ISSP Position Stand: To Test or Not to Test? The Use of Physical Skill Tests in Early Phases of Sport Development

A Searching for talent and the assessing ability in young prospects from individual and team sports often include measurement, analysis, and evaluation of physical and motor skills. The use of these tests in early stages of talent development has been widely observed in both female and male prospects. The purpose of this paper is to review a series of studies conducted on talented and less-talented athletes/ players that were aimed at distinguishing between the two groups and at predicting the athletes’/players’ future achievements/success. Thirteen studies examining the use of physical and motor skill tests in young prospects are reviewed. Based on this review, four main observations are highlighted and a number of benefits and limitations associated with the use of such tests are discussed. It is recommended that (1) coaches reduce the number of batteries of physical and motor skill tests used in early phases of talent development and (2) coaches and sport scientists specializing in measurement and evaluation cooperate in order to improve the effectiveness of the application and interpretation of physical skill tests given to prospects at early stages of talent development.

Expertise in Ultra-Endurance Triathletes Early Sport Involvement, Training Structure, and the Theory of Deliberate Practice

The theory of deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993) is predicated on the concept that the engagement in specific forms of practice is necessary for the attainment of expertise. The purpose of this paper was to examine the quantity and type of training performed by expert UE triathletes. Twenty-eight UE triathletes were stratified into expert, middle of the pack, and back of the pack groups based on previous finishing times. All participants provided detailed information regarding their involvement in sports in general and the three triathlon sports in particular. Results illustrated that experts performed more training than non-experts but that the relationship between training and performance was not monotonic as suggested by Ericsson et al. Further, experts' training was designed so periods of high training stress were followed by periods of low stress. However, early specialization was not a requirement for expertise. This work indicates that the theory of deliberate practice does not fully explain expertise development in UE triathlon.

Season-Long Examination of the Intervention Tone of Coach-Athlete Interactions and Athlete Development in Youth Sport

Objectives: Coaches are a primary influence on athletes' development in youth sport (Horn, 2008). However, the intervention tone of coaches' behaviour has not been directly observed. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between the intervention tone exhibited by youth sport coaches and athletes' individual developmental trajectories over the course of a season. Design: Short-term longitudinal study with behavioural observation. Method: Fifty-five athletes and their coaches from five youth volleyball teams were observed at three time points, and the intervention tone of interactive behaviour was systematically coded and organized by coach-athlete dyad. Athletes completed measures of the 4C's of athlete development (competence, confidence, connection, character) at each time point, which were used to create individualized developmental trajectories. Person-centred analyses were used to examine associations between athletes' developmental trajectories and their unique interactive experiences with their coach. Results: Cluster analysis revealed the presence of three distinct clusters based on athletes' developmental trajectories: 1) high and increasing, 2) low and decreasing, and 3) moderate and maintaining, with athletes from each team distributed across clusters. Analysis of dyadic interaction profiles revealed significant differences in interactive behaviour between clusters. Conclusions: Results suggest that differences in coach-athlete interactive experiences are associated with different developmental trajectories over the course of a season, even for athletes working with the same coach, highlighting the individualized nature of coaches' influence on young athletes. Practical implications for coaches include a critical awareness of their unique interactive relationship with each athlete independently, as well as the importance of fostering these relationships with regard to young people as more than just athletes.

Project SCORE! Coaches’ Perceptions of an Online Tool to Promote Positive Youth Development in Sport

Research points to the potential of youth sport as an avenue to support the growth of particular assets and outcomes. A recurring theme in this line of research is the need to train coaches to deliberately deliver themes relating to positive youth development (PYD) consistently in youth sport programs. The purpose of the study was to design and deliver a technology-based PYD program. Project SCORE! (www.projectscore.ca) is a series of 10 lessons to help coaches integrate PYD into sport. Four youth sport coaches completed the program in this first phase of this research and were interviewed. The goal of this study was to gain some insights from coaches as they completed the program. Positive comments about the program (i.e. ease of use, success of particular lessons, coach’s personal growth) and challenges regarding teaching positive skills to youth are discussed. These results helped to shape the program and make necessary changes so that it may be used for a larger research study. Other implications and future research directions are discussed.

Bullying Victimization and Perpetration Among Adolescent Sport Teammates

Purpose: Bullying is a specific pattern of repeated victimization explored with great frequency in school-based literature, but receiving little attention within sport. The current study explored the prevalence of bullying in sport, and examined whether bullying experiences were associated with perceptions about relationships with peers and coaches. Method: Adolescent sport team members (n = 359, 64% female) with an average age of 14.47 years (SD = 1.34) completed a pen-and-paper or online questionnaire assessing how frequently they perpetrated or were victimized by bullying during school and sport generally, as well as recent experiences with 16 bullying behaviors on their sport team. Participants also reported on relationships with their coach and teammates. Results: Bullying was less prevalent in sport compared with school, and occurred at a relatively low frequency overall. However, by identifying participants who reported experiencing one or more act of bullying on their team recently, results revealed that those victimized through bullying reported weaker connections with peers, whereas those perpetrating bullying only reported weaker coach relationships. Conclusion: With the underlying message that bullying may occur in adolescent sport through negative teammate interactions, sport researchers should build upon these findings to develop approaches to mitigate peer victimization in sport.

Experience in Competitive Youth Sport and Needs Satisfaction: The Singapore Story

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sport experiences and psychological needs satisfaction of Singapore high school athletes who were involved in inter-school competition. A total of 1250 school athletes from 22 sports participated in the study. The athletes were between 13 and 18 years old and had an average of 3 years of experience in school sport (SD=.18). Cluster analysis was employed to identify homogenous groups based on the seven developmental experiences domains of the Youth Experience Survey (YES 2.0; Hansen & Larson, 2005). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine whether differences existed among the clusters in terms of psychological needs satisfaction (i.e., sense of autonomy, perceived competence and relatedness). The results of the cluster analysis showed that there were different subgroups of athletes with distinct developmental experiences, and they varied in the degree to which their psychological needs were satisfied. Generally, subgroups that had high levels of positive experiences and low levels of negative experiences in sport had better fulfillment of psychological needs. It is important to ensure that policies and programmes are formulated, delivered and monitored effectively to promote positive experiences for youth who are involved in competitive sports.

ISSP Position Stand: To Sample or to Specialize? Seven Postulates About Youth Sport Activities that Lead to Continued Participation and Elite Performance

A comprehensive approach to sport expertise should consider the entire situation that is comprised of the person, the task, the environment, and the complex interplay of these components (Hackfort, 1986). Accordingly, the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (Côté, Baker, & Abernethy, 2007; Côté & Fraser-Thomas, 2007) provides a comprehensive framework for sport expertise that outlines different pathways of involvement in sport. In pathways one and two, early sampling serves as the foundation for both elite and recreational sport participation. Early sampling is based on two main elements of childhood sport participation: 1) involvement in various sports and 2) participation in deliberate play. In contrast, pathway three shows the course to elite performance through early specialization in one sport. Early specialization implies a focused involvement on one sport and a large number of deliberate practice activities with the goal of improving sport skills and performance during childhood. This paper proposes seven postulates regarding the role that sampling and deliberate play, as opposed to specialization and deliberate practice, can have during childhood in promoting continued participation and elite performance in sport.

Towards a Definition of Excellence in Sport Coaching

In this paper,we propose different definitions of coaching excellence based on two principles. First,the application of coaching skill,as in any other domain of excellence,is context-dependent. Second, excellent coaches are knowledgeable and constantly assemble mental models that enable them to meet their athletes' needs and to effectively manage the central duties of coaching - organization, training, and competition. Four categories of coaches and corresponding definitions are proposed based on the characteristics of athletes and the developmentally-appropriate sport contexts: 1) participation coaches for children, 2) participation coaches for teens and adults, 3) performance coaches for young adolescents, 4) performance coaches for older adolescents and adults.