Skill and performance development in sports and school – Research – Department of Sociology and Political Science
Skill and Performance Development in Sports and School (SPDSS)
About us
Both the sports and school context are characterized by the relationship between skill development and performance, where athletes and students learn and develop skills related to sports and physical activity respectively. The coach and the teacher are important contributors to ensuring the athletes development, but also the environments that the athletes/students and coaches/teachers are part of have a crucial role for their development. In this context, it is worth mentioning that for some, sports and school are closely intertwined through i.e. sport specialisation programs (SSPs) and elite sport specialisation programs (ESSPs) in upper secondary schools.
Athletes/students are themselves the most important contributors to their own development and performance. Important questions are therefore what characterizes their development and how parents, friends, coaches and teachers contribute to this development. In order to develop skills, athletes/students are dependent on knowing what’s expected from, what skills they should develop and which stage of development they are in. To what extent these requirements are clearly communicated to athletes/students (do they know?) can be discussed.
Our research group works extensively with this themes in both the sports and school context. Some of the topics that our research deals with are individual characteristics of the practitioners and the students such as; motivation, stress and perfectionism, and characteristics of the environments they are part of such as; communication, the importance of performance, motivational climate and coaching style.
Projects
- Development Environment and Destructive Leadership in Sports
- Female athletes - a different talent development process?
- Power, politics, and performance: Examining the gendered processes and outcomes of a merger between a men’s and women’s Norwegian football club
- A qualitative examination of talent development environments in international youth football – England, Denmark and Norway
Ph.D. Projects
Former projects
Selected Publications
- Røsten, S., Sæther, S.A., Aspvik, N.P & Bjørndal, C.T. (2023) Embedded, embodied, enculturated, and enabling processes: The identification and evaluation of sporting talent by ice hockey coaches in Norwegian youth international teams. International Sport Coaching Journal.
- Feddersen, N.B., Champ, F., Sæther, S.A & Littlewood, M.(2022) Confidentiality and Surveillance Challenges for Psychologists working in English Men’s Football Academies. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.
- Sæther, S.A, Feddersen, N., Andresen, E., & Bjørndal, C.T. (2022) Balancing sport and academic development: Perceptions of football players and coaches in two types of Norwegian school-based Dual Career Development Environments. International Journal of sports Science and Coaching.
- Hem, M., Fuhre, J., Høigaard, R. & Sæther, S.A. (2022) Talent development abroad. Young football players´ experience of being recruited to English academies. Soccer & Society, 1-12.
- Haukli, J. S., Hvid Larsen, C., Feddersen, N., & Sæther, S. A. (2021). The athlete talent development environment in the best ranked football academy in Norwegian football: The case of the U16 team in Stabæk football club. Current Issues in Sport Science (CISS), 6, 008.
- Gangsø, K., Aspvik, N.P., Mehus, I., Høigaard, R. & Sæther, S.A. (2021) Talent Development Environments in Football—Comparing Top-Five and Bottom-Five Ranked Football Academies in Norway. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(3). 1321.
- Østerlie, O. Mehus, I. (2020) The impact of flipped learning on cognitive knowledge learning and intrinsic motivation in Norwegian secondary physical education. Education Sciences. vol. 10 (4).
- Larsen, C.H., Storm, L., Sæther, S.A., Pyrdol, N. & Henriksen, K. (2020) A world class academy in professional football: The case of Ajax Amsterdam. Scandinavian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2, 33-43.
- Nesse, M., Fusche Moe, V. & Sæther, S.A. (2020) Unified approaches on Talent development in football. Differences and similarities among representatives from the football federation and professional football clubs. Cogent Social Sciences, 1, 6, 1-13.
- Johansen, B. T., Østrem, K., Sæther, S. A. & Erikstad, M. K. (2019). Relative age and perceptions of soccer specific skills among elite youth players in Norway. Current Issues in Sport Science
Conferences
- Aspvik, N.P, Mehus, I. & Sæther, S.A. (2023) ATHLETES’ WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE PAIN TO THEIR COACH. A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF NORWEGIAN HANDBALL PLAYERS, ECSS Paris 3-7 July 2023 (forthcoming)
- Sæther, S.A, Mehus, I. & Aspvik, N.P. (2023) STRESS AND PERFECTIONISM AMONG MALE AND FEMALE AGE-SPECIFIC NATIONAL TEAM PLAYERS IN FOOTBALL, HANDBALL, AND ICE-HOCKEY, ECSS Paris 3-7 July 2023 (forthcoming)
- Mehus, I., Aspvik, N.P. & Sæther, S.A. (2023) TALENT DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS IN NORWEGIAN AGE-SPECIFIC NATIONAL TEAMS IN HANDBALL AND ICE HOCKEY, ECSS Paris 3-7 July 2023 (forthcoming)
- Røsten, S., Sæther, S.A., Aspvik, N.P. & Bjørndal, C.H. (2022) Embedded, embodied, enculturated, and enabling processes: The identification and evaluation of sporting talent by ice hockey coaches in Norwegian youth international teams. 4th International Motor Skills Acquisition Conference, 16-18 November, Finland.
- Bergström M., Sæther S.A., Solli G.S. & McGawley K. (2022) Tick-tock goes the biological clock: Mother-athlete dilemmas facing elite Scandinavian cross-country skiers. Nordic Winter Sport Conference, Østersund, 3-4 oct. 22
- Sigvartsen, K.K., Sæther, S.A., Haugen, T., Erikstad, M.K., Peters, D.M. & Høigaard, R (2022) Elite team sport athletes´perceptions and experiences of destructive coach leadership behaviour. ECSS, Sevilla, july 2022.
- Feddersen, N.B., Francesca Champ, F., Sæther, S.A & Littlewood, M. (2022) Challenges and Solutions to Humanistic Psychology Delivery with Male U9-U16 Football Players in Professional English Academies. FEPSAC, Padova July 2022.
- Feddersen, N.B., Francesca Champ, F., Sæther, S.A & Littlewood, M. (2022) Confidentiality and Surveillance in Psychology Provisions in Men’s Football Academies in England. FEPSAC, Padova July 2022.
The research group collaborates with several research groups from other universities and collaborates with several special sports federations and clubs on projects within sports. Read more about our partners here:
- The research group LET´S University of Southern Denmark
- The research groups The Football Exchange and the Coaching and Pedagogy Research Group at Liverpool John Moores University
- Rosenborg FC (Salmar academy)
- Kristiansund FC (NEAS academy)
- Ranheim Football
- The Norwegian Football Association
- The Norwegian Handball Association
- The Norwegian Ice Hockey Association
Researchers
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Nils Petter Aspvik Associate professor, Sport sciences.
+47-73591757 +4792648033 nils.petter.aspvik@ntnu.no Department of Sociology and Political Science -
Max Bergström PhD Student
max.v.j.bergstrom@ntnu.no Department of Sociology and Political Science -
Rune Høigaard
+4741474163 rune.hoigaard@ntnu.no -
Ingar Mehus Associate Professor
+47-73591619 ingar.mehus@ntnu.no Department of Sociology and Political Science -
Ingrid Okkenhaug PhD Student
+47-73559456 ingrid.okkenhaug@ntnu.no Department of Sociology and Political Science -
Lucy Piggott Postdoctoral Fellow
+47-73592097 lucy.piggott@ntnu.no Department of Sociology and Political Science -
Malene Rosvold Assistant Professor
+47-73559093 malene.rosvold@ntnu.no Department of Sociology and Political Science