Project report: The identification of good practice principles to inform player development and coaching in European youth football A literature review and expert interviews in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain in the performance pathway Commissioned through: UEFA Research Grant Programme 2013-2014 Prepared by: J North, Sergio Lara-Bercial, Gareth Morgan and Fieke Rongen with Daniel Broche, Gregor Nentwig, Frédéric Sadys and Joe Sargison Research Centre for Sport Coaching and Physical Education Institute for Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure Leeds Metropolitan University 6 May 2014 Acknowledgements We would like to thank UEFA for sponsoring this study. We would like to thank the many national federation and club youth development experts who generously gave up their time and shared their considerable knowledge and expertise. Though there are sensitivities in sharing good practice information across competing nations and clubs the vast majority of the expert interviewees were more than willing to engage and enthusiastic about the study. A number of coaches involved have enquired regularly about the progress of the research with a keen interest in the results. Leeds Metropolitan University would like to thank Daniel Broche, Gregor Nentwig, Frédéric Sadys and Joe Sargison for their engagement in the country case studies and for their ideas in developing the study. Many thanks to Mike Ashford, Lea Dohme and Gary Hodgson who supported the Belgian and English studies. Many thanks also to Christopher Carlon and Stephen Way who helped with language translation. J North, S Lara-Bercial, G Morgan, and F Rongen 6 May 2014 Contents Executive Summary i-vii 1. Introduction 1 2. Approach 3 3. Literature Review 6 4. Expert interviews in seven European countries 43 5. Applying the principles – a preliminary comparative analysis 82 6. Conclusions and recommendations 96 References 98 Appendix 108 Executive Summary Background Football is widely regarded as the ‘world game’ with massive media profile and interest, millions of viewers and spectators, and millions of participants globally and across Europe. Central to the continuing success of football is the identification and development of young players capable of competing and performing at the highest level. Though there is a vast academic and practitioner literature which attempts to identify the factors which underpin and enable effective youth development, there has been no systematic, integrated approach which draws on the best of both academic and practitioner thinking. The research The purpose of the research was to identify the good practice principles informing player development and coaching in European youth football in the performance pathway. Principles are understood to be fundamental truths, propositions or statements that provide the basis for a system of belief, chain of reasoning, and ultimately action. Thus, to identify a principle of player development is to identify a substantive truth, proposition or statement to inform and guide decision making amongst system architects and coaches in the area of player development in football. The research combined existing theory and evidence to produce a schematic of ‘emerging principles of player development’, with new data collected from 41 leading youth development experts in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, to produce an adapted and contextualised schematic of ‘principles of player development in European football’. Process and outcome map for the research i The literature review An extensive literature search and review was undertaken including c250 references to identify the ‘emerging principles of player development’. These are the research-informed ideas suggested by the academic literature which are argued to underpin effective youth development. We argue that the emerging principles of youth development are best conceptualised as having the following high level and lower level components: The theoretical principles are concerned with the processes underpinning human development identified in developmental science and the player development literature and establish the broad parameters for player development and player development systems. They suggest that player development is multi-layered, interactionist and emergent, which means that player development is highly heterogeneous and individualised, and that player development systems need to be flexible, pragmatic, long-term, patient and suggest they are only partially subject to the control of system architects and coaches. The system principles are concerned with identifying the main structural components of effective player development systems, though they also impact on learning environments. The literature suggests that effective player development systems have a clear view on what constitutes successful outputs and outcomes from the system (or what we have called the performance model). In particular, this is concerned with the identification of a clear philosophy and culture, including ideas about effective playing styles and player characteristics. ii Effective systems also have a clear idea about how these success factors can be brought about or achieved (or what we have called the development model). This includes taking a long-term, staged approach, recognising developmental differences between younger and older players, and attending to their physical, psychological, social/lifestyle, movement/technical and tactical (PPSTT) characteristics. Effective systems also make careful use of selection methodologies to counter the implicit gamble in any selection approach. System principles also recognise that player development environments are spatially and socially embedded and that effective environments are planned, resourced, and fully understood and adhered to by all relevant stakeholders – federations, leagues, clubs, academy directors, coaches, players, parents and others. Finally, effective player development is underpinned and indeed brought to life by a skilled and committed workforce, most notably, coaches. Learning environment principles suggest that effective learning environments are linked to the performance and development models through appropriate goal setting and planning. They attend to both individual development needs as well as the team’s. Development goals are used to shape practice environments which – depending on the individual player, team and their age-stage – and may include the sampling of different sports, unstructured play, and structured practice which can have both technical (skills) or tactical (games) orientations. The careful use of competition is also very important. Approaches to player practice Finally, coaches use appropriate behaviours, for example, moderating the use of instruction and generally constructively align their sessions and approaches to the goals and tasks at hand, the individuals involved and the coaching context. The above principles are explicitly associated with a humanistic development-orientated value framework (as opposed to an instrumental and performance-orientated approach often seen in the professional game). iii The expert interviews The schematic of ‘emerging principles of player development’ was used as the basis of semi-structured interviews with 41 of Europe’s leading youth development experts in seven countries. A minimum of four interviews were conducted in each country with some countries involving many more, for example, eight interviews in Italy and ten in Spain1. What was clear from the research – at the total sample level, putting to one side for a moment individual country, club and respondent differences – was the broad expert group support of the schematic of ‘emerging principles of player development’. The research unequivocally endorses the emerging schematic. All of the principles identified in the literature review were evident in the practices of the country and club experts. The latter support inter alia the identification of a performance model, and a development model with long-term age-stage differentiated components. They recognised the importance of a skilled and committed workforce, individualising coaching, and using an appropriate blend of practice activities and coaching behaviours to macro, meso and micro level goals. What was interesting, however, was how these principles were applied in the different country and club contexts. The performance model looked very different in the Netherlands and Spain, for example, yet their development models had many similarities (see section 4). Though the importance of embeddedness was recognised in all systems the extent to which this was realised varied greatly between countries, with Germany, the Netherlands and Spain apparently leading the way. The summary table on page v (next page) attempts to capture some of the nuance in the different applications of the same principles across the seven European countries. 1 An interesting feature of the research was how much these interviews could capture or exhaust the details of each country’s system. We suggest that in countries where there was a clearly defined and shared culture, philosophy and approach e.g. the Netherlands and Spain there is a higher level of confidence. Where systems were more pragmatic or emergent e.g. England, Germany and Italy there is less confidence. iv Belgium England France Germany Italy The Netherlands Spain Theoretical principles Player development is multi-layered interactionist and