Challenge and trauma on the talent development pathway
There appears to be general consensus that experiencing a degree of challenge can be the key to successful development in sport (Collins & MacNamara, 2012). Indeed, considerable evidence suggest that negotiating challenging experiences can facilitate growth and development through the process of deploying of psycho-behavioural skills (e.g., Collins et al., 2016b; Howells & Fletcher, 2015). Given that research focusing on the role of challenge is still in its infancy, the aim of this thesis was to provide a vivid insight into the nature of experiences, and subsequent behaviour, of young developing players as they negotiated challenge along the talent pathway. Reflecting the chronological order of progression of players on their talent pathway, Chapter 4 explored the pre-academy experiences of fifteen young team sports players through semi-structured interviews. Results showed that young players arrived at the academy with a fledging set of coping skills. Also, these findings provided a novel insight into the genesis and early development of these skills. More specifically, young players acquired an aptitude from general experiences and upbringing, whereby they had already started to develop and deploy more focused skills to navigate specific challenges, prior to arriving at the academy. Building on these findings, Chapter 5 employed a mixed-methods design to longitudinally track nine young footballers to explore how players continue to develop once in a more structured level of the academy. This chapter attempted to explore the experiences of young players as they negotiated challenge over a 15- month period. Findings demonstrated that players progressed through a series of stages in each challenge, the magnitude and rate of which were highly idiosyncratic. Indeed, the perceived impact, scale, and, ultimately, consequential developmental impact of these challenges appeared to vary greatly with players displaying different responses to similar events. Such inter-individual differences were underpinned by several individual factors (such as prior experiences and perceived coping skills), contextual characteristics of the challenge (such as type and timing) and support around the challenge (such as priming and reflection opportunities). Notably, these distinctions lied in the perception of challenge. Extending on these findings from a player perspective, Chapter 6 attempted to offer a more in-depth, ecologically valid picture at the nuanced relationship between challenge and growth, by triangulating the perceptions of players with their coaches. Importantly, this investigation revealed important inter-role differences in perceptions of the nature, impact and benefits of challenges. Overall, this thesis provides a comprehensive investigation of the role of challenge in young players’ development pathway. Critically, Chapter 7 provides applied recommendations to support young players’ development through specific guidelines for deploying, periodising, and supporting challenge for key stakeholders.
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