Week 4 Assignment-Coaching Article Response

Article Title: Getting in the Way: Investigating Barriers to Optimizing Talent Development Experience

Article Items: Main Points, Coaching Issues, Personal Reaction

Coaching Article Response

Main Points

The article “Getting in the Way: Investigating Barriers to Optimizing Talent Development Experience” by Taylor and Collins (2021) investigates coaches’ perceptions of barriers to integrating support and talent and optimizing experiences for athletes in talent development. One of the interesting topics in the article is talent development environments and how they influence coaching outcomes and athlete performance. To that end, coaches explain some strategies they believe are crucial for creating enabling coaching environments. These include long-term objectives and techniques, wide-ranging coherent and support messages, focus on appropriate development, customized and continuous development, and integrated holistic development.

Another notable topic in the article is the potential challenges likely to be encountered in the talent development environment journey. Taylor and Collins (2021) aver that the features of effective talent development and appropriate athlete experience are already well-documented. However, multiple challenges prevent effective talent development, with most challenges emanating from the conduct of stakeholders in the sports industry. One of the major challenges identified is the difficulty in aligning senior elite work practice with the talent development (TD) level. Research across 26 European football clubs suggests limited communication between senior elites and academy-level coaches.

Furthermore, Taylor and Collins (2021) argue that implementing shared mental models is crucial to helping coaches obtain optimal practice. The shared mental model is based on the concept that senior elite and academy-level coaches have a rich knowledge endowment they can share for the common team effectiveness. To that end, coherence in team experience is suggested as one of the effective solutions for overcoming challenges in talent development. In the same breath, vertical coherence involving chronological athlete development along different stages will be useful.

Coaching Issues

According to Taylor and Collins (2021), coaches face a myriad of challenges in their efforts to attain optimal talent development. One such challenge is the pressure to perform mounted on athletes. Some athletes are pressured to obtain positive results quickly due to cultural and socioeconomic factors. For instance, some athletes in academies come from underprivileged backgrounds, subjecting them to the pressure to thrive and earn an income from sporting activities. Faced with such a reality, it becomes difficult for coaches to implement long-term coaching strategies since these players are focused on short-term achievements. Besides, it takes time before athletes transform from the talent development level to the senior elite level, potentially derailing their grasp of coaching instructions.

Another issue that prevents optimal talent development by coaches is the business demands. Club owners expect players to make effective contributions to the elite teams as early as possible. One of the motivations for club owners pushing young talents to perform is the desire to maintain top performance at the least cost possible. The reasoning is based on the fact that academy players will demand favorable terms on their contractual agreements as opposed to senior players. Besides, as academy players advance to the elite team, club owners can release senior players and generate revenue. Such a trend denies coaches the opportunity to develop players appropriately and fully during the talent development phase. In the same breath, the short-term nature of coaching contracts kills coaches’ motivation to lay a long-term talent development strategy.

As per the article, most coaches respond to business demands by club owners by adopting sub-optimal coaching strategies as a response to pressure from the top. The coaches resort to focusing on winning games instead of genuine talent development to develop players fully. Such a strategy requires coaches to rely on a few elite players who become stars. The problem arises when the stars leave since the team has not developed others to take over. Such teams eventually begin getting dismal results. I would adopt a long-term player development strategy incorporating winning games since talent development is a crucial stage in an athlete’s growth journey.

Personal Reaction

The article shows how coaching goals could easily shift from long-term player development to short-term revenue generation and team performance. If the situation is to be reversed, coaches must adopt a strict stance on player development to ensure they produce useful talent that can withstand the test of time. Coaches have the power to implement their coaching philosophies, and such powers can be asserted during the contract signing. Before signing contracts, coaches must agree with club owners on how they can work together to attain talent development coherence. As a result, one of the strategies that may come in handy is for coaches to highlight their terms of engagement and include their input in player development decision-making. Besides, a coach should have a say on which players to sell or retain to ensure coherent and chronological talent development. Coaches who are concerned about the short-term nature of their contracts should instead stick to long-term player development as their fundamental coaching philosophy.

As a talent development/academy-level coach, I anticipate facing some controversies due to the nature of sports at that level. First, the issue of ethics of rigorous training may arise. Most athletes at this level are under-age, hence the need to balance coaching strategies while paying attention to what the players can handle (Hedstrom & Gould, 2004). Individualized coaching is key since it will help a coach determine the extent of rigorous training each player may handle. Another controversy that may affect coaching at this level is parental involvement in their children’s athletic journey (Hedstrom & Gould, 2004). Parents want to be involved in decision-making, including the athletes’ training schedules, a trend that can negatively affect coaching outcomes.

References

Hedstrom, R., & Gould, D. (2004). Research in youth sports: Critical issues status. Michigan: Michigan State University, 1, 42.

Taylor, J., & Collins, D. (2021). Getting in the way: Investigating barriers to optimizing talent development experience. https://www.journalofexpertise.org/articles/volume4_issue3/JoE_4_3_Taylor_Collins.pdf

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Week 4 Assignment-Coaching Article Response

The purpose of this assignment is to provide students the opportunity to examine specified coaching-related topics in greater depth, and to demonstrate comprehension of such topics through reading and writing skills.

Assignment Instructions

• Please do some research on your own and select an article of interest online.
• Read the entire article.
• Complete the topic items on this form. Each of the three topic items below should be at least 250 words each. Therefore, the assignment should be a total of a minimum of 750 words.
• Submit as an word attachment.

Submission Information (include these on a cover page)

• Student Name
• Article Title
  

  Week 4 Assignment – Coaching Article Response

• Article Items (address these within your response)

Main Points

• Explain at least three main or interesting points you took from the article.
• This section should be approximately 250 words.

Coaching Issues

• Summarize the issues or problems faced by the coach (or coaches) in the article.
• Reflect and expound on how you would have responded to these issues as compared to the coach(es) in the article.
• This section should be approximately 250 words.

Personal Reaction

• What was your personal reaction to the article and why?
• What controversial issues might you face at the level you plan to coach?
• This section should be approximately 250 words.