1st Edition
Talent Identification and Development in Youth Soccer A Guide for Researchers and Practitioners
Talent development pathways in youth soccer provide opportunities for young players to realise their potential. Such programmes have become increasingly popular throughout governing bodies, professional clubs, and independent organisations. This has coincided with a rapid rise in sport science literature focused specifically on optimising player development towards expertise.
However, the decreasing age of recruitment, biases in selection, inconsistencies in the language used, underrepresented populations, and large dropout rates from pathways have magnified the potential flaws of existing organisational structures and settings. Moreover, despite both the professionalisation of talent development pathways and growing research attention, we still know little about the characteristics that facilitate accurate recruitment strategies into pathways and long-term development outcomes.
Talent Identification and Development in Youth Soccer provides an all-encompassing guide for both researchers and practitioners by gathering the existing literature to help better understand the current context of this discipline. Chapters are contributed by a team of leading and emerging international experts, examining topics such as technical, tactical, physical, psychological, social, activities and trajectories, career transitions, relative age effects, creativity, and genetics, with each chapter offering important considerations for both researchers and practitioners.
With a dual emphasis on both theory and practice, this book is an important text for any student, researcher, coach, or practitioner with an interest in talent identification, talent development, youth soccer, soccer coaching, or expertise and skill acquisition.
1. Disciplinary Approaches and Chapter Summaries:
Introducing Talent Identification and Development in Youth Soccer
Adam L. Kelly
2. Technical:
Examining Subjective and Objective Performance Parameters that Contribute Towards Developmental Outcomes and Career Progression
Adam L. Kelly, Jan Verbeek, James H. Dugdale, and Matthew J. Reeves
3. Tactical:
Measuring and Developing Tactical Knowledge and Performance in Youth Soccer Players
Adam L. Kelly, Mark R. Wilson, and Greg Wood
4. Physical:
Considering the Influence of Maturity Status on Physical Performance
John M. Radnor, Adam L. Kelly, Craig A. Williams, and Jon L. Oliver
5. Psychological:
Supporting Psychosocial Growth, Development, and Potential Challenges Experienced in Youth Soccer
James H. Dugdale, Alban C. S. Dickson, Alex Murata, Adam L. Kelly, and Kacey C. Neely
6. Social:
Investigating Social Influences on Talent and Development in Soccer
Colin D. McLaren, Mark W. Bruner, Luc J. Martin, Adam L. Kelly, Achuthan Shanmugaratnam, and Mathieu Simard
7. Sociocultural:
Reflecting on the Social and Cultural Influences on Talent in Soccer
Matthew J. Reeves, Simon J. Roberts, and Adam L. Kelly
8. Activities and Trajectories:
Exploring Pathways of Athlete Development in Youth Soccer
Alex Murata, Alexander B. T. McAuley, Matthew P. Ferguson, Martin R. Toms, and Adam L. Kelly
9. Career Transitions:
Navigating Players from Youth Team to First Team
Sofie Kent, Robert Morris, and Adam L. Kelly
10. Relative Age Effects:
Looking Back and Moving Forward
Adam L. Kelly, Laura Finnegan, Kevin Till, and Kristy L. Smith
11. Playing-Up and Playing-Down:
Conceptualising a ‘Flexible Chronological Approach’
Adam L. Kelly, Daniel E. Goldman, Jean Côté, and Jennifer Turnnidge
12. Creativity:
Creating Supportive and Enriching Environments
Sara Santos, Diogo Coutinho, Adam L. Kelly, Sergio L. Jiménez Sáiz, Alberto Lorenzo Calvo, and Jaime Sampaio
13. Transformational Coaching:
Developing a Global Rating Scale to Observe Coach Leadership Behaviours
Jordan S. Lefebvre, Adam L. Kelly, Jean Côté, and Jennifer Turnnidge
14. Genetics:
Understanding the Influence and Application of Genetics in Soccer
Alexander B. T. McAuley, Joseph Baker, Bruce Suraci, and Adam L. Kelly
15. Nutrition:
Optimising Development and Performance Through Nutrition
Matthew North, Adam L. Kelly, Jennie Carter, Lewis Gough, and Matthew Cole
16. International Perspectives:
Evaluating Male Talent Pathways from Across the Globe
Adam L. Kelly, Chris Eveleigh, Fynn Bergmann, Oliver Höner, Kevin Braybrook, Durva Vahia, Laura Finnegan, Stephen Finn, Jan Verbeek, Laura Jonker, Matthew P. Ferguson, and James H. Dugdale
17. Gender:
Disentangling Talent Identification and Development in Women’s and Girls’ Soccer
Stacey Emmonds, Adam Gledhill, Adam L. Kelly, and Matthew Wright
18. Para-Soccer:
Emphasising the Complex and Multidimensional Factors When Identifying and Developing Players with Disabilities
John W. Francis, Dave Sims, Adam Bendall, Adam L. Kelly, and Andrew Wood
19. The Goalkeeper:
Highlighting the Position Data Gap in Talent Identification and Development
Durva Vahia and Adam L. Kelly
20. Language Games:
Improving the Words We Use in Soccer Research and Practice
Joseph Baker, Adam L. Kelly, Alexander B. T. McAuley, and Nick Wattie
21. The COVID-19 Pandemic:
Rethinking Directions for Talent Development in Youth Soccer
Alysha D. Matthews, Meredith M. Wekesser, Karl Erickson, Scott Pierce, and Adam L. Kelly
22. From Knowledge to Action:
Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in Youth Soccer
Adam L. Kelly and Jennifer Turnnidge
Biography
Adam L. Kelly, PhD, is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Sports Coaching and Physical Education at Birmingham City University, United Kingdom. Alongside attaining his PhD at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, Adam is Senior Fellow of the HEA, BASES Sport and Exercise Scientist, and FA UEFA A and AYA Licenced Coach. Broadly, his research interests explore organisational structures in youth sport to better understand the athlete development process and to create more appropriate settings. He is currently collaborating with a number of regional, national, and international organisations across a range of sports, including cricket, rugby, soccer, squash, and swimming.
