Sports Professional

Also known as:

Professional Sportsperson

Introduction

Sports professionals earn money from playing sport in front of an audience. Sports played at a professional level include boxing, football, golf, horse racing, motor sport, rugby, snooker, tennis and track and field athletics.

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Work Activities

Sports professionals are people who earn money from playing sport in front of an audience. There is a wide variety of sports that can be played at a professional level, including boxing, football, golf, horse racing, motor sport, rugby, snooker, tennis and track and field athletics.

For the majority of people the amount of money they earn from their sport is not enough to live on. They must combine their sporting activities with a paid job.

Sports professionals spend most of their time practising the skills of their chosen sport. This skills training is combined with fitness training in order to improve performance. Most have coaches who teach them new skills, help them improve existing skills and keep them motivated. Professionals who play a team sport practise their skills with other team members. Sport professionals may have to follow advice about diet and lifestyle.

Skill and fitness training leads up to participation in matches or competitions. These may be just one match, as in league football, or a tournament made up of a series of matches. Successful competitors who win their matches may play several times over a period of days or weeks.

After some time off to recover, sports professionals return to their training schedule. Some sports are not played all year round, so sports professionals may have time off out of season.

Top level sportspeople are often paid by companies to promote their products. This may involve some discussion with company representatives, possibly via a promoter or manager who looks after the sportsperson's interests. It may also be necessary to appear in publicity shots or adverts and give interviews to television and radio stations.

Training schedules may mean sports professionals have to get up and go to bed early, seven days a week. Many train and work outdoors - for many sports, this carries on in all weathers.

Most sports professionals spend a considerable amount of time travelling to competitions. Some sports, for example tennis, require players to spend most of the year travelling from one competition to the next, nationally and internationally.

In several of the more physical or contact sports, the average career may be only 10-15 years. Many professionals have finished their playing careers by the time they are in their late twenties and early thirties. Some go on to opportunities in coaching, management or broadcasting.

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Personal Qualities and Skills

It is essential to be exceptionally talented in a particular sport as competition for entry is intense. If you want to compete at professional level, you must be dedicated to achieving success. Training schedules are long and tiring and consequently, many professional sportspeople find that it affects their social life.

Inevitably, sometimes even the best sportspeople do not play to their full potential and lose competitions. Therefore, you must have the self-discipline, self-confidence and dedication to carry on competing.

In team sports, you must be a good team player, and in all cases you must be able to take advice and criticism and act on it.

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Pay and Opportunities

Pay rates for sports professionals vary widely depending on the sport and the level at which they play. Some receive wages, as in any other job. Others rely mainly on sponsorship money, fees for appearing in prestigious competitions and prize money. Only a small number make very high earnings.

Professionals may work for a sports club, or be self-employed.

Many new entrants start their career in their teens. Sports professionals' careers tend to be short, with few continuing after their mid-thirties.

Not many people make a full-time living from professional sport. Greater numbers play on a part-time or semi-professional basis, combining this with other employment.

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Adult Opportunities

It is now illegal for any organisation to set age limits for entry to employment, education or training, unless they can show there is a real need to have these limits.

However, very few sports professionals start their career in adult life. For most people, becoming a professional is the result of many years of playing and training, often starting at a young age.

In several of the more physical or contact sports, the average career might only be 10-15 years. Many professionals have finished their playing careers by the time they are in their late twenties to early thirties.

Some sports offer more opportunity than others. Less physically demanding sports, such as snooker, darts and golf, have professionals who are in their mid to late 40s.

• 22% of professional sports people are self-employed.
• 9% work part time.
• 30% of employees work on a temporary basis.

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