Experienced academy soccer coaches’ perspectives on players’ skilfulness

Abstract

Introduction: Soccer coaches are critical to academies as they are central to identifying players with the potential to succeed (i.e., talent). Research suggests coaches perceive skill as determining players' potential. Regardless, researchers only broadly explored their views and quantified players' skill using objective measures, which is problematic as coaches still rely on their subjective intuition. A plausible reason is that skill assessments do not meet coaches' needs. Objective: So,this study explored academy soccer coaches' perspectives on skilfulness. Methods: Participants required a minimum B-level AFC/FA Pro Coaching Licence and five years' experience for inclusion. Australian soccer coaches (n = 4) and academy directors (n = 7) (M age = 35.90 ± 8.36 years; M experience = 14 ± 7.02 years) participated in semi-structured interviews (M time = 50.73 ± 7.33). Results: We analysed coaches' responses using reflexive thematic analysis, generating four themes describing skilful players as i) technically proficient, ii) adaptable, iii) effective decision-makers, and iv) influential to their team's success. We produced three themes on the situational and contextual nature of their views, perceiving skill through a v) developmental lens, relying on their vi) experiential knowledge, and their views were vii) context-specific. Conclusion: Additional research is needed to create a refined conceptual model for assessing soccer skilfulness.