A conversation on bridging the research-to-practice gap in sport psychology: a collaborative approach to supporting retired athletes

Background: The research-to-practice gap remains a longstanding issue in sport psychology (Moore, 2007), with academic work being criticised for lacking an in-depth experiential understanding of applied practice challenges (Schinke et al., 2024), and practitioners lacking resources to inform their practice with research (Quartiroli et al., 2022). In response, there have been calls to move away from bifurcation, where academics and practitioners are working in isolation of one another (Schinke et al., 2024).

This panel brings together Dr Chris Rowley and Dr Helen Heaviside-Brown from Leeds Trinity University (LTU), and Dr Odette Hornby from ACT Community, to reflect on our partnership aimed at collaboratively supporting retired athletes in their transition into careers beyond sport. Through action research, our partnership seeks to meet both academic and practitioner needs in a mutually beneficial way, striving to bridge the gap between research-to-practice.
Key Points: Key items that will be discussed during the panel include: i) the distinct needs of ACT Community and LTU Sport Psychology academics, ii) approaches adopted to address these needs mutualistically, iii) challenges and compromises involved in addressing both organisations needs, and iv) methods for translating sport psychology research into accessible, meaningful resources for applied practice.

Conclusions: Drawing on our experiences, we offer recommendations for academics and practitioners for bridging the research-to-practice gap. This includes, encouraging the development of mutually beneficial university-industry partnerships, engaging in action research to serve both organisation’s needs, offering student placements to support impactful research dissemination, and presenting research in meaningful and useable ways for practitioners.