Athlete perceptions of playing-up in youth soccer

Abstract

A common practice in sport is to "play up" youth athletes with exceptional sport-specific skills against older players with similar skill sets. Playing up is believed to facilitate expertise by exposing athletes to high intensities of practice and competition (Malina, 2010). However, the effects of playing up on youth's athletic and personal development have not been evaluated.Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate athletes' experiences of playing up in soccer and their perceptions of how it may have influenced their sport-specific skill and psychosocial development. Seventeen athletes from four soccer clubs in Ontario, Canada, participated in semi-structured interviews in which they described their playing up experiences.Athletes discussed the decision for them to play up, their transition into a new team culture, and perceived changes in their development as athletes and as people. I performed an inductive thematic analysis of athletes' interview transcripts to capture their playing up experiences (Braun et al., 2017). Athletes perceived playing up to involve a balance between challenge and progress that was facilitated by the social dynamics within their respective teams. Athletes struggled the most when coping with intensity, making mistakes, fighting for trust and respect, and fitting in.They also felt a sense of progress through being recognized, experiencing success, and pursuing professional aspirations. Overall, athletes desired playing up experiences that involved engaging in an inspiring learning environment, establishing quality relationships, and contributing to team learning. Future research is needed to evaluate playing up across contexts and explore ways to mobilize knowledge for sport practitioners.iii Co-AuthorshipDaniel Goldman and Dr. Jean Côté co-authored this thesis project in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Turnnidge. Daniel Goldman's roles as an author on this thesis were to design the study, recruit participants, conduct interviews and thematic analysis, and write the thesis document. Dr. Jean Côté was responsible for giving direction and shaping the design of the study, as well as providing feedback on drafts of the thesis document. Dr. Turnnidge also gave feedback on drafts of the thesis document and worked with Daniel Goldman to ensure that his writing flowed appropriately and told a coherent story.x

Relative Age Effects in Male Cricket: A Personal Assets Approach to Explain Immediate, Short-Term, and Long-Term Developmental Outcomes

“…Where proposed grouping strategies have been suggested, little evidence has documented their effectiveness or directly implement those [ 48 ]. As an example, Kelly and colleagues [ 14 ] conceptualised a flexible chronological approach , whereby early birth quartiles (i.e., BQ1s) and late birth quartiles (i.e., BQ4s) should be offered the opportunity to ‘play-up’ [ 49 , 50 ] and ‘play-down’ annual-age groups, respectively. Moreover, Kelly and colleagues [ 51 ] introduced birthday-banding, where young athletes move up to their next birthdate group on their birthday with aim is to remove particular selection time-points and specific chronological age groups.…”

Youth Judokas Competing in Higher Age Groups Leads to a Short-Term Success

“…In the sports science literature, this phenomenon is known as ‘‘playing-up’’ when athletes train and compete with older peers [ 51 ]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that would identify and put in context the so-called ‘‘playing-up’’ problematic/topic in judo and could also be terminologically adapted to be more judo-specific to ‘‘competing-up.’’ This topic has been briefly addressed in recent years in youth football [ 52 , 53 ] where playing-up has shown positive implications for performance and developmental outcomes in youth football. These findings are in line with our current data in judo.…”

“…However, the football studies did not explore its association with the possible dropout and performance levels in later years. Nonetheless, the studies have highlighted some important findings where youth athletes playing-up struggled with the intensity of training and competitions and to fit in socially with older peers [ 53 ]. However, it was also recomemnded that those younger atheletes had better chances to integrate socially within older competitors when teammates introduced themselves and acively included youth copetitors in sport and their social activities [ 53 ].…”

“…Nonetheless, the studies have highlighted some important findings where youth athletes playing-up struggled with the intensity of training and competitions and to fit in socially with older peers [ 53 ]. However, it was also recomemnded that those younger atheletes had better chances to integrate socially within older competitors when teammates introduced themselves and acively included youth copetitors in sport and their social activities [ 53 ]. In practical terms, that would mean that both the competing-up athlete and the older group competitors must be prepared to join or have youth athletes join-in their group.…”

Relative Age Effects in Basketball: Exploring the Selection into and Successful Transition Out of a National Talent Pathway

“…Grossmann and Lames [ 68 ] advised governing bodies to include the relative age phenomena into coach education , with the purpose of enhancing knowledge and understanding of RAEs as part of coaches’ formal coaching courses and/or training. Kelly et al, [ 39 ] conceptualised a flexible chronological approach , whereby early birth quartiles (i.e., BQ1s) and late birth quartiles (i.e., BQ4s) should be offered the opportunity to “play-up” (e.g., [ 69 , 70 ]) and “play-down” annual age groups, respectively. Kelly et al [ 54 ] introduced birthday-banding, in which young athletes move up to their next birthdate group on their birthday with the aim to remove particular selection time points and specific chronological age groups.…”