An Examination of Athlete Lifestyle Support for Elite Youth Cricketers on a National Development Programme
type: CreativeWork
description: There have been calls for more holistic support of athletes (Gilbourne & Richardson, 2006; Henriksen, Stambulova, & Roessler, 2010; Nesti 2006; 2010) and a growing presence of athlete lifestyle programmes (Stambulova & Ryba, 2014) within elite and youth sport settings. However, there remains a need to better understand the concerns for which elite youth athletes seek lifestyle practitioner support, and to better understand the provision of this support within applied contexts (Devaney et al. 2017). The overarching aim of this PhD project was to examine how practitioner support can meet the support needs of elite youth cricketers. This aim was driven by three research questions, (A) What is the nature of and personal meaning ascribed to elite youth cricketers lifestyle concerns; (B) What demand does the nature of concerns place on a practitioner with regard to skills, philosophy of practice and organisational integration; and (C) How does the broader socio-cultural context influence the provision of support? The study was a uniquely applied, three-year practitioner-researcher ethnographic case study. As practitioner-researcher, I was fully embedded as an athlete lifestyle practitioner within a National Cricket talent development programme for three years. This included, but was not limited to, planning and strategic meetings, training camps, school and county visits, international and domestic tours and matches. The depth of embeddedness provided rich insight of the lives and experiences of the staff, and the players who were aged between 15 and 19. This insight was supplemented by retrospective interviews of players who had previously progressed through the programme. Underpinned by an existential theoretical approach, the project adopted a qualitative research design. Data was collected through observations, field notes, interviews (formal and informal), case notes and practitioner-researcher reflections. Data was thematically analysed (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and dr…
abstract: There have been calls for more holistic support of athletes (Gilbourne & Richardson, 2006; Henriksen, Stambulova, & Roessler, 2010; Nesti 2006; 2010) and a growing presence of athlete lifestyle programmes (Stambulova & Ryba, 2014) within elite and youth sport settings. However, there remains a need to better understand the concerns for which elite youth athletes seek lifestyle practitioner support, and to better understand the provision of this support within applied contexts (Devaney et al. 2017). The overarching aim of this PhD project was to examine how practitioner support can meet the support needs of elite youth cricketers. This aim was driven by three research questions, (A) What is the nature of and personal meaning ascribed to elite youth cricketers lifestyle concerns; (B) What demand does the nature of concerns place on a practitioner with regard to skills, philosophy of practice and organisational integration; and (C) How does the broader socio-cultural context influence the provision of support? The study was a uniquely applied, three-year practitioner-researcher ethnographic case study. As practitioner-researcher, I was fully embedded as an athlete lifestyle practitioner within a National Cricket talent development programme for three years. This included, but was not limited to, planning and strategic meetings, training camps, school and county visits, international and domestic tours and matches. The depth of embeddedness provided rich insight of the lives and experiences of the staff, and the players who were aged between 15 and 19. This insight was supplemented by retrospective interviews of players who had previously progressed through the programme. Underpinned by an existential theoretical approach, the project adopted a qualitative research design. Data was collected through observations, field notes, interviews (formal and informal), case notes and practitioner-researcher reflections. Data was thematically analysed (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and dr…
author: Devaney, D
keywords: RC1200 Sports Medicine
date published: 2019-06
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:30:28Z
provider: Liverpool Jon Moores University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Liverpool John Moores University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.24377/LJMU.t.00010852