Stig Arve Sæther

“You’re Not Born with Talent” Talented Girls’ and Boys’ Perceptions of Their Talents as Football Players

Generally in sports, there is a strong assumption of a connection between skill level in young age and adulthood. Studies have mainly focused on the coaches’ understanding and role in identifying and developing talent. In this article we turn our attention towards the athletes’ perspectives, interviewing talented young football players (five boys and five girls) about their perceptions of their own talent and development. The objective of the article is to investigate how boys and girls perceive their talent and to discuss how various perceptions influence coaching practice in talent development. We introduce the following questions: (a) do the players use a static or dynamic perception of their own talent and (b) do the players consider specific or general skills to be most important in their skill development? Results show that the boys have a more static perception of talent compared to the girls. Furthermore, the boys in this study stress the importance of highly specified skills. The girls have a more balanced view on what is important, but tend to stress the importance of basic skills. The study suggests two potential implications. First, the coaches should be aware of the possible vulnerability following players’ static perception of talent. Second, an exclusive focus on specified skills might make for less optimal preparation for the changing demands young players meet when moving through the different levels of play on their way to high level football. In future research it would be interesting to investigate how players with a lower skill level, not yet regarded as talent, perceive their talent and skill development.

Talent development in football: are young talents given time to blossom?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what degree football clubs recruit talents and give them playing time in matches. It also investigates if foreign players displace younger talents. Furthermore, it analyses to what degree the use of younger talents and foreign players influence the performances of clubs. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data are from Norwegian elite clubs, and come from two web sites: www.altomfotball and www.nettavisen.no. The analyses were done by means of OLS-regressions. Findings – OLS-regressions showed that clubs that had many foreign players gave less playing time to U20 players than other clubs did. However, these clubs did not have fewer younger talents in the squad than other clubs did. This indicates that foreign players reduce the playing time being given to younger players, but not their ability to train with other teammates. The clubs that won the most points gave less playing time to U20 players (in terms of minutes). Surprisingly, the regr...

The Talent Development Environment in a Norwegian top-level football club

Abstract Because international elite football is concerned with talent identification, this has generated a great deal of knowledge about what it takes to become a professional footballer. This research has however primarily focused on individual development and how external factors affect athletic performance. In this article we sought to describe the characteristics of the developmental environment in the youth department of the Norwegian elite club Rosenborg BK. Our case study, using a holistic and ecological development perspective as a framework, we followed the club’s under-19 team for a total of 21 days, during 3 separate weeks in the 2014 season. The results showed that Rosenborg seems to offer an environment focusing on aspects highlighted by the ecological model athletic talent development environment (ATDE). The club seems to focus on giving players tools and resources both on and off the field, using a holistic and systematic methodology. Yet it appears that the club has a weak relationship between the youth department and its own senior team, even indicating a competitive relationship, also found in other elite academies. Furthermore, it may seem that the importance of developing players with local ties is downgraded because of the club’s need for short-term success.

Stress among Talents in a Football Academy

This article studies Norwegian football academy players who have been part of a professional club at level 2 in Norwegian elite football. The purpose of the article is to report the stress levels of selected players in 2013 and 2016. In addition, the study compares the reported stress level of players who were part of the academy in both 2013 and 2016, with that of the players who were new to the academy in 2016. The selection consists of two groups of players between 12 and 16 years: group 1 consists of 57 players (age 12.8 years) from 2013 and group 2 consists of 51 players (age 15.0 years) from 2016. The results show that the 2013 players reported a signifi cantly higher evaluation and development stress and signifi cantly lower academic stress. The youngest age group reported a signifi cantly higher evaluation stress compared to both the 14-year-olds and the 15–16-year-olds. Compared to the oldest players, the 12–13-year-olds reported a signifi cantly higher development stress and a signifi cantly lower academic stress. Furthermore, the results showed that the players who had been part of the academy for a long time reported signifi cantly less stress on both dimensions – evaluation and development stress. The results would indicate that coaches should be aware of newly recruited players because of their potential lack of safety in the role as an academy player. Further studies should be conducted to see to what extent these results can be confi rmed in other academies or other similar performance groups.

Norwegian Football Academy Players – Player´S Self-Assessed Skills, Stress and Coach-Athlete Relationship

Background : Being part of a football academy environment is associated with many advantages. Even so, academy players will also encounter a range of personal and interpersonal challenges that might affect their development, including stress and the coach-athlete relationship. Objective : This study’s purpose was to investigate how football academy players assessed their own skills compared to their teammates, and how this is associated with perceived stressors and their perceived relationship with their coach. Method : Participants (N= 122) represented 3 football academies (12-19 years old). Instruments used were CART-Q and a modified version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire. Results : The results showed that the players with high-perceived skill reported a higher amount of self-organized training, more playing time, and a lower level of performance stress compared to the low perceived skill players. The results also indicate that the players perceived they had a close coach-athlete relationship and a low level of stress. Conclusion : The results suggest that low perceived skill players should receive equitable focus from coaches, especially related to their performance stress.

The Relative Age Effect, Height and Weight Characteristics among Lower and Upper Secondary School Athletes in Norway and Sweden

The relative age effect (RAE) has been found among youth elite athletes within a range of sports. However, the RAE has been studied to a lesser degree among youth non-elite athletes, and even less among school pupils attending sport specialisation programmes (SSPs). The aim of the present study was to investigate RAE, height, and weight, and compare Swedish lower secondary school and Norwegian upper secondary school pupils. Study 1 includes 156 lower secondary school athletes (95 boys and 61 girls) following an SSP in Sweden, while study 2 includes 111 upper secondary school athletes (81 boys and 30 girls) from two Norwegian schools. The RAE was found in both male groups, but only in Swedish girls. Furthermore, the relationship between birth month, height, and weight was found to be non-significant. These results indicate a vital RAE effect among youth non-elite athletes attending SSPs in both lower and upper secondary schools.

Characteristics of Professional and Non-Professional Football Players – An Eight-Year Follow-Up of Three Age Cohorts

Th e goals of the research were to determine the construct validity and reliability of two psychological instruments (AIMS) and (PSICA) applied on samples of college sport students ; the correlations between the students’ competition rank, years of engaging in sport, and level of physical exercise ; the differences among the universities in different countries, as well as among students from different years of study. Th e stratified sample included students from six universities, in total 1498 female and male college sport students, with an average age of 20.35±1.76 years (males) and 20.14±1.55 years (females). Both psychological measuring instruments showed very satisfactory psychometric properties. Reliability is particularly high for males for AIMS, while the reliabilities for PSICA are mainly moderate to high and lower than for AIMS. Th e results could be explained in terms of cultural and organizational differences, and provide the information about directions in designing efficient programs for physical exercise.

Descriptive analysis of objectively assessed physical activity among talented soccer players: a study of three Norwegian professional football clubs

Background Talented football players are expected to overcome large training and match loads, indicating a high weekly level of physical activity (PA). Aims With the use of accelerometers, the aim of this study was to objectively describe the players’ total time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), vigorous PA (VPA) and very vigorous PA (VVPA) per day in 1 week. Since high-intensity PA has been highlighted as important in terms of overall PA load, we also included 2 and 4 min bouts of VPA. Methods Data were collected in three junior teams in professional football clubs in March (club 1: 2014, club 2: 2012 and club 3: 2011). A one-way analysis of variance was applied to analyse differences between the three respective clubs. Results The players averaged 77.2–86.2 min in MVPA, 14.9–18.5 min in VPA and 1.0–3.1 in VVPA per day. While there were no differences in total time spent in MVPA and VPA per day, VVPA was significantly higher in club 1 (p<0.01) compared with clubs 2 and 3. Moreover, when using the VPA bouts, club 3 (p<0.01) achieved significantly more time in this intensity compared with clubs 1 and 2. Conclusion This study acknowledges the importance of including both club-related and non-club-related PA when analysing talented football players’ PA level. We suggest that future studies examining players’ PA with accelerometers should emphasise time spent in high-intensity PA and how this is associated with physical overload, psychological burnout and risk of injury.

Norwegian Junior Football Players – Player’S Perception Of Stress According To Playing Time

Abstract This study’s purpose was to investigate how junior football players representing a professional club experienced stressors according to there given playing time. Participants (N43) represented 3 football clubs (mean 17.4 yrs). The results showed that the players playing all matches reported a lower level of stress related to performance and future stress compared to the players playing few matches. Furthermore, evaluation and performance stress was reported higher among player given few matches compared to players playing most matches. Even so, the present study found that Norwegian junior players have a low level of stress. Based on this fact, our results suggest that coaches should focus on the players playing few matches, since they reported a higher level of stress on three dimensions, potentially impairing their development as football players.