Key resilience behaviours in young footballers revealed

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With the Premier League due to start at the end week, a new study has revealed key resilience behaviour in young footballers.

Supporting teammates after mistakes, being able to manage emotions under pressure and a willingness to adapt following feedback have all been identified as key characteristics of resilience, according to the research.

Experts suggest players are often referred to as being resilient, without specific characteristics being described.

The study found that a key feature of resilience is showing positive responses to pressure or setbacks and although very little research has been carried out in this area, it is considered important for the performance and development of young footballers.

Resilient players also showed increased physical effort following setbacks, recovered quickly after mistakes and were able to keep calm under pressure, the study found.

Lead researcher Ben Ashdown, a researcher in sport and exercise psychology in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology, said: “We know that resilience is a highly sought-after characteristic in players of elite level football.”

He added: “People regularly describe players as being resilient or having shown resilience, however, without really describing what they’ve seen.

“When a team goes one or two goals down, we might see some players ‘hiding’ on the pitch and not wanting the ball, blaming their teammates or showing negative body language.

“Others however can be seen putting in more effort, trying to change the situation or encouraging teammates.

“We wanted to explore what these resilience behaviours are in football, to eventually allow us to observe players more objectively and support them in developing their capacity to manage the many pressures and setbacks that they face.”

Academy football typically ranges in age from under 9s to under 23s, from foundation through to professional development.

The research involved interviews and focus groups with people working within football and professional football club academies across a range of roles, including coaching, scouting, analysis and psychology.

A wide range of real-life examples, including videos demonstrating youth players’ resilient behaviours, were provided, before all the data was analysed.

The researchers were able to identify a total of 36 resilience characteristics which could be grouped into six general themes.

These were teammate support-focused behaviour, emotion-focused behaviours, effort-focused behaviour, rebound behaviour, robust behaviour, and learning-focused behaviour.

It is hoped that the findings, published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, could support clubs in being better able to observe resilience in their players and identify who might benefit from development in this area.

There is also the potential for the findings to be used to support players in being more self-aware in terms of how they react and respond to setbacks, as well as by scouts as part of their recruitment practices.