Marc Zibung

The role of specialisation in the promotion of young football talents: A person-oriented study

Abstract This paper investigates the controversial question whether it is more effective to promote specialisation in a specific sport at the beginning of a career or whether to encourage a broad range of sports when promoting competitive sports talents in order for them to achieve a high level of performance in adulthood. The issue of promoting talents depends on human developmental processes and therefore raises developmental scientific questions. Based on recent, dynamic-interactionist concepts of development, we assume a person-oriented approach focussing on the person as a whole rather than individual features. Theoretical considerations lead to four interacting factors being summarised to form a subsystem: childhood training. The relative weights of these factors lead to patterns. By relating these to a performance criterion at the age of peak performance, particularly promising developmental patterns may be identified. One hundred fifty-nine former Swiss football talents were retrospectively interviewed about their career and the data analysed using the LICUR method. Two early career patterns were identified as having a favourable influence on adult performance. Both are characterised by an above-average amount of in-club training. One pattern also exhibits an above-average amount of informal football played outside the club, the other above-average scores for activity in other sports. Hence, comprehensive training and practice inside and outside the club form the basis for subsequent football expertise.

Motivational patterns as an instrument for predicting success in promising young football players

Abstract Psychological characteristics are crucial to identifying talents, which is why these are being incorporated in today’s multidimensional talent models. In addition to multidimensionality, talent studies are increasingly drawing on holistic theories of development, leading to the use of person-oriented approaches. The present study adopts such an approach by looking at the influence that motivational characteristics have on the development of performance, in a person-oriented way. For this purpose, it looks at how the constructs achievement motive, achievement goal orientation and self-determination interact with one another, what patterns they form and how these patterns are linked to subsequent sports success. Ninety-seven top young football players were questioned twice. Another year later, it was enquired which of these players had been selected for the U15 national team. At both measuring points, four patterns were identified, which displayed a high degree of structural and individual stability. As expected, the highly intrinsically achievement-oriented players were significantly more likely to move up into the U15 national team. The results point to the importance of favourable patterns of motivational variables in the form of specific types, for medium-term performance development among promising football talents, and thus provide valuable clues for the selection and promotion of those.

Holistic Patterns as an Instrument for Predicting the Performance of Promising Young Soccer Players – A 3-Years Longitudinal Study

Multidimensional and dynamic talent models represent the current state of the art, but these demands have hardly ever been implemented so far. One reason for this could be the methodological problems associated with these requirements. This paper will present a proposal for dealing with this, namely for examining the development of young soccer players holistically. The patterns formed by the constructs net hope, motor abilities, technical skills and biological maturity were examined, as well as the way in which these holistic patterns are related to subsequent sporting success. 119 young elite soccer players were questioned and tested three times at intervals of 1 year, beginning at the age of 12. At the age of 15, the level of performance reached by the players was determined. At all three measuring points, four patterns were identified, which displayed partial structural and high individual stability. The highly skilled players, scoring above average on all factors – but not necessarily those having the highest overall scores – were significantly more likely to advance to the highest level of performance. Failure-fearing fit players, i.e., physically strong, early developed players but with some technical weaknesses, have good chances of reaching the middle performance level. In contrast, none of the achievement-oriented, highly skilled, late-matured or late-matured, low skilled players reached the highest performance level. The results indicate the importance of holistic approaches for predicting performance among promising soccer talents in the medium-term and thus provide valuable clues for their selection and promotion.

The Motor Subsystem as a Predictor of Success in Young Football Talents: A Person-Oriented Study.

Motor tests play a key role in talent selection in football. However, individual motor tests only focus on specific areas of a player’s complex performance. To evaluate his or her overall performance during a game, the current study takes a holistic perspective and uses a person-oriented approach. In this approach, several factors are viewed together as a system, whose state is analysed longitudinally. Based on this idea, six motor tests were aggregated to form the Motor Function subsystem. 104 young, top-level, male football talents were tested three times (2011, 2012, 2013; Mage, t2011 = 12.26, SD = 0.29), and their overall level of performance was determined one year later (2014). The data were analysed using the LICUR method, a pattern-analytical procedure for person-oriented approaches. At all three measuring points, four patterns could be identified, which remained stable over time. One of the patterns found at the third measuring point identified more subsequently successful players than random selection would. This pattern is characterised by above-average, but not necessarily the best, performance on the tests. Developmental paths along structurally stable patterns that occur more often than predicted by chance indicate that the Motor Function subsystem is a viable means of forecasting in the age range of 12–15 years. Above-average, though not necessary outstanding, performance both on fitness and technical tests appears to be particularly promising. These findings underscore the view that a holistic perspective may be profitable in talent selection.

Talente finden und fördern im Sport

Das Ziel des Erreichens von Spitzenleistungen hat im Sport eine lange Tradition und auch in der heutigen Zeit nichts von seiner Anziehungskraft verloren. Internationale sportliche Erfolge in moglichst vielen Sportarten sind in unserer Gesellschaft (implizit oder explizit) erwunscht und stosen medial auf hohes Interesse. Der Spitzensport hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten zum wohl meistbeachteten Kulturphanomen weltweit entwickelt.

“The Early Specialised Bird Catches the Worm!” – A Specialised Sampling Model in the Development of Football Talents

Characteristics of learning activities in early sport participation play a key role in the development of the sporting talent. Therefore, pathways of specialisation or diversification/sampling are as well debated as the implementation of practice- or play-oriented activities. The related issues are currently perceived as a two-dimensional construct of domain specificity and performance orientation. In this context, it has been shown that early specialisation, with experiences in practice and play, has led to Swiss junior national team football players reaching higher success levels as adults. This study aimed to examine whether a similar approach improves chances of even being selected for junior national teams from a broader sample. Hence, 294 youth players answered retrospective questionnaires on their early sport participation when entering the Swiss football talent development programme. Using the person-oriented Linking of Clusters after removal of a Residue (LICUR) method, volumes of in-club practice, free play and activities besides football until 12 years of age were analysed along with age at initial club participation. According to the results, clusters of Football enthusiasts (p = 0.01) with the most free play and above average in-club practice and Club players (p = 0.02) with the most in-club practice and average free play had a greater chance of reaching junior national team level. Thus, high levels of domain-specific activities seem to increase the chances of junior national team participation. Furthermore, the most successful constellation (Football enthusiasts) may illustrate the relevance of domain-specific diversity, induced by several types of practice and play. In line with previous studies, specialising in football and sampling different experiences within this specific domain seems to be the most promising pathway. Therefore, we argue that the optimal model for the development of football talents is a specialised sampling model.

Polysportivität – der Weg in das sportliche Mittelmass?

Zur Breite der Ausrichtung im Kinder- und Jugendtraining bestehen kontroverse Ansichten: Soll auf eine Sportart spezialisiert oder polysportiv ausgebildet werden (Cote & Erickson, 2015)? Die Relevanz von sportartspezifischem Training fur Erfolge im Hochstleistungsalter konnte im Schweizer Fussball bereits nachgewiesen werden (Zibung & Conzelmann, 2013). Aufbauend interessiert die Frage, ob auch die Entwicklung einer hohen Leistungsfahigkeit im spaten Nachwuchsalter diesen Prinzipien folgt. Weisen dementsprechend U-Nationalspieler mehr sportartspezifische Trainingserfahrung als Juniorenspitzenfussballer mit niedrigerem Leistungsniveau auf? 290 Juniorenspitzenfussballer (darunter 57 U-Nationalspieler) wurden retrospektiv zu ihrem Sportverhalten bis zwolf Jahre befragt. Die Variablen „Clubtraining“, „freier Fussball“, „weiterer Sport“ (jeweils Umfange) sowie das Club-Eintrittsalter wurden einer Clusteranalyse zugefuhrt. Im Anschluss wurde berechnet, mit welcher Wahrscheinlichkeit die Spieler einzelner Cluster in Nachwuchsnationalmannschaften ubertreten (vgl. Zibung & Conzelmann, 2013). Insgesamt konnten funf Cluster identifiziert werden. „Spateinsteiger“ mit geringem Trainingsaufwand finden selten Zugehorigkeit zur U-Nationalmannschaft (8.2%; p < .05), wahrend „Vollblutfussballer“ mit hohem sportartspezifischem Trainingsumfang (Clubtraining und freier Fussball) uberzufallig haufig Nationalspieler werden (40.0%; p < .05). Zwischen diesen Extremen findet man „Clubfussballer“ (30.4%), „Durchschnittliche“ (17.0%) und „Polysportive“ (16.7%), deren Wahrscheinlichkeit fur Nationalmannschaftsaufgebote nicht signifikant vom Zufall abweicht. Das vorliegende Ergebnis unterstreicht die Relevanz sportartspezifischer Trainingsgestaltung, wobei diese keinesfalls im Sinn einer Monotonie verstanden werden soll. Talententwicklung erfordert offensichtlich einen sportartbezogenen Fokus, im Rahmen der Moglichkeiten gilt es aber eine grosse Variationsbreite auszuschopfen (z.B. Trendformen der Sportart), sowie die Bedeutung unterschiedlicher Settings zu berucksichtigen (z.B. nicht angeleitete Sportausubung; Cote & Erickson, 2015). Literatur: Cote, J. & Erickson, K. (2015). Diversification and deliberate play during the sampling years. In J. Baker & D. Farrow (Hrsg.), Routledge Handbook of Sport Expertise (S. 305-316). Florence: Routledge. Zibung, M. & Conzelmann, A. (2013). The role of specialization in the promotion of young football talents: A person-oriented study. European Journal of Sport Science, 13(5), 452-460.

Holistic patterns as an instrument to predict promising young football players

Multidimensional talent models represent the current state of the art. However, it remains unclear how these different dimensions interact. Based on current theories of human development, person-oriented approaches seem to be particularly appropriate for talent research. The present study adopts this approach by looking at how a holistic system consisting of the dimensions motivation, motor behaviour and the stage of development goes along with athletic performance. For this purpose, it has to be examined which patterns were formed by the constructs net hope, motor abilities, technical skills and the so far achieved percentage of the predicted adult height and how these patterns are related to subsequent sporting success. 119 young elite football players were questioned and tested three times at intervals of one year, beginning at the age of 12. At the age of 15, the performance level the players had reached was examined. At all three measuring points, four patterns were identified which displayed partial structural and high individual stability. As expected, the players showing values above average in all factors were significantly more likely to advance to the highest performance level. Physically strong, precocious developed players though having some technical weaknesses, have good chances to reach the middle performance level. The results point to the importance of holistic approaches for the prediction of performance among promising football talents in the medium-term and thus provide valuable clues for their selection and promotion.

National youth team football players between the conflicting priorities of sports success and vocational training

Abstract In view of the risks involved in relying on a professional career in football as a way of making a future living, most players of Swiss national youth football teams pursue some form of vocational training at the same time. This paper investigates the question under what conditions a successful football career is possible when faced with such a dual burden. In order to examine the development process as holistically as possible, a person-oriented approach was chosen. 159 former Swiss national youth team players were retrospectively interviewed about their careers, and the data were analysed using the LICUR method (Bergman, Magnusson & El-Khouri, 2003). This involves identifying certain patterns in the relevant variables of sports career, vocational career and family support, and then comparing these with the performance at the age of peak performance. Through this, it was possible to identify promising patterns of development. It turns out that the critical transition, at the age of about 15-16 years, is characterised overall by stability. The most successful patterns display above-average family support accompanied by above-average professional talent promotion in the clubs. In this constellation, the football players who are later successful pursue vocational training courses leading to low levels of educational qualification.

Fussball-Juniorennationalspieler im Spannungsfeld zwischen sportlichem Erfolg und Berufsausbildung

Da eine leistungssportliche Fussball Karriere mit Blick auf eine existenzsichernde Zukunft ein risikoreiches Unterfangen ist, absolvieren die meisten Schweizer Fussball-Juniorennationalspieler auch eine Berufsausbildung. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob und unter welchen Bedingungen eine erfolgreiche Fussballkarriere moglich ist, wenn parallel ein Berufsabschluss angestrebt wird. Nach Mayer (2009) vollzieht sich der menschliche Lebensverlauf in verschiedenen Lebensbereichen, die sich gegenseitig beeinflussen. Um dieser Interdependenz gerecht zu werden, wurde von einem personorientierten Ansatz ausgegangen, der Entwicklungsprozesse moglichst ganzheitlich zu erfassen vermag. 159 ehemalige Schweizer Juniorennationalspieler wurden zu ihrer Karriere retrospektiv befragt und die Daten mittels LICUR-Methode (Bergman, Magnusson, & El-Khouri, 2003) ausgewertet. Dabei wurden auf der Grundlage relevanter Variablen der sportlichen Laufbahn, der beruflichen Ausbildung und der familialen Unterstutzung spezifische Muster identifiziert und diese anschliesend mit einem Leistungskriterium im Hochstleistungsalter verglichen. Dadurch konnten erfolgsversprechende Entwicklungsmuster aufgedeckt werden. Es zeigt sich, dass der kritische Ubergang von der Development zur Mastery Phase (Salmela, 1994) insgesamt durch Kontinuitat gepragt ist. Die erfolgreichsten Muster charakterisieren sich durch eine uberdurchschnittlich hohe Unterstutzung durch die Familie bei gleichzeitig uberdurchschnittlich professionellen Forderbedingungen im Club.