Happy Birthday? Relative Age Benefits and Decrements on the Rocky Road.

(1) Background: There is abundant literature in talent development investigating the relative age effect in talent systems. There is also growing recognition of the reversal of relative age advantage, a phenomenon that sees significantly higher numbers of earlier born players leaving talent systems before the elite level. However, there has been little investigation of the mechanisms that underpin relative age, or advantage reversal. This paper aimed to investigate (a) the lived experience of relative age in talent development (TD) systems, (b) compare the experience of early and late born players, and (c) explore mechanisms influencing individual experiences. (2) Methods: interviews were conducted with a cohort of near elite and elite rugby union players. Data were subsequently analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and findings considered in light of eventual career status. (3) Results: challenge was an ever-present feature of all players journeys, especially at the point of transition to senior rugby. Psycho-behavioural factors seemed to be a primary mediator of the response to challenge. (4) Conclusions: a rethink of approach to the relative age effect is warranted, whilst further investigations of mechanisms are necessary. Relative age appears to be a population-level effect, driven by challenge dynamics.

Advancing Leadership in Sport: Time to Take Off the Blinkers?

While leadership is one of the most significant factors in sport, most research has focused on who effective leaders are and what they overtly do rather than why and how they lead in a certain way at a certain time. Presumably shaped by social norms, the bulk of this work has also overstated the role of bright (or socially desirable) leadership intentions and behaviours; or at least overlooked how this style fits with the 'darker' (or socially undesirable) intentions and behaviours that are prevalent and effective in applied practice. Contextualising this situation against the origins and dominant paradigms of sport-specific study, we therefore highlight the need for greater emphasis on both the cognitive and dark sides of leadership. Regarding the former, we argue that expert leadership requires cognitive excellence given that optimal and consistent impact requires the conscious selection, combination and deployment of leadership behaviours. Regarding the latter, we also argue that bright intentions and behaviours can often only be a part of an effective leadership repertoire and can beneficially operate in tandem with inherently dark alternatives. To advance knowledge and practice, we therefore call for a more pragmatic approach to research that considers both the cognitive mechanisms-namely professional judgement and decision making-and the full spectrum of intentions and behaviours that underpin real world leadership.

Aligning the talent pathway: exploring the role and mechanisms of coherence in development.

Although our understanding of psychological and social factors in talent development continues to expand, knowledge of the broader system that underpins the entire talent pathways is relatively limited. Indeed, little work has moved beyond the recognition that coherence in this system is important to consider how this may be achieved; particularly in relation to coherent coaching. As such, the aim of this article was to address gaps in talent development and coaching literature and explore principles and potential mechanisms of coherent coaching in sport organisations' talent pathways. After defining and contextualising coherence in whole talent pathways, including barriers to attainment, we discuss how an understanding of coach epistemology can provide a basis for integrating personal and collective coach coherence and therefore a coherent performer experience. With epistemology as our focal point, we then consider how coherent coaching may be supported through the strategic recruitment and placement of coaches, complimentary coach education and development and the use of change agents who can set and shape the coaching milieu, facilitate cross-level communication and enable epistemology-focused reflection and evaluation. Finally, we conclude with some brief recommendations for advancing practically-meaningful knowledge in this important area.

The illusion of competency versus the desirability of expertise: seeking a common standard for support professions in sport.

In this paper we examine and challenge the competency-based models which currently dominate accreditation and development systems in sport support disciplines, largely the sciences and coaching. Through consideration of exemplar shortcomings, the limitations of competency-based systems are presented as failing to cater for the complexity of decision making and the need for proactive experimentation essential to effective practice. To provide a better fit with the challenges of the various disciplines in their work with performers, an alternative approach is presented which focuses on the promotion, evaluation and elaboration of expertise. Such an approach resonates with important characteristics of professions, whilst also providing for the essential 'shades of grey' inherent in work with human participants. Key differences between the approaches are considered through exemplars of evaluation processes. The expertise-focused method, although inherently more complex, is seen as offering a less ambiguous and more positive route, both through more accurate representation of essential professional competence and through facilitation of future growth in proficiency and evolution of expertise in practice. Examples from the literature are also presented, offering further support for the practicalities of this approach.

Driving and sustaining culture change in Olympic sport performance teams: a first exploration and grounded theory.

Stimulated by growing interest in the organizational and performance leadership components of Olympic success, sport psychology researchers have identified performance director-led culture change as a process of particular theoretical and applied significance. To build on initial work in this area and develop practically meaningful understanding, a pragmatic research philosophy and grounded theory methodology were engaged to uncover culture change best practice from the perspective of newly appointed performance directors. Delivered in complex and contested settings, results revealed that the optimal change process consisted of an initial evaluation, planning, and impact phase adjoined to the immediate and enduring management of a multidirectional perception- and power-based social system. As the first inquiry of its kind, these findings provide a foundation for the continued theoretical development of culture change in Olympic sport performance teams and a first model on which applied practice can be based.