Talent identification and development systems (TIDS) are commonly used in professional sport to convert youth athletes into sporting stars of the future. Acknowledging that only a few athletes can “make it,” the necessity and healthiness of TIDS have recently been questioned based on their increased professionalism, high training, and competition volumes, but limited effectiveness. In this short communication, we suggest that the key issues associated with TIDS are not due to their overall concept, but with how they are designed and implemented. It is recommended that researchers and practitioners determine the worth and value of TIDS by also evaluating the positive health of the athlete rather than solely focusing on performance outcomes. To achieve this, TIDS staff should shape and develop their values, expectations, and day-to-day routines to achieve positive health outcomes focusing on personal development and an athlete-centered culture. In business, this has been termed the concept of “Deliberately Developmental Organisation.” TIDS can deploy the factors (e.g., high-quality staff, expert support services, quality facilities, and learning routines) characteristic of such organizations, to concurrently ensure positive impacts and minimize predictable negative outcomes without losing focus on a drive for sporting performance.

Background To understand the multiple and wide-ranging impacts of intensified youth sport, the need for a holistic approach to athlete development has recently been advocated. Sports schools are an increasingly popular operationalisation of intensified youth sport, aiming to offer an optimal environment for holistic development by combining sport and education. Yet, no study has systematically explored the impacts associated with sports schools. Objectives The aims of this mixed method systematic review were to (1) determine the characteristics and features of sports schools; (2) identify the methods used to evaluate sports school impacts, and (3) evaluate the positive and negative holistic athlete development impacts associated with sports school programme involvement. Methods Adhering to PRISMA guidelines, eight electronic databases were searched until the final return in February 2021. Forty-six articles satisfied the inclusion criteria, were analysed thematically, and synthesised using a narrative approach. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Results Findings indicated (1) sports school student-athletes receive considerable support in terms of academic and athletic services, more intensified training and competition schedules with high-level training partners, but regularly miss school; (2) multiple methods have been used to evaluate student-athlete impacts, making comparison across studies and developing consensus on the impacts of sports schools difficult; and (3) there are a multitude of immediate, short- and long-term positive and negative impacts associated with the academic/vocational, athletic/physical, psychosocial and psychological development of sports school student-athletes. Conclusions This study is the first to systematically review the research literature to understand the impacts associated with sports schools in terms of holistic athlete development. Practitioners should be aware that they can promote (positive) and negate (negative) health impacts through the design of an appropriate learning environment that simultaneously balances multiple training, academic, psychosocial and psychological factors that can be challenging for youth athletes. We recommend that practitioners aim to design and implement monitoring and evaluation tools that assess the holistic development of student-athletes within their sports schools to ensure they are promoting all-round and healthy youth athlete development.

Despite literature highlighting numerous risks to the healthy psychosocial development of youth elite academy soccer players, little of this research is based on high quality research designs. This study employed a prospective longitudinal cohort design to track psychosocial outcomes of academy involvement within male youth elite soccer players (n=33, U12-U16 age groups) compared to agematched soccer-active school pupils (n=44) over 12 months. Participants completed questionnaires assessing the most commonly raised psychosocial concerns at four equally spaced data collection periods (T1-T4). Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVAs) indicated that, over the year, both groups reported a healthy and improving stress and recovery balance, as well as positive and stable needs satisfaction and physical, psychological and social well-being. Academy players reported stable positive school-related quality of life, whereas school pupils reported increases from T3 to T4. Academy players reported consistent significantly higher total athletic identity and exclusivity of identity. Findings suggest that many concerns around negative psychosocial impacts of soccer academy involvement did not materialise in this context. However, heightened athletic identities remained a concern.

The professionalisation of soccer academies has intensified, with youth players exposed to demanding performance focused environments in pursuit of a career in the professional game. Yet, academies are also under increasing pressure to show that they develop players who can function in life beyond soccer. Therefore, this study explored the retrospective views of 13 ex-elite UK youth academy soccer players on whether their time within the academy provided developmental experiences that prepared them for life beyond soccer. We interviewed seven players who successfully progressed into professional contracts and six who did not. Players were recruited from two different academies to explore the developmental outcomes they associated with academy involvement and to unpick how those outcomes were achieved. Our findings showed that, promisingly, time in the academy provided both contracted and non-contracted players with transferable life skills as well as open educational and vocational doorsresulting in the majority of players leaving the environment being '(more) ready' for life. However, these outcomes are not 'automatic' and were highly dependent on the interaction between three developmental contextual themes; i) what was demanded by the academy context, ii) what was encouraged within the academy context, and iii) the quality of interpersonal relationships. Beyond this, players' attitudes, histories and wider socio-contextual influences were important in shaping (future) outcomes. With an eye on providing worthwhile experiences for all youth athletes involved, these findings provide insight into how academy contexts can simultaneously promote performance alongside positive developmental outcomes.

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