Orchestrating talent development Youth players’ pursuits towards elite level and implications for coaching practice Christian Thue Bjørndal & Lars Tore Ronglan Department of Coaching and Psychology, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences Contact:

Background Talent development and sports coaching have developed as two distinct and autonomous research fields. Few studies have focused on how talented athletes experience and interpret their own development while they are pursuing their paths towards adult athletic careers.

Background The interplay between the learner and the environment is decisive to learning processes (Baker & Horton, 2004; Côte, 1999) Recent studies highlight how the social environment provides a frame for understanding athlete development towards the elite level (Stambulova, 2009; Storm, Henriksen, & Krogh, 2012)

Background: The organizing of TD in NH (Bjørndal, Ronglan & Andersen, in press) The Standard model of Talent Development (Bailey & Collins, 2013) Ecology of Games (Long, 1958; Lubell, 2013)

The organizing of talent development in NH (Bjørndal, Ronglan & Andersen, in press) Local community- based sports club Sport schoolNHF national level A national teamYouth national team recruitment NHF regional level Regional team competitions Senior team U18 U16 Junior national team Youth national team Broad based player development

Implications for the coach?

Aims To investigate talented athletes’ contemporary experiences of their own developmental process Discuss the implications of these experiences for coaches’ orchestration

Coach orchestration The coaching process is context-bound, dynamic, complex (Jones & Wallace, 2005) The coaching process is characterised by ambiguities and dilemmas that cannot be resolved but rather need to be continuously balanced in order to attempt to produce the intended outcomes (Potrac, Jones, & Armour, 2002) They are to date few empirical studies of coach orchestration (Santos, Jones, & Mesquita, 2013)

Design Norwegian Handball Athletes’ experiences of the interplay between themselves and key organizational actors

Methods Semi-structured in-depth interviews (n=12) focusing on: – Athletes’ everyday schedule and how they experience everyday challenges and possibilities – Athletes’ experiences from club based activities, sport school programs, regional NHF driven TD initiatives and the youth national team and how these key actors communicated and coordinated their efforts. – Athletes’ experiences with different coaches that were or had been part of their careers.

Key informants CharacteristicsInformants Female12 Age16 and 17 years Years of experience9.5 (on average) Regions represented4 (out of 7) Youth national team experience2 to 13 selections Regional level TD experienceExtensive (all informants) Club level experienceU16 to elite level

Key findings Time pressure and prioritizing I have to say no to a lot of friends. I have to say no to family gatherings and maybe put my academic career on hold. I think it may become a problem to manage school. I read a lot when travelling to and from practice to catch up with what I’ve missed, and I find that a bit difficult. (Catherine)

Key findings Time pressure and prioritizing I sometimes sacrifice birthday celebrations, parties and stuff like that. When the others are going out… Then I feel alone. But I don’t really think that much about it. If you are to become good in sports then you can’t go out partying the night prior to a match. I’ve gotten used to that everybody’s going out while I stay at home. (Valerie)

Key findings Complimentary influences I think that the sport school program helps a lot. There you get to practice more individually, in your playing position, and you get to manage yourself a lot. There’s more focus on practicing according to my particular needs and I think that is good. (Melissa)

Key findings Conflicting goals and demands It’s hard to find the time to everything! When we’re with the national team they [coaches] talk about how important it is to develop work capacity, strength and so on. It’s just that there’s so much handball during the season that you can’t manage to work on everything. I find that difficult. […] I grow tired. When I finally have a day off I’m all exhausted. (Valerie)

Key findings Balancing load and recovery I didn’t manage to hold back before, but now I’ve been so much injured that I’ve become much better at it. I now manage to control when I need to rest and when I can go all in. I kind of feel the difference between dangerous pain and pain that’s just supposed to be there. (Molly)

Key findings Coordination challenges I think that the school and my club should cooperate instead of me having to plan a day at a time. I don’t have more than minutes at home before I have to go to practice and then I never know if I’m suppose to practice with the elite or U18 team [practicing at different times in different locations]. I don’t know where or when before the school day ends. (Catherine)

Discussion The nature of team sports creates a constant tension between long and short-term perspectives. How coaches notice and empower is essential to balance load and recovery.

Discussion Individualization is a difficult practice in team sport contexts because all those involved are mutually dependent on each other. Mutual adaption is necessary in order to promote long-term TD within this particular TD context.

Concluding thoughts Orchestrating TD in a team sport context is an emergent consequence of several coaches’ orchestration within their micro-environment. Coaches need to contribute to the ‘overall orchestration’ of talent pathways within a team sport context through processes across contexts; by more than one coach; in a dynamic and social process.

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