Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kougioumtzis, Konstantin

Titel

Coach-lead team practice in elite youth sport

Ist Teil von

• International journal of physical education, 2018, Vol.LV (3), p.26

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Nomos eLibrary

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In recent years, researchers have begun to identify specific practice activities and coach behaviours during training in elite youth soccer to optimize talent development. However, there is a need to examine relationships between the content of practice activities and coach behaviours. The overall aim of this study was to examine coach-led team practice sessions in Swedish elite youth soccer. The specific objectives were a) to describe practice activities and coaches’ behaviours during practice and b) to interpret the microstructure of selected didactic moments. According to the analysis of four videotaped training sessions of top-level U19 squads, coaches had players engage in drills 47.2% of the time and 45.3% was spent in game-like practice. Moreover, coaches’ voices captured with a cordless microphone, indicated that monitoring and concurrent instruction were the most common instructional behaviours. The interpretation of four didactic moments (skill training, small-sided game, conditioned game and phase of play) revealed various didactic techniques used by the coaches in terms of epistemological moves. Our findings suggest that effective practice may not only be a matter of ensuring appropriate practice activities or efficient instructional behaviours but predominantly an issue of combination of activities and instruction. Certain coach behaviours during specific activities can lay the foundations for effective practice, while less careful instructions might facilitate confusion. On the basis of study findings, we suggest that youth coaches’ initial education and further professional development incorporates training related to the appropriate combinations of practice activities and instructional behaviours.