Connections Between Negotiation of Leisure Constraints and Serious Leisure: An Exploratory Study of Adult Amateur Ice Skaters

Constraints on leisure and serious leisure are two areas of leisure research which have developed with little recognition of potential connections between them. This paper demonstrates how the simultaneous exploration of concepts related to the negotiation of leisure constraints and serious leisure can lead to mutual enrichment of the two fields. Activities which manifest the characteristics of serious leisure, and people who may be described as “amateurs” in the ways in which Stebbins (1993) has used the term, provide particularly appropriate examples of how some people encounter and negotiate constraints on participation and achieve their leisure goals despite these constraints. Adult amateur ice skating pertinently exemplifies the attributes of serious leisure, such as the degree of commitment and perseverance manifested by many of its participants. Participants in adult amateur ice skating typically progress through a leisure “career,” of which the key stages for the purposes of this study are: (1) becoming a potential participant; (2) beginning in the sport; (3) development; (4) establishment; and (5) decline or exit from the sport. We use each of these “career stages” to identify and elaborate upon the leisure constraints that are commonly encountered by adult amateur ice skaters, and the strategies they frequently adopt to negotiate these constraints.