No.47 May 2006 |
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Abstract
In this article, we highlight some of the environmental
influences that shape the road to excellence in football. Although genetic
factors may help determine the likelihood of achieving excellence, an
appropriate and nurturing environment is an essential prerequisite to
sporting success. Initially, we demonstrate how players’ birth dates
and their place of birth impact upon the likelihood of selection into
an elite player development programme. Next, we highlight how the quality
and quantity of practice, coupled with appropriate instruction and mentoring
by parents, coaches and other development stakeholders are all essential
ingredients in developing elite players. Finally, we review potential
implications for talent identification and development.
Key Words: nature, nurture, expertise, soccer Introduction
In most countries, professional clubs and National
Associations continually strive to identify and nurture the next generation
of elite football players. At club level, the process has become more
systematic in recent years since spiralling transfer fees and other financial
pressures related to the game’s growing commercialism have encouraged
investment in elite player development centres or football academies (Williams
and Reilly, 2000; Reilly et al., 2003). Similarly, at an international
level, the benefit of success enhances national identity and generates
increased economic productivity and wealth. Football is big business politically,
culturally and financially.
Supporters of club and country revere the major superstars
or ‘Galacticos’ of the game at previously unprecedented levels.
The esteem in which these players are held leads to an almost unquestioned
view that such individuals are blessed with divine or innate talent far
beyond that of mere mortals. The perception is that elite players are
‘born and not made’ and that genetic endowment is instrumental
to success on the playing field. Clearly, while acknowledging that not
all individuals may be gifted with the genetic make-up needed to succeed
at the highest level, it should be recognised that environmental influences
shape and, most likely, eventually determine a player’s level of
achievement. It is unlikely that any individual, no matter what his/her
genetic make-up, will achieve much beyond a fundamental grasp of the sport
without the appropriate environment to nurture and promote excellence
(Williams and Ericsson, 2005).
In this article, we outline some of the key environmental
influences that shape the development of expertise in football. What factors
help young children progress from their initial involvement in the sport
to the rarefied atmosphere of a World Cup tournament? In the first part
of the article, we consider some of the factors that may restrict the
selection of players into a more systematic training environment such
as seasonal birth date bias and place of birth. In the next section, we
provide empirical evidence to highlight the importance of appropriate
practice and instruction. An extended engagement in deliberate and purposeful
practice is deemed essential to develop and refine the skills needed to
achieve excellence on the football field. Also, we discuss the merit of
early versus late specialisation in football. In the final section of
this review, we outline the importance of social support networks such
as parents, coaches and other significant mentors in guiding players along
the road to excellence. Selection and Recruitment
Clearly, the first stage in the process of developing elite players
is to select and recruit those with the greatest potential to excel
in the sport. This process remains fairly subjective with the final
decision typically being made by a talent scout(s) or coach(es). The
difficulties involved in talent detection and identification in football
have already been well documented as has the potential role that sports
science can play in this particular process (e.g., see Williams and
Reilly, 2000; Reilly et al., 2003; Stratton et al., 2005). Although
it is hard to derive clear recommendations for practitioners from current
literature, it is worth noting two potential shortcomings in existing
selection procedures, namely, the potential bias engendered by seasonal
birth date and place of birth.
One of the most pervasive issues in the selection
of young players is the bias in favour of those players born early in
the selection year. The seasonal birth date bias, or relative age effect
as it is commonly known, has been reported in education and across a broad
range of sports (for a review, see Musch and Grondin, 2001). In principle,
one would assume that players gravitating to the elite level in football
would not be disadvantaged by their date of birth. However, skewed birth
date distributions have been evidenced for some time with those born early
in the selection year far more likely to be selected to participate in
elite player development programmes than younger individuals (e.g., see
Brewer et al., 1995). This selection bias appears to persist for all age
groups and at all levels of the game regardless of recent rule changes
intended to alleviate the problem (e.g., see Helsen et al., 2005).
Several explanations have been proposed to account
for the relative age effect. For example, those born earlier in the selection
year are more mature physically and psychologically and have likely accumulated
more experience within the sport than their younger counterparts. These
disadvantages often result in younger peers experiencing failure and frustration,
reducing their self-efficacy and resulting in withdrawal from the sport
at an early age. In contrast, older players are more likely to be selected
for competitive, higher level teams and to benefit from enhanced access
to better coaching, improved training facilities and extended playing
time compared to those born later in the selection year. The key factor
is that those involved in the talent detection and identification process
should select players based on their technical and tactical skills rather
than merely on physical attributes (Helsen et al., 2005). The aim should
be to keep as many players involved in the sport for as long as possible
so that players have the optimal opportunity to adapt and develop the
skills needed to progress to a higher level.
A more recent phenomenon has been the suggestion
that individuals born, and presumably brought up, in moderately sized
conurbation areas (i.e., population between 1,000 and 500,000 people)
are more likely to reach the elite level in sport than those who’s
developmental years are spent in smaller or larger population areas (Côté
et al., in press). The existing data relates to popular sports such as
baseball, basketball, ice-hockey and golf in North America and consequently,
it is yet not clear whether a similar pattern would be observed in football,
particularly in Europe and South America. In the United Kingdom, for example,
Premier League clubs are only allowed to recruit players who reside within
a travel distance of one hour (9-12 years) or one and a half hours (13-16
years) from their training academy and most, if not all, of the Academies
are located in conurbations with a population exceeding 500,000 people.
If this ‘birthplace effect’ exists in football, an important
pursuit would be to identify the underlying mechanisms. The suggestion
is that those brought up in more moderate size cities and towns have better
access to training resources, facilities and high quality coaching than
those from smaller or larger conurbations. Clearly, neither date nor place
of birth should be a barrier to players aspiring to play at the highest
level. Practice and Instruction: What and How Should Players
Practice?
Although selection into a systematic programme for elite player development
would appear an important precursor to excellence, this landmark merely
signifies a more formal or official starting point on the long road
to the World Cup. In order to have a chance of progressing down this
road, players must engage in practice over an extended period of time
with the specific aim of developing and refining essential skills. Several
researchers have provided empirical support for the proposal that the
eventual level of performance that players achieve in adulthood is closely
related to the amount of practice they have accumulated during their
development (i.e., more skilled players accumulate more practice hours;
see Ericsson et al., 1993). These researchers have concluded that a
ten-year commitment to practice is the usual requirement to reach expert
level (i.e., the so-called "10 Year” or “10,000 hours”
rule). This relationship between practice and level of attainment has
been demonstrated by examining the practice history profiles of players
varying in skill level. For example, Helsen et al. (1998) examined the
practice history profiles of football players in Belgium and noted that
after an average of 18 years involvement in the sport, professional,
semi-professional and amateur players had accumulated a total of 9,332,
7,449, and 5,079 practice hours, respectively. However, it must be recognised
that a proportion of these accumulated hours may be a natural consequence
of playing at a higher level (i.e., increased demands of high performance
and the subsequent heightened levels of commitment required).
More recently, researchers have suggested that other factors, such
as the type of activities and the quality of practice are more important
than accumulated practice hours in the development of expertise. Côté
et al. (2003) argued that expertise in a single sport during adulthood
is facilitated by involvement in a diverse number of sports during an
athlete’s early development. It should be noted, however, that
their conclusions in favour of late specialisation (i.e., around 13-15
years of age) are based on data gathered from North American and Australian
athletes in sports such as ice hockey, basketball and rowing. An important
issue perhaps is that in North America and Australia, no single sport
dominates the culture in the manner than football does in Europe and
South America. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Premier League
Academies may begin recruiting players as early as 6 years of age (although
players cannot be recruited officially on to the club’s books
until 9 years of age), thereby encouraging, and to a degree, constraining
players to specialise early in the sport
Ward et al. (2004) compared the practice history profiles of elite
and sub-elite players aged 9 to 18 years in the United Kingdom with
the aim of examining the relative contribution of football and non-football
activities in the development of elite players. The elite players were
attached to the Academies of Premier League clubs, whereas the sub-elite
players played for their school team. The average number of hours per
week that the elite and sub-elite players spent in football-specific,
coach-led team and individual practice, playful football activity and
match play are highlighted in Figure 1. Playful activity was classified
as fun games, or unstructured activities (e.g., ‘kick- around’
with friends or ‘free’ play) that were undertaken primarily
for enjoyment without the involvement of a coach. The amount of time
spent in football-specific coach-led individual practice was the strongest
predictor of skill before the age of 12-14 years, whereas after this
age, the amount of time spent in coach-led team practice was the strongest
discriminator between skill groups. The elite players spent twice the
amount of hours per week in team practice compared to sub-elite players
in each age category.
![]() ![]() Figure 1. Hours per week spent in team practice,
individual practice, match-play, and playful activities in football for
elite (a) and sub-elite (b) players. The participation histories of players in sports other than football
were examined to determine whether skill groups could be differentiated
on practice, play and match play in these activities. The intention
was to examine the difference in sporting diversity and its influence
upon skilled behaviour. There were no differences between the elite
and sub-elite players in the number of hours accumulated in other sports,
the number of sports played, or the age at which players stopped participating
in other sports. These findings clearly contradict those reported by
Côté et al. (2003) who proposed that expert participants
demonstrate greater diversity in the nature of their involvement in
other sports compared with less-expert performers. Although early specialisation
in a sport can have negative consequences (see Baker, 2003), it seems
inevitable that it is an important precursor to expertise in football,
albeit perhaps not to the exclusion of participation in other sports.
Since a relatively small percentage of elite youth players in the United
Kingdom progress to full-time professional status in adulthood, it is
possible that the contribution of football and non-football activities
during the development of adult professional players may differ from
those of elite youth players who do not progress to this stage. Ford
et al. (in press) revisited the sample gathered by Ward et al. (2004)
by identifying a group of players who in the intervening years had been
retained by the professional club on a full-time basis (i.e., an Academy
scholarship from 17-19 years). These players’ practice history
profiles were compared against those who were released by the professional
club at the same age and a control group of recreational players. The
data are presented in Figure 2.
![]() ![]() ![]() Figure 2. Mean hours per week (and between participant
SE bars) spent in (a) football-specific team practice, (b) football-specific
individual practice, and (c) football-specific deliberate play across
a four-year period (12-16 years) for players retained (professional) and
released by professional clubs as well as recreational players (data from
Ford et al., in press). There were no differences between the retained and released players
in relation to the amount of time spent per week in coach-led team and
individual practice over a 4-year period prior to the decision to retain
or release, although not surprisingly both groups accumulated more practice
hours than the recreational players. The amount of time per week spent
in match play and participation in other sports did not differ across
the three groups. However, players who had been retained by the club
spent significantly more hours per week in playful football activity
(i.e., in addition to the coach-led practice) during this 4-year period
compared to those who were released by the club. This playful activity
(or free play) included, for example, playing with friends, ‘street
football’, and kicking a ball around on their own in an unsupervised
manner (i.e. not coach-led). The findings support previous data from
elite Brazilian players who up to the age of 15 years participate in
large amounts of playful football activity with limited exposure to
structured coaching activity (Salmela et al., 2003).
At least two explanations exist to account for why the amount of time
spent in playful football activity differentiated elite youth football
players who progressed to professional status from those who did not.
First, because time per week spent in coach-led team and individual
practice did not differentiate retained from released players, the extra
time that the retained players spent in playful football activity suggests
that they accumulated more practice hours compared to those who were
released by the clubs. Second, the structure and conditions of playful
activity may have contributed to the observed skill differences. There
is increasing evidence to suggest that less structured and more ‘hands-off’
approaches to practice and instruction may be more beneficial for developing
adaptable and flexible players than traditional prescriptive or ‘hands-on’
coaching styles (Williams and Hodges, 2005). For example, several researchers
have recently endorsed the use of discovery learning or guided-discovery
approaches in the development of elite performers (see Stratton et al.,
2005). These approaches may reflect a perception that modern players
are over-coached and that greater opportunity should be provided to
engage in, or to simulate, the practice conditions evident when playing
‘street football’ or learning skills on the beaches of South
America. The Role of Significant Others in Elite Player Development
Parent(s)
The supportive role of the parent(s) and/or guardian is a fundamental
component of a child’s level of participation and continued success
in sport (Wuerth et al., 2004). Kay (2000) suggested that the family
was the key agent in the process of nurturing talent, while Hellstedt
(1988) identified a parental involvement continuum ranging from under-involved
at one end of the scale, to moderately-involved, and finally to overly-involved
at the other end. It appears that a moderate level of parental involvement
is best to facilitate a sporting career, whereas disinterested and,
conversely, overly-involved parents appear to play a more disruptive
role in a child’s progress. Children with overly-involved parents
are likely to perceive (and receive) higher levels of parental pressure
(Wuerth et al., 2004). Clearly, however, what may be perceived as perfectly
acceptable involvement for one child may be perceived as excessive and
stressful by another.
The relative importance of parental involvement may interact with a
child’s stage of development. Bloom (1985) offered some social
context for his stages of development namely, an initiation phase characterised
by terms such as fun, joyfulness, playfulness, excitement and special,
a developmental phase characterised by terms such as hooked and committed
(by and to sport respectively) and a perfection (or mastery) phase characterised
by an increased obsession to the sport and more responsible behaviour.
Similarly, Côté’s (1999) research concerning familial
influences categorised three main chronological stages of sport participation.
These stages included the sampling years (age 6-12 years), the specialising
years (age 13-15 years) and the investment years (age 16 years and over).
The apparent transient role of the parent and subsequent child-parent
relationship evolves as the child progresses through the various stages.
The role of the parent during the early years suggests a predominance
of support, shared excitement and interest. As the child progresses
to the middle years he/she becomes more independent and reliant on specialist
coaching, the parental emphasis is more socially oriented and their
apparent directive behaviour should decrease. The latter years suggest
minimal directive behaviour and/or direct performance influence as the
parents tend to become more passive. It is important to note the potential
differentiated role(s) of parents during the development process. For
example, some parents have been known to assume the role of coach and/or
agent throughout their child’s development. Further research is
required to understand the potentially critical (and socially oriented)
role of the parent(s) in the transition from young professional to first
team player to international player. Coach(es)
Coaches are likely to play a critical role in helping to nurture and
develop elite players. A particularly important task is to ensure that
players make optimal use of training time. Coaches have a significant
impact on the quality and quantity of practice at each stage within
a player’s development and consequently, are instrumental in ensuring
that players have the right skills to perform at elite levels of the
game (Williams and Hodges, 2005). The role of the coach is however quite
diverse and in addition to their control of the practice environment
they have a responsibility to help develop players physically and psychologically.
It is often the case that coaches act as a player’s mentor, helping
to develop the individual both as a player and a person. The relative
importance of these roles will vary depending on the player’s
stage of development and the involvement of parents and other development
stakeholders. It should also be recognised that the coach’s ability
to adopt a more socially oriented role is dependent on his/her skill
base (e.g., inter-personal skills), capacity, aspiration, belief and/or
willingness to embrace such practices.
An important task perhaps is to ensure that the right players are matched
with the most appropriate coach so as to ensure that players are able
to progress at an optimal rate. The difficulty is that this balance
is not always easy to achieve. Popular coaching dictum is mostly governed
by intuition, tradition, and emulation (Abraham and Collins, 1998),
with traditional coaching values being passed down from one generation
of coaches to the next or by the specific culture embraced by the club
and/or organization. Coaching behaviour may potentially be perpetuated
by myths with a lack of empirical evidence to guide current practice
(Williams and Hodges, 2005). A crucial challenge is to ensure that coaching
behaviour ‘evidence-based’ practice thereby providing future
elite performers with the best possible opportunity to improve and progress. Other Development Stakeholders
Those involved in youth football recognise that the development of young
players is a complex process and that support from a range of stakeholders
is needed at each stage within the development process. Young player
development demands an inclusive, appropriate and supportive environment
that draws on elements of psychological and social support such as reflective
practice, counselling, lifestyle and behavioural skills. A talented
young player should have access to a range of potential sources of social
support at various time periods along their development pathway (including
parents, coaches, teachers, welfare officers, sport psychologists, lifestyle
coaches). Social support may be offered through instrumental (or tangible)
support (e.g., financial or physical support) or through emotional (or
intangible) support (e.g., encouragement, appreciation, praise and understanding).
An outline of the existing development pathway for Academy players in
England is provided in Figure 3.
![]() Figure 3. Potential routeway(s) through the football scholarship scheme
in England (adapted from Richardson et al., 2004). The traditionally entrenched football environment is one beset with
a masculine and macho culture which may view a tendency to ‘seek
support’ as a potential character flaw. However, social support
should be viewed as a dynamic activity that strives to create mutually
beneficial relationships. In this sense, social support is something
‘you do’, something ‘you give’ and something
‘you receive’ through active collaboration and shared meaning
(see Richardson et al., 2004). Moreover, young players may be hostage
to the culture of their developmental environment and the subsequent
willingness and appropriate skill base of their social support network
to recognise, embrace and practice the value of developing shared meaning,
mutually beneficial and informed relationships. Implications for Talent Identification and Development
The intention in this article was to provide a brief overview of some
of the important environmental influences on the development of elite
football players. It appears that possessing appropriate genes, whatever
these may be, is not sufficient to ensure success on the football field.
It is apparent that expertise in football is multi-faceted in nature
and consequently, it is almost impossible to identify a particular gene
or performance test that predicts whether or not an individual will
attain excellence in the sport. Weaknesses on certain aspects of performance
(e.g., speed) can often be compensated for by strengths in others (e.g.,
good ‘game reading’ skills) (Williams and Ericsson, 2005).
Although it is permissible to design a test battery to discriminate
effectively between skill groups (e.g., see Reilly et al., 2000), the
predictive value of such measures for talent identification and selection
purposes has yet to be determined.
In contrast, there is an extensive body of research from the biological,
social, and behavioural sciences to demonstrate that the human system
is extremely adaptive to the stimulus load provided during training
and competition (see Ericsson et al., 1993). The speed and efficiency
in which individuals adapt to this training stimulus, coupled with the
motivation, commitment and persistence to engage in practice are perhaps
the most important factors underlying the attainment of excellence.
Players are greatly influenced by environmental factors such as the
quality and quantity of practice, access to appropriate training facilities
and the mentorship of parents, coaches and other development stakeholders.
The key factor would appear to be the need to ensure that players engage
in practice over an extended period of time such that players adapt
and develop the skills necessary to cope with the demands placed upon
them during practice and competition. In this regard the most interesting
questions focus on the issue of how best to create an environment that
encourages such adaptations to occur and how to keep children involved
in the sport for as long as possible. The need to provide appropriate
and plentiful practice opportunities and to foster strong support networks
involving coaches, parents and other significant development stakeholders
would appear to be crucial to developing an environment where future
generations of players can aspire to take in part in the final stages
of a World Cup tournament.
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Contact: A. Mark Williams Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, The Henry Cotton Building, 15-21 Webster Street, Liverpool, L3 2ET, UK, Tel: +44 151 231 4334, Fax: +44 151 231 4353, E-mail: m.williams@livjm.ac.uk ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 |