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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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How do older masters athletes account for their performance preservation?
— a qualitative analysis | | Author(s) | Rylee A Dionigi, Sean Horton, Joseph Baker |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 33, no 2, February 2013 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, February 2013 |
| Pages | pp 297-319 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Sport ; Athletics ; Keeping fit ; Performance ; Qualitative Studies. |
| Annotation | The purpose of this study was to examine how older people make sense of their capacity to maintain sports performance. Performance maintenance is predominantly examined from a quantitative perspective, with little attention given to how people themselves account for it. The authors interviewed 44 competitors (23 females, 21 males; aged 56-90 years; mean age 72 years) from the 2009 Sydney World Masters Games. Four major themes emerge. First, 'Use it or lose it': performance preservation required specific 'training' and the continuation of general physical activity. Second, 'Adapt'/'modify', whereby participants compensated for their decline in speed, strength and endurance so they could continue competing in sport. Third, 'It's in my genes': participants attributed their 'family history' and/or innate 'determination' to performance maintenance. Lastly, 'I like to push myself': participants valued improved performance, pushing their bodies and winning which motivated them to continually train and compete. The findings are discussed within a framework of three key performance maintenance theories: preserved differentiation, selective maintenance, and compensation. Although compensation and continued training are effective ways to counter decline in later life, this study extends past research by showing how older athletes tend to combine and/or generalise stable and unstable attributes of performance preservation. In particular, this research highlights the importance individuals and Western society place on self-responsibility for health, competition and performance maintenance, which act as key motivating factors. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-130118204 A |
| Classmark | HT: HU: CE: 5H: 3DP |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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