Talent development environment in a professional football club in Norway

Abstract

The research on talent development is increasing, even though most of it has focused on the individual athlete. By using a holistic and ecological approach to talent development and especially the players’ environment, one could highlight how the environment facilitates player and team development. The purpose of this study was to analyse the recruit team of the professional football club Ranheim F.C. in Norway. Principal methods of data collection included interviews, participant observations of life in the environment, and analysis of documents. The environment was centred around the relationship between coaches and players, and although the supporting staff was relatively small, the inclusive and supportive approach from competent coaches was essential. The characteristics of the environment included that players were encouraged to take responsibility for their own development, exercise self-reflexiveness and the ability to handle the challenges that may arise in the life of young football players, and optimize the everyday lives of the players. Despite economic challenges within the club, the environment compensated with spirit, volunteerism, and hard work.

A Qualitative Meta-Study of a Decade of the Holistic Ecological Approach to Talent Development

“…Last, there were eight studies with no direct reference to Bronfenbrenner's theoretical influence. Yet, this group is subdivided into two papers (Henriksen et al, 2014;Larsen et al, 2013) citing the bioecological framework via and the remaining five papers (Flatgård et al, 2020;Haukli et al, 2021;Henriksen et al, 2010b;Larsen et al, 2020;Mathorne et al, 2020;Ryom et al, 2020) citing studies based on different theoretical underpinnings. Using different phases of Bronfenbrenner's work has previously been criticised (Tudge et al, 2009) and is, therefore, an important point to consider moving forward.…”

“…Theory testing research would entail sampling neutral environments and testing the ATDEs for the presence of the proposed success factors. The remaining studies featured one predetermined unsuccessful ATDE (Henriksen et al, 2014) and two neutral ATDEs (Aalberg & Saether, 2016;Flatgård et al, 2020).…”

“…We found a consensus in the research that some areas of the working models, particularly organisational culture, benefited from the philosophical assumptions of interpretivism. The subsequent seven studies all carried out thematic analysis (Aalberg & Saether, 2016;Flatgård et al, 2020;Haukli et al, 2021;Larsen et al, 2020;Mathorne et al, 2020;Ryom et al, 2020;Seanor et al, 2017). They also represent a reversal of the analysis where findings were initially coded concerning the study objective and then grouped into higher-order themes.…”

“…Henriksen et al (2010a) suggest that peer relationships can be challenging; Henriksen et al (2011) propose that non-sport peers can be a source of positive relief; yet, Henriksen et al (2014) suggest that such challenge is a clear negative feature. Furthermore, the exclusive focus on sport-specific skills found in Henriksen et al (2014) is also highlighted in several other studies (Aalberg & Saether, 2016;Flatgård et al, 2020;Haukli et al, 2021;Larsen et al, 2013Larsen et al, , 2020. Six studies (Aalberg & Saether, 2016;Flatgård et al, 2020;Henriksen et al, 2010aHenriksen et al, , 2011Henriksen et al, , 2014Seanor et al, 2017) mention that the prospects are expected to be responsible for their own psycho-social skill development, yet, provide no examples of support for this development.…”

“…We believe that exploring open and neutral cases is an important next step rather than contrasting good with the opposite pole. Two studies in the current synthesis (Aalberg & Saether, 2016;Flatgård et al, 2020) refrained from passing judgement on the successful or unsuccessful nature of the ATDEs. Instead, Aalberg and Saether (2016) considered that it might be a coincidence that some environments are successful.…”