The purpose of the present study was to describe patterns in the dynamics of families of talented athletes throughout their development in sport. Four families, including three families of elite rowers and one family of an elite tennis player were examined. The framework provided by Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993) to explain expert performance served as the theoretical basis for the study. Ericsson et al. suggested that the acquisition of expert performance involves operating within three types of constraints: motivational, effort, and resource. In-depth interviews were conducted with each athlete, parent, and sibling to explore how they have dealt with these three constraints. A total of 15 individual interviews were conducted. Results permitted the identification of three phases of participation from early childhood to late adolescence: the sampling years, the specializing years, and the investment years. The dynamics of the family in each of these phases of development is discussed.

/pdf/the-influence-of-the-family-in-the-development-of-talent-in-1xw48301e5.pdf

The Influence of the Family in the Development of Talent in Sport

https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3417&context=sspapers

Defining elite athletes: Issues in the study of expert performance in sport psychology

This academic review critically examines the theoretical and empirical bases of claims made for the educational benefits of physical education and school sport (PESS). An historical overview of the development of PESS points to the origins of claims made in four broad domains: physical, social, affective and cognitive. Analysis of the evidence suggests that PESS has the potential to make contributions to young people’s development in each of these domains. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, there is suggestive evidence of a distinctive role for PESS in the acquisition and development of children’s movement skills and physical competence. It can be argued that these are necessary, if not deterministic conditions of engagement in lifelong physical activity. In the social domain, there is sufficient evidence to support claims of positive benefits for young people. Importantly, benefits are mediated by environmental and contextual factors such as leadership, the involvement of young people in decision‐making, an emphas...

The educational benefits claimed for physical education and school sport : an academic review.

Measuring enjoyment of physical activity in adolescent girls

This field study examined predictors of the sport enjoyment experienced by 76 male wrestlers, ages 9 to 14 years, who participated in the first two rounds of a competitive wrestling tournament. Enjoyment was operationalized as the amount of ftin the boys had experienced during the wrestling season and the degree to which they liked to wrestle. Intrapersonal variables, including the participants' age and perceptions of their wrestling abUify, were investigated as predictors of their sport enjoyment. Significant adult infiuences, including the boys' perceptions of fypical parental and coach behaviors and responses to them in the sport setting, were also examined in relation to enjoyment. A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that younger boys, and those who perceived greater wrestling abilify, enjoyed their sport participation more than did older boys and those with perceptions of lower abilify. Boys who perceived (a) greater parental and coach satisfaction with their season's performance, (b) less maternal pressure and fewer negative maternal performance reactions, and (c) more positive adult sport involvement and interactions (p < . 10) experienced greater enjoyment when compared with their counterparts. Together, these predictors accounted for 38% of the variation in wrestlers' enjoyment.

http://groups.jyu.fi/sporticus/lahteet/LAHDE_16.pdf

Social Psychological Aspects of Competition for Male Youth Sport Participants: IV. Predictors of Enjoyment

Participation motivation in youth sports.

Distinguishing psychological characteristics of expert cricket batsmen

This study compared expert, intermediate and novice participants on their ability to recall and anticipate structured rugby union line-out patterns. The recall task required participants to recall the location of each player in a line-out formation at a time point when the pattern was considered structured. The anticipation task required participants to predict the final location of each player in the line-out and identify which player would catch the ball. Strong expertise effects were found with the expert rugby players able to recall and anticipate structured patterns of play with significantly greater accuracy than the lesser skilled participants. Multiple regressions revealed that the pattern recall skill accounted for 40% of the variance in anticipatory skill. Discussion centres on the robustness of this relationship when the relative skill level of the performers, the nature of the patterns presented, and the experimental task used are collectively considered.

Revisiting the relationship between pattern recall and anticipatory skill

Expectancies, performance, perceived ability, and causal attributions of males (n = 20) and females (n = 20) who competed on a motor task after being matched with a same- or opposite-sex opponent of similar ability were examined. Males were more likely than females to predict a win in competition, but actual performance measures, postcompetition ability ratings, and attributions revealed more positive responses to competition by females than males. Females improved their performance times and raised their ability ratings from the initial noncompetitive session more than males and placed more importance on effort attributions than males did. The Findings suggest that competition is not necessarily detrimental and can have a positive influence on females' achievement cognitions and behaviors when the competitive task and situation are clearly appropriate for females.

Sex Differences in Achievement Cognitions and Performance in Competition

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of competition and instructional sets on the speed and accuracy of a dart-throwing task. In both experiments individuals competed against another subject on one day, and performed under noncompetitive conditions on a second day. The five distinct instructional sets varied from extreme emphasis on speed to extreme emphasis on accuracy. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed main effects for instructional sets on speed and accuracy in both experiments. Strong tradeoffs occurred with speed slowing and accuracy improving as the instructional emphasis changed from speed to accuracy. A competition by instructional sets interaction in Experiment 2 indicated that competition facilitated speed when speed was important, but when instructions emphasized accuracy, speed was slower in competition than in noncompetition. Accuracy was not affected by competition.

John B. Gross

Papers

Participation motivation in youth sports.

Distinguishing psychological characteristics of expert cricket batsmen

Revisiting the relationship between pattern recall and anticipatory skill

Sex Differences in Achievement Cognitions and Performance in Competition

Competition and instructional set effects on the speed and accuracy of a throwing task.