Supporting Academy Football Coaches to Develop Psychological Attributes in Male Academy Players

The overarching purpose of this thesis was to support academy football coaches to better facilitate the psychological development of young players. To achieve this purpose, three empirical studies were conducted, each with a respective aim. Study one (Chapter 3) aimed to first identify the key psychological attributes to develop within young academy players. Building on study one, study two (Chapter 4) aimed to explore the coaching strategies that can facilitate the development of each psychological attribute, and also to examine the observable behaviours that indicate that the attribute is developed. Finally, study three (Chapter 5) aimed to apply the knowledge constructed in study one and two by designing, delivering, and evaluating a sport psychology coach education and support programme at a case study football academy. Study one (Chapter 3) interviewed nine academy coaches who worked within a category one football academy, with eight psychological attributes constructed from thematic analysis of the interviews: commitment to develop, confidence, coping with the demands of high-level sport, drive to achieve goals, emotional control, resilience, self-aware and reflective, and strong work ethic. The findings provide greater direction for the attributes to develop in academy players but also indicate that current frameworks may not fully capture the key psychological attributes players need to develop in order to successfully progress out of the academy. Study two (Chapter 4) interviewed twelve, category one and two, academy football coaches to explore the coaching strategies used to develop each of the eight psychological attributes identified in study one. Fifty-two coaching strategies were constructed across the attributes providing academy coaches with a catalogue of user-friendly strategies to support their players’ psychological development with. Study two also identified behaviours that indicated the successful development of each attribute, knowledge that can help coaches to observe, intervene, monitor, and assess the psychological development of their players. Study three (Chapter 5) involved the design, delivery, and evaluation of a 14-month coach education and support programme with a case study academy: Dock FC. Summary coach interviews indicated that the programme was well received and helped increase awareness and to some degree their application of strategies to support the psychological development of their players. An indirect approach to the programme was taken to reflect the landscape of psychological support in academies present at the time of the study. Summary player focus groups, along with the coach interviews and researcher reflections indicated that this approach worked well, offering a tangible approach for sport psychology practitioners to adopt, more readily, in football academy environments. The research within this thesis offers empirically informed knowledge which extends the extant literature significantly. The thesis provides novel information on: (a) the key psychological attributes to prioritise the development of in the modern-day academy football player; (b) coaching strategies to support the development empirically informed psychological attributes; (c) behavioural indicators of successful psychological development; and (d) the real-world application of supporting academy coaches to develop targeted psychological attributes in the modern-day academy football academy. The insights provided in this thesis may help improve the holistic development that young football players receive throughout their football academy journey.<br/

Coaching Strategies to Develop Desired Psychological Attributes within Academy Soccer Players

The mentality of youth soccer players is one of the most important contributors towards their success within the game. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding the attributes that might be most important in this context, and limited knowledge to support coaches in developing the desired psychological attributes in players. To address this, we conducted a two-phased study. First, we explored coaches’ perceptions of the psychological attributes that give players the best opportunity to progress through academies and into professional soccer (phase one). Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) of semi-structured interviews with nine senior academy coaches led to the development of eight psychological attributes: commitment to develop; coping with demands; self-awareness and reflection; emotional control; confidence; drive to achieve goals; work ethic; and resilience. Second, we aimed to identify coaching strategies that support the development of these eight psychological attributes (phase two). Semi-structured interviews with 12 academy soccer coaches, followed by RTA, led to the construction of 55 coaching strategies alongside adaptive player behaviors that indicate the successful development of each attribute. Our findings advance current understanding of the psychological attributes that can support youth athletes’ progression into professional soccer. Moreover, we provide support for the coach-practitioner by offering conceptual and practical insights into the coaching strategies and behavioral indicators that can facilitate coaches’ endeavors to develop the psychological performance of players. In doing so, our findings may act as a framework to remove previously reported barriers to coaches addressing the psychological development of athletes through their coaching practice

Strategic understandings:An investigation of professional academy youth soccer coaches’ interpretation, knowledge and application of game strategies

The purpose of this study was to explore professional soccer coaches’ interpretations of features suggesting players’ game understanding across the age phases of professional academy youth soccer in England, with particular attention paid to the role of strategic understanding. Semistructured interviews were conducted with coaches (n = 19) of players aged 9–23 years to better understand how coaches understand and apply methods to develop players’ strategic game understanding. Data revealed that coaches prioritized the technical and tactical development of their players over strategic development. However, across the age phases, coaches encountered challenges with coaching for strategic understanding (i.e., maintaining control of the game, players as problem solvers, player reflection, and coaching individuals within a team). The authors suggest that coaches and program designers need to show more intent toward developing players’ strategic understanding, becoming more purposeful when choosing “how” to develop this. In particular, coaches should consider how coaching methods that seek to develop players’ metacognitive game skills can be applied, with the goal of developing self-aware, flexible, and independent players as learners who demonstrate an appropriately “deep” understanding of the game

The collection, analysis and exploitation of footballer attributes: A systematic review

© 2022 – The authors. Published by IOS Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License (CC BY-NC 4.0)There is growing on-going research into how footballer attributes, collected prior to, during and post-match, may address the demands of clubs, media pundits and gaming developers. Focusing upon individual player performance analysis and prediction, we examined the body of research which considers different player attributes. This resulted in the selection of 132 relevant papers published between 1999 and 2020. From these we have compiled a comprehensive list of player attributes, categorising them as static, such as age and height, or dynamic, such as pass completions and shots on target. To indicate their accuracy, we classified each attribute as objectively or subjectively derived, and finally by their implied accessibility and their likely personal and club sensitivity. We assigned these attributes to 25 logical groups such as passing, tackling and player demographics. We analysed the relative research focus on each group and noted the analytical methods deployed, identifying which statistical or machine learning techniques were used. We reviewed and considered the use of character trait attributes in the selected papers and discuss more formal approaches to their use. Based upon this we have made recommendations on how this work may be developed to support elite clubs in the consideration of transfer targets.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The impact of video feedback on professional youth football coaches’ reflection and practice behaviour: a longitudinal investigation of behaviour change

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of video feedback on five English youth football coaches’ reflection and practice behaviours over a three-season period. First, quantitative data were collected using the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (CAIS) during season one and season three. Data from CAIS results showed that over the three seasons the coaches decreased their total instruction and total feedback and increased silence ‘on-task’. Four out of the five coaches also increased the use of total questioning behaviour. Second, interviews revealed how video feedback gave structure to reflective conversations that improved self-awareness and provided a trigger for behaviour change. The coaches highlighted how video-based reflection challenged their current understanding and enabled a range of learning sources to support and inform changed coach behaviour

An investigation of professional top-level youth football coaches’ questioning practice

To position learners as more central components in the coaching process, scholars suggested that coaches should employ a questioning approach, which may lead to the development of desirable learner outcomes (i.e. increased problem solving and decision-making skills). Studies, however, indicate that coaches rarely employ questions within their practice. When questions are asked, these questions rarely move beyond lower-order or ‘fact seeking’ enquiries. While this research provides information concerning the frequency and in some cases, the type of questions coaches asks, it fails to report the more discursive nature of coaches’ questioning approaches. In order to address such limitations, the purpose of this study was to investigate coach questioning practices (CQPs). We recorded the practices of five academy youth level football coaches’ and subjected the data to conversational analysis (CA), This enabled the analysis of interaction between coach and player(s). Findings revealed that CQPs, regardless of coach or context followed similar discursive patterns. In particular, three themes presented themselves in each CQP: (1) coaches’ requirements for an immediate player response, (2) leading questions for a desired response, (3) monologist nature of coach/player interaction. This showed that the coach positioned themselves as the gatekeeper of knowledge and learners as passive recipients. This reinforces the messages from previous work that has suggested coaches’ ideologies inform their practice, and are stable structures that are difficult to change. We concur with other researchers that there is a need for further investigation in this area to better understand how dominant discourse can be challenged

The Coach Expectancy Cycle and the Impact of a Coaching Education Intervention in Youth Soccer

The coach expectancy cycle is a four-stage model that explains coaches’ feedback behaviors (Horn, Lox, and Labrador, 1998). In the first stage coaches make judgments based off of previous sport experience and knowledge. In the second stage, these judgments influence coaches’ behaviors. Solomon (2008, 2012) has shown that coaches provide more instruction, praise, and corrective instruction to athletes they perceive to be higher expectancy. In the third stage, the unequal behaviors coaches exhibit affect athlete performance and satisfaction in sport. Research has shown that athletes perceptions of poor coaching behavior positively correlates with drop out (Gearity & Murray, 2011; Hollembeak & Amorose, 2005) In the fourth stage, athlete performance reinforces coaches’ initial expectations, thereby creating a continuous cycle. Although this cycle’s occurrence has been confirmed in high school and collegiate sport, the youth sport setting has seen minimal research (Solomon, 1998). The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, to confirm the presence of the second stage of the coach expectancy cycle in a competitive youth sport context. Specifically, to investigate if competitive soccer coaches provide higher instances of instruction, correction, and praise to high expectancy athletes when compared to their low expectancy peers. Second, to provide a coach education intervention aimed at decreasing the disparity of behaviors between high and low expectancy athletes in a treatment group. A strategic sample (N=8) of competitive youth soccer coaches was selected to participate in six weeks of behavioral observation. The first three weeks of data were analyzed using three Mann-Whitney U rank order tests to confirm coaches provide higher feedback to youth athletes they perceive to be high expectancy. A treatment group of coaches received an intervention to reduce the disparity in behavior. Post-intervention, three repeated measures ANOVA’s tested the effects of the intervention. Mann Whitney U tests revealed coaches provided significantly more of all three behaviors to high expectancy athletes. Although the RM-ANOVRA’s did not yield significant results, large effect sizes suggest that with a larger sample a behavioral intervention could statistically reduce the disparity of behaviors seen between high and low expectancy athletes

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills