English Premier League and English Football League academy managers' experiences of how psychosocial skills and characteristics are identified and developed in youth academy soccer players.

Psychological skills and characteristics (PSCs) are vital for player development, yet there is a lack of agreement on which are important and how they should be identified and developed in academy players, creating barriers to implementation into curricula. The key stakeholder with considerable insight into PSC development is the academy manager (AM). The aims of this study were (a) explore AMs' experiences of PSC identification and development, (b) identify challenges AMs feel affect development of PSCs. Nine AMs (i.e. Category 1; n = 3, Category 2; n = 3 and Category 3; n = 3) comprising an average coaching experience of 20.4 ± 7.4 years and time in the role of 5.2 years ±3.2 years participated in semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis generated themes identified ideal PSC outcomes that AMs felt were important. AMs identified current practices within academies alongside challenges: transitions, need to upskill coaches, access to additional support from external partners and National Governing Bodies. There was consensus that PSCs are key drivers of progression and that embedding them into the pathway was critical to facilitating development. Academies should think carefully about design, implementation and evaluation of programmes to support player PSC development for success during and after soccer careers.

Understanding experience, knowledge and perceived challenges related to bra fit for sports participation: a scoping review.

The breasts are reported as the fourth largest barrier to participation in physical activity (PA). This scoping review provides a comprehensive understanding of experiences, knowledge and challenges relating to bra fit and sports participation. The search strategy was adopted by the Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines and multiple databases were searched. All research was in English and within the last 20 years. Exclusion criteria excluded reviews, male participants and the inability to locate or access full-text articles. The JBI critical appraisal tool assessed methodological quality. Twenty-three studies were included. Key themes from the studies are breast motion during PA, sports bra design, perceived barriers to participation in PA and education/knowledge of breast support and bra fit. Increasing breast support reduces breast movement during PA yet breast motion and bra fit are still the most common breast concerns for females. This is likely influenced by poor breast knowledge, leading to poor breast support choices. Future research should explore to what extent breast motion, knowledge and bra fit influences sport participation, and this research should include a more diverse range of adult ages, cup sizes, ethnicities and PA levels to provide a wider understanding.