ABSTRACT

Talented young sport participants on the road toward elite sport participation are surrounded by numerous individuals associated to different responsibilities that play an important role in their development. Good coaching and parental support are important resources likely to influence youth sport participants engaging in high quality training to achieve elite performance levels (Baker et al. 2003). In many cases, parents will play a central role in the early development of young sport participants. It is common for children to be introduced to the world of sports by a parent or significant adult. Many parents have stints in different roles, sometimes being involved as a coach, other times as a support crew member or as fan (e.g. Bloom 1985). Parents take pride in their child’s athletic achievements, and many will do what they can to promote a child’s development toward high performance (Baker et al. 2003). With talented children, this initially entails hiring an expert coach, especially in the case of parents recognising perceived limitations to their knowledge and ability to teach high sport expertise. Expert coaches have been found to better plan their training sessions and have clearer goals and methods on how to develop the talent of young athletes (Voss et al. 1983). As young athletes develop further and performance levels increase, the National Governing Body (NGB) for that sport often recruits the athlete into accelerated training programs, or even special schools that emphasise the sport, and the support personnel is increased to include nutritional, physiological, and psychological advice, as well as specific training in the sport. The more elite and senior the athlete becomes, the greater the support entourage becomes. As an illustration, in Norway, one of the most organised and structured sports is cross-country skiing. At a young age, talented athletes are enrolled into elite training programs with access to important support personnel. Even as a teenager, it is increasingly common for athletes to train and compete in an environment surrounded by coaches, assistant coaches, managers/agents, strength and conditioning specialists, physical therapists, massage therapist, technicians, practitioners, and sport psychologists. At the senior level, athletes are used to having such a support team around them.