Nurture, nature and some very dubious social skills: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of talent identification practices in elite English youth soccer

Abstract

This paper reports qualitative findings regarding the concepts and practices utilised in talent identification (TI) among professional coaches working in English youth soccer. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, detailed interviews with seven such coaches are explored, with a view to elucidating the links between understanding, practice, experience and professional context. Findings reveal three superordinate themes, relating to (1) a primarily ‘nurtured’ and trainable understanding of the broad concept of talent itself, (2) an ostensibly contradictory model of semi-static player psychology, and (3) a highly selective mechanism for separating evidence for ‘mental strength’ and ‘social skills’. It is contended that these findings underscore a case for more thorough interrogation of the real worlds inhabited by coaches, such that ideas about ‘good practice’ in TI might be more effectively reconciled with grounded knowledge of the practical everyday necessities of being a coach.

Keywords:

• talent identification
• player recruitment
• coaching
• phenomenology
• social psychology
• youth soccer

Notes

1. Of course, and consequently, such processes (by necessity) marginalise those deemed less ‘talented’ and, thus, TI can have both positive and negative implications for both sports and their participants on the grander scale.

2. The Danish football coaches explored by Christensen worked in a centralised NGB. In English Football, meanwhile, TI is more commonly devolved from the central Football Association to individual clubs of the Premier and Football Leagues. This club context, in which the participants in the current study practice TI, is governed by a different set of pressures and concerns, not least those pertaining to short-term commercial success (see section on participant selection for further details).

3. It is noteworthy that any assumed connection between physical development and talent raises the spectre of relative age effect (RAE) when conducting TI in younger populations. See Cobley et al. (2009) for a detailed discussion of this issue with respect to athletic development.

4. Bauman (1992) famously draws attention to this ‘Legislators and Interpreters’ issue within a broader deliberation of the shifting role of the academic within contemporary culture.

5. A full and detailed exploration of the intellectual underpinnings of, and influences upon, contemporary IPA can be found in Chapter 2 of Smith et al. (2009).

6. Category 1 academies have the highest contact time with young players, the most full-time staff and largest operational budgets. Category 4 academies have the lowest, least and smallest.