthen I got a tick for saying Im in there and then Imperceived fordoing work. Its not really made that much difference to mybody, but to the way they perceive me its massive. By the end ofthe twoweeks: Oh, his attitude has really changed. Knowwhat(i.e., can be put into practice). In this sense, we are never entirelyfree to invent our life story; instead, our personal story is shapedand constrained by our embodied experience of the world. At thesame time, through the process of interpellation (Frank, 2010),stories call on a person to behave or act inways that are appropriateto its plot. The two e embodied experience and story e thereforeexist in a reciprocal relationship, with each affecting the other.

On this basis, and in light of career transition research amongelite sportspeople (e.g., Carless & Douglas, 2009; Douglas & Carless2009a; McKenna & Thomas, 2007; Sparkes, 1998), Alexs story maybe regarded as a positive one from the perspective of long-termdevelopment and psychosocial wellbeing. A particular feature ofhis story is a refusal to adopt an exclusive athletic identity in favorof sustaining a broad-based, multidimensional identity. While attimes this places Alexs story in tension with elite sport culture, hereasons that this friction is worthwhile for the benets it brings.

In previous work (Douglas & Carless, 2006a), we have shownthat the dominant performance script insists that, to be successfulat the elite or professional level, athletes must be single-minded,resist other facets of life, and relegate relationships. For tellers ofperformance tales, So total is the focus on sport performance, thatthe person and the job become inseparable (p. 20). This is clearlynot the case for athletes like Alex who achieve excellence whileovertly resisting the monological performance narrative, storyingtheir lives instead around the contours of a dialogical relationaland/or discovery narrative. They exhibit an overt form of resistancethat has much in common with the regular and dyadic resistancereported among some aging bodybuilders (Phoenix & Smith, 2011).

Playing the part of athlete

A third group of athletes consciously play the part of athlete bypublicly telling and enacting performance stories, while privately

rt and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708 705I mean? And it was bollocks and we knew it was bollocks! Every

f SpWednesday we sit around after eating talking about perceptionand how its happened to every one of us, howweve all gone inand seen our tness coach and hes said something to me like:You havent done this. And then youd have to prove it to him,you have to go up and say: Ive beenworking really hard on this,I need another program cause Ive just beenworking really hardon this one. Im on the end of my phase two, can you give meanother program for phase three cause I feel like Im putting onloads of muscle? And hed be, like: Thats really good, reallyimpressed with you. Then the next meeting . hell say to thecoach: Tony is just outstanding at themoment, I really think youshould give him a go. His body is unbelievable. He hasnt evenseen my body! He hasnt done any caliper testing! He justknows from what Ive said to him.

This account offers valuable insights into psychosocial dynamicswithin elite sport culture e particularly the ways athletes bothshape and are shaped by the expectations, perceptions, and be-haviors of (powerful) others (see also McGannon & Spence, 2010).When Tony describes how my tness coach had snaked me andsaid I hadnt done any extras, he alludes to a widely sharedassumption or belief within sport culture (here, on the part ofcoaches) that hard physical work, dedication, and doingmore thanasked is required to perform at the highest level. This orientation isconsistent with the contours of the performance narrative wherededication is considered essential and sport is storied as work(Douglas & Carless, 2006a). In Tonys account, two members of thecoaching staff are portrayed as subscribing to the values of thisnarrative type, expecting e or demanding e dedication (i.e., aparticular attitude) and hard work (i.e., commitment to additionalphysical training) as a prerequisite of being a professional athlete.

This excerpt also reveals that as a professional athlete Tonyconsiders it is, rstly, necessary and, secondly, that he is able tocontrol, manage, or inuence the decisions of powerful others. Ashe put it: If I had known that that was the way I was beingperceived then I would have done something about it. Here, Tonyworks in a planned, active, self-conscious, and targeted manner tomanipulate the perceptions of powerful others whose decisionsexert a very real inuence on his career development and earningpotential. These decisions, in Tonys account, are subjective judg-ments made on the basis of Tonys behavior and talk. In otherwords, the coachs observations of what Tony does and the storieshe tells (publicly) provide the basis for the decision that Tony is notready to return to the rst team.

To effect change in the coaches perceptions, it is less that Tonysees a need to change what he actually does (in a concrete,embodied way), but rather that he sees a need to publicize, market,or promote those aspects of himself that are communicated asdesirable by the coaching staff. In his account: I wouldnt havedone anything drastic because I felt like I was working hard anywaybut I would have probably done something so that they know Ivebeen working hard. Thus, Tony consciously and deliberatelychanges the kinds of stories he tells the coaching staff and adjustsaspects of his behavior (such as attending the morning coretraining session) to appear in a way that is consistent with theirexpectations. Tony makes these changes even though they do not,to him, result in perceptible improvement in performance. Thedirection of change or realignment is, we suggest, towards thescript of the performance narrative: Tony realigns his public storiesand behavior to t more closely with the kind of performance storythat is expected e or demanded e by the coaching staff.

Tonys actions can be understood, in Goffmans (1959) terms, asa particular presentation of self designed tomanage or inuence theresponses of others. In Butlers (1990) terms, his actions can be seen

D. Carless, K. Douglas / Psychology o706as the performance of a particular identity that is valued andrewarded within a specic cultural setting (of professional sport).Butler (1990, p. 25) argues that: identity is performativelyconstituted by the very expressions that are said to be its result. Inthe preceding excerpt, we see this process in action as Tony per-forms (or presents himself in) the role commonly expected ofprofessional athletes. This is not an identity or self that Tony storiesoutside of sport culture, but rather an aspect of self that is per-formed when required, a role that he plays which ts with thescript of the performance narrative. Thus, Tony plays the part ofathlete (as dened by the terms of the performance narrative)while immersed in professional sport culture, where his career andearnings depend on decisions made by powerful others who sub-scribe to the performance narrative.

Yet this is not a part that Tony takes as his authentic self; it isnot a story he routinely tells elsewhere. Rather, Tony is consciouslyaware that he is giving a performance. Within different culturalsettings e where there is no need to tell this story or fulll thisidentity e Tony (like Alex before) presents a broader, multidi-mensional, dialogical self. During the interview, for example, Tonyvariously shared stories of his family, his partner, his passion forcooking and desire to train as a chef, and his love of theater anddance. These diverse stories demonstrate that Tony has establisheda repertoire of self-positions fromwhich he narrates his life. It is notthat case that Tonys life is storied from the singular, monologicalposition of athlete. Rather, Tony achieves a dialogical self that isconstructed through stories told from multiple self-positions(Lysaker & Lysaker, 2006).

Through this process, Tony is able to both survive (or thrive) inprofessional sport culture while covertly resisting cultural pres-sures towards a singular athletic identity. Without at times playingthe part of athlete, it seems likely that Tonys sport career would behindered through his continued exclusion from the rst team. Onthe other hand, by adopting or internalizing the performancenarrative as his own story or authentic self, he risks sacricingvaluable and important aspects of his identity. This is importantgiven the threats that adherence to the performance narrativeposes for identity development and wellbeing (see Carless &Douglas, 2009, 2013; Douglas & Carless, 2009a).

When Tony says, Its not really made that much difference tomy body, but to the way they perceive me its massive, he suggeststhat particular performances or presentations of self really do work(and may even be necessary) for success in elite sport. They worknot because they affect objective performance, but because coachesand selectors (and others) expect them. Matching the kind of self anathlete performs and the stories s/he tells to the preferences ofcoaches and selectors can be an effective way to modify their per-ceptions, decisions, and actions. Doing so can signicantly affectcareer development and earning potential. Tonys story suggeststhese processes are not uncommon: he recounts how, in behind-the-scenes or backstage conversations, teammates shared similarexperiences, leading to agreement that its happened to every oneof us.

Conclusion

This study reinforces research in sport and exercise psychology(e.g., Busanich et al., 2012; McGannon & Spence, 2010; Phoenix &Smith, 2011; Smith & Sparkes, 2002; Sparkes & Smith, 2003)which has shown that development, identity, and behavior are notsimply a product of psychological processes located within in-dividuals, but powerfully shaped by sociocultural factors. It extendsexisting research in professional golf (e.g., Carless & Douglas, 2009;Douglas & Carless, 2006a, 2009a) bymaking these processes visiblein the context of several other elite and professional sports. In

ort and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708addition to showing that these processes occur, our study develops

Psychology, 21, 213e230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10413200902795109.

Gergen, K. (1999). An invitation to social construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Gergen, M., & Gergen, K. J. (2006). Narratives in action. Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 112e

f Sporecent research by revealing how they occur through identifyingand detailing three psycho-sociocultural processes experienced byelite athletes.

We document, rstly, how a dominant performance narrative isroutinely circulated within elite sport culture (through being toldand re-told by powerful others such as coaches), pressurizing orcoercing athletes into narrating their life in ways that follow itsparticular plot. Because a story calls for or requires actions andbehaviors that t its plot in order to be sustained, some athletescome to live this story, excluding or denying aspects of their livesthat fall outside the performance narratives focus on performanceoutcomes. Our study forewarns of the potential consequences ofthis as cultural processes exert pressure on athletes to be or becomesomething that is likely to be damaging to wellbeing and devel-opment. We illustrated these processes by drawing on the story ofSuzannewho experienced a degree of emotional tension and regretreecting on relationships that were sacriced or suppressed in thepursuit of performance outcomes.

Secondly, our study contributes a new insight to the literatureconcerning the ways other athletes avoid living, buying into, orinternalizing the performance narrative. These individuals overtlyresist the monological performance plot to sustain instead a dia-logical life story. To do so, individuals such as Alex draw on alter-native narrative resources sourced from outside elite sport culture,such as relational and discovery narratives. The scripts of thesedialogical narratives call for connection, interdependence, explo-ration, diversity, and multiplicity over and above individuation,personal gain, singularity, and linearity. While relational and dis-covery stories are at odds with the dominant performance narra-tive, our study underscores recent elite sport research to suggestthey do not compromise performance excellence but hold positiveconsequences for identity and wellbeing (e.g., Carless & Douglas,2009; Douglas, 2009; Douglas & Carless, 2006a).

Resisting a culturally dominant narrative is, however, never easyand rarely without costs. One cost is the risk of being excluded orostracized from a culture on the basis of perceived difference fromnorms or expectations. For elite and professional athletes, thiskind of exclusion has the potential to lead to loss of earnings and/orcareer development through, for example, de-selection or loss ofsponsorship. Our study documents how a third group of athletes(such as Tony) counteract these risks by playing the part of athlete inparticular contexts. Rather than living the part of sportsperson asscripted by the performance narrative, these individualsconsciously present or perform themselves in ways that align withthe performance script, when they perceive it necessary to do so. Atthese times, through deliberately manipulating their public be-haviors and stories they align themselves with the expectations ofpowerful others (such as selectors, managers, coaches). As a result,they are able to survive within the performance-dominated cultureof elite and professional sport. Importantly, however, the (mono-logical/linear) story they tell and the (singular) identity they enactat these moments is markedly different to the (dialogical/poly-phonic) stories and (multidimensional) self evident in their livesoutside sport. The extent to which this manipulation may affectlong-term wellbeing is a matter for future research.

In light of these ndings, we suggest there is a need for those ofus who live and work in sport e whether as psychologist, coach,athlete, lecturer, researcher, teacher, ofcial, broadcaster, journalist,or policymakere to reect on the kinds of storywe tell and therebyperpetuate regarding what it is to be or become an elite sports-person. To what extent do we uncritically reproduce the damagingand debilitating performance narrative that dominates sportingdiscourse on the mistaken assumption that this script is the onlyway to achieve sporting success? By retelling and re-enacting this

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants for willingly andgenerously sharing with us stories of their lives. We also thank andacknowledge the UK Sport Council who funded the research wehave drawn upon in this article. Finally, we thank the three anon-ymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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D. Carless, K. Douglas / Psychology of Sport and Exercise 14 (2013) 701e708708

Living, resisting, and playing the part of athlete: Narrative tensions in elite sportNarrative theoryNarratives in elite sportMethodsParticipants and proceduresAnalysis and interpretation

FindingsLiving the part of athleteResisting the part of athletePlaying the part of athleteConclusionAcknowledgmentsReferences