Initiation and Introduction Into Sport Participation: New Member Experiences With Collegiate Sport Clubs

Abstract

Participants new to a sporting activity develop initial motivations while being confronted with a variety of constraints that must be successfully negotiated in order to participate. Further, motivations change over time, as do constraints, but there has been little examination of these concepts with regard to new participants. As such, this study examined why new collegiate club sport members were motivated to join a sport club and what constraints they face. Through semistructured interviews (N = 11) new sport club members reported being motivated by a variety of reasons, while social support acted as a strong facilitator to continued involvement.