Deliberate Play Research Articles

Relevance and quality of the Gipuzkoan extracurricular youth sports program: an evaluation from a positive youth development perspective.

Physical activity and sport (PAS) programmes are an important part of organized extracurricular activities for children and young people. They appear as potentially inclusive environments where students could be provided with holistic development based on active and healthy lifestyles. The aim of this study was to evaluate and describe the Gipuzkoa School Sport Programme (GSSP) from the positive youth development (PYD). The research was carried out based on CPAR (Critical Participatory Action-Research) methodology: a "CPAR group" was created -including researchers and policymakers- to carry out the evaluation of the GSSP in which we analyzed (a) the social environment or PYD climate and (b) life skills. The evaluation and description of the GSSP confirmed that it meets most requirements for providing positive development contexts and opportunities for PYD. The choice of prioritizing multisport and deliberate play and putting early specialization aside seem key conditions to ensure PYD-promoting environments. This work could serve as a referent for decision-makers in organizations dedicated to designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating PYD-focused extracurricular youth sport programmes.

Searching for memories: narratives about the initiation process of former athletes of the Brazilian futsal national team

Through the Development Model of Sport Participation framework and methodological perspective of oral history, this manuscript aims to narrate some fragments of the history of the sports initiation process of former elite athletes of the Brazilian Futsal Team. To this end, two interviews were conducted with athletes in the Brazilian Futsal Team during the 1980s and 1990s. From the oral history of two former futsal players, we identified evidence about the contribution of deliberate play in their initial stage of sport involvement. First, they highlighted the importance of the street and the family in their first contact with games played with feet, particularly futsal. Afterward, they emphasized the school, promoted diversified sports practices, and mentioned the role of the teacher in encouraging futsal practice in the scholar team. Finally, they evidenced the importance of social clubs and soccer practice during the transition to specialization years in futsal. It certainly contributed to their long-life athlete career. Key Words: Athlete development; School; Club; Family; Sport career

Developmental activities of elite junior hockey players: an analysis of early sport specialization.

Early sport specialization is a popular and contentious topic in the scientific literature and popular media. The lure of extrinsic rewards has led to increasing rates of specialization among young athletes, while expert recommendations promote multisport participation. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze developmental activities of a group of elite junior hockey players in Canada. Within this context, elements of specialization were investigated in accordance with existing theoretical frameworks and long-term athlete development models to enhance the literature. Fifteen participants from the Ontario Hockey League completed quantitative retrospective interviews, detailing past sport and recreational activities. Thirty-one developmental milestones were assessed. Accumulated hours of activity were categorized in accordance with Côté's (1999) Developmental Model of Sports Participation, along with the number and types of sports in which they participated during childhood. Jayanthi et al.'s (2015) continuum was utilized to determine the age at which the athletes became moderately and highly specialized. Accrued hours of deliberate practice reported by participants increased from ages 6 to 16 years, as did competition in organized hockey games. Reported hours of deliberate play peaked at 9 years of age and decreased thereafter. Participants played a combined 16 sports other than hockey, ranging from an average of 2.0 at age 6, to a maximum average of 5.6 at 12 years old, and decreasing each year to 2.3 by age 15. The greatest number of hours in other sports was accumulated at 12 years of age. Using a three-point scale, participants considered themselves "highly specialized" at 14 years old; however, other quantitative indicators suggested this may have occurred at 12 years of age. Relative to previous research on early sport specialization, participants in this study spent more time practicing hockey, while ceasing hockey-specific play and other sports at younger ages. Despite a diverse sport history, hockey competition was initiated earlier than recommended, showing high levels of sport commitment as young as 9 years old. The early specialization path remains a popular trajectory among coaches, parents, and athletes in Canadian ice hockey.

Describing early years sport: take-up, pathways, and engagement patterns amongst preschoolers in a major Canadian city

Despite high rates of early childhood (<6 years) sport participation, limited research captures children’s experiences or parents’ motives for children’s engagement during this time. This study aimed to identify the sport take-up, pathways, and patterns of engagement among 3-5 year-old children participating in organized sport programming in a major Canadian city. Data were gathered through external observations of five programs (i.e. multi-sport, soccer, hockey, gymnastics, rugby), and 10 semi-structured parent interviews (Mage= 36.4; six female). Results provide novel insight into preschool-aged children’s sport and unstructured sport/physical activity habits, while highlighting common program elements (i.e. fundamental movement skills, sport-specific skills, deliberate play, free play, competition). Findings suggest that many existing life-span sport participation and development models do not align with delivery of or experiences within preschooler programs; continued research is warranted to determine what pathways, engagement patterns, and program activities are optimal for preschooler development, in turn, contributing to modified models.

The relationship between deliberate practice, play, and futsal in childhood and adolescence and the development of different decision-making skills in professional female soccer players

Soccer players’ ability to make efficient and quick decisions has gained more importance due to the increase in game speed in the last few years. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the relationship between the engagement in previous developmental activities in soccer and futsal with the quality and speed of decision-making skills in different phases of sport development of elite female soccer players. The sample comprised 77 elite Brazilian professional female soccer players. Players’ decision-making skills were assessed based on an objective video-based test – TacticUP®. We used a retrospective questionnaire to collect information about previous participation in different developmental activities. The results showed that engagement in deliberate practice in soccer and futsal, especially during childhood and early adolescence, is related to a better quality of offensive decision-making skills, although showing small to medium effect sizes. We highlight that deliberate practice in futsal is associated only with offensive decision-making skills with the ball and near the ball. In turn, engaging in deliberate play in soccer, mainly in childhood and early adolescence, is related to quicker offensive and defensive decision-making skills, showing mostly medium effect sizes. To the best of our knowledge, it was the first study to measure the relationship of decision-making speed with developmental activities in soccer. It is concluded that deliberate practice in soccer and deliberate play in soccer are associated with different dimensions of decision-making skills.

Participation patterns in talent development in youth sports.

There has been a longstanding debate about the question: What amounts of what types of youth sport activities optimally facilitate later athletic excellence? This article provides a review of relevant research. We first evaluate popular conceptualizations of participation patterns-early specialization, deliberate practice, and deliberate play. Then, we review the available evidence on associations between performance and individual participation variables. The review reveals conceptual, definitional, and empirical flaws of the conceptions of early specialization, deliberate practice, and deliberate play. These approaches thus possess limited usefulness for empirical research. A review of studies considering individual, clearly defined participation variables provides a differentiated pattern of findings: Predictors of rapid junior performance and of long-term senior performance are opposite. Higher-performing juniors, compared to lower-performing peers, started playing their main sport, began involvement in talent promotion programs, and reached developmental performance milestones at younger ages, while accumulating larger amounts of coach-led main-sport practice, but less other-sports practice. In contrast, senior world-class athletes, compared to less-accomplished national-class peers, started playing their main sport, began involvement in talent promotion programs, and achieved performance milestones at older ages, while accumulating less coach-led main-sport practice, but more other-sports practice. We discuss implications for theory, practice, and future research.

Performing Childhood: Maddie Ziegler and the Presentation of Young Girls in Video Clips

Since the 1980s, the production of video clips has been on the rise. Over the past couple of years, clips showing dance choreographies, often embedded within a rather conceptual fictional framework, have greatly increased in popularity. Although the musicians are usually adults, it is not uncommon to cast children and young adults to perform in the videos. At the same time, multiple reality TV formats in which children and young adults compete performing dance choreographies to famous pop songs have become a popular form of entertainment. The American TV series Dance Moms is a prominent example of this phenomenon. One of the best-known young artists in the field is Maddie Ziegler, who made her debut in this show and subsequently appeared in several music videos by the singer Sia. Maddie, born in 2002, was eleven years old when she first performed in a video clip. Her career is emblematic of the presentation of young girls in a popular culture and media that is dominated by the deliberate play with expectations of age and the blurring of categorical distinctions. Drawing on Maddie Ziegler as an example, the following article provides a close analysis of the presentation of young girls in video clips and reality shows. Special attention is given to the atemporal image of adolescence in these adult reconstructions, which, instead of celebrating the rebellious potential of youth, oscillate between the angelic outer appearance of the child and the serious demeanour of the adult.

From Imaginative Experiments to Inventive Performances: On the Role of Creativity in the Developmental Experiences of Professional Ice Hockey Players

Despite an increasing interest in studying creativity in sport, previous research has primarily focused on in-game creative performance and employed research designs neglecting sport participants’ perspectives. Hence, this study explored professional athletes’ developmental experiences involving creativity. Semistructured retrospective interviews were conducted with eight ice hockey players performing in or retired from the National Hockey League, Kontinental Hockey League, or Swedish Hockey League. Players described 15 modalities of creative actions emerging when playing, practicing, and performing. Based on the players’ experiences, creativity led to augmented levels of enjoyment (i.e., elicited passion), development (i.e., enhanced potential), achievement (i.e., enriched in-game qualification), and fulfillment (i.e., extended career progression). Findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of creativity in sport and provide novel insights on the role of creativity in the development and maintenance of expertise in sport and the nature and role of deliberate play and deliberate practice in developing creativity.

It's not the type of practice that matters, it's the attitude: The impact of playful practice on motor skill learning

The traditional approach to practice has focused on the physical structure of practice, manipulating parameters like duration, spacing, task variations, practice order, and whether tasks are practiced in parts or as a whole and physically or mentally. The emergence of the deliberate practice framework shifted the focus to the learner’s attitude or mindset toward practice. It argues that the most effective practice involves a consciously effortful, workman-like approach to remedying weaknesses in performance. In the current paper, we build on the notion of deliberate play that arose in response to the deliberate practice framework. Rather than view deliberate play as a forerunner to deliberate practice, we argue that a playful approach to practice can benefit the learning process at any stage of learning or skill development. We draw on contemporary research in motor learning and development, in developmental and evolutionary psychology, and in education to highlight the benefits of a playful approach to practice on motor skill learning. We end with practical suggestions for encouraging a playful approach to practice and learning.

Activity Level and Nature of Practice and Play in Children's Football.

This study analyzes the activity level and nature of organized football training (deliberate practice, DPR), compared with when children play football on their own (deliberate play, DPL), in a sample of selected (YT) and non-selected (BT) talents. A total of 29 observations were analyzed over 2650 min, focusing on the kind of activity, variability, and intensity of the training. In DPL, there are more finishing on goal, involvement, and challenges in 1:1 situation, and more ball touches and ball transport in games, compared with DPR. Additionally, DPL has more activity time (68% vs. 56%) and fewer breaks overall (32% vs. 44%). In DPL, children spend more time playing against each other (92% vs. 36%), and most of the time there are games or finishing on goal. In DPR, children spend more time playing together with someone (2% vs. 44%) and in passing and receiving the ball. DPR training contains more standardized exercises and protected situations. DPR-YT training differs from DPR-BT training with less activity time, ball touches, attempts on goal, and 1:1 situations. In conclusion, the results support DPL providing more football-specific activity. More DPR training at the expense of DPL might reduce practice time for skill development.

The Development of Music Expertise: Applications of the Theories of Deliberate Practice and Deliberate Play

Musicians and athletes share many common traits. Both groups learn a combination of physical and mental skills to attain expert status. In this literature review, I provide a short history of research on expertise development and two models: Bloom’s model of expertise development and the Developmental Model of Sport Participation. The Bloom model categorizes learning activities between combinations of free play and deliberate practice throughout the three stages of development. However, Developmental Model of Sport Participation includes a new category, deliberate play, which combines aspects of play and deliberate practice. Research indicating music learning through deliberate practice, deliberate play, and music play is presented. If students are able to learn through the more enjoyable deliberate play and music play, teachers should consider including these activities to better match developmental stages and potentially improve retention. Implications for future research and music teachers are discussed.

Nelisiwe Xaba: Dancing between South Africa and the Global North

Nelisiwe Xaba has spent her career creating and touring works between South Africa and the Global North. Signature elements of her work include small-scale formats (solos, duets, trios), the use of objects that blur the distinction between costume and set, the repurposing of everyday materials, and the deliberate play with the performer’s and spectators’ gaze. In this cluster of articles writers based in South Africa, Germany, and the US explore how her works take on different meanings for different spectators in different cultural contexts.

Deliberate Practice, Functional Performance and Psychological Characteristics in Young Basketball Players: A Bayesian Multilevel Analysis.

Background: Early sport specialization has increased its popularity mostly based on the deliberate practice theory premises. In this study, we examined the influence of the age of onset of deliberate basketball practice on body size, functional performance (countermovement jump, line drill and yo-yo intermittent recovery level 1), motivation for achievement and competitiveness, motivation for deliberate practice and sources of enjoyment among young Brazilian basketball players. In addition, we adjusted for the influence of gender, age group, maturity status and state basketball federation on the outcomes. Methods: The sample included 120 female and 201 male adolescent basketball players aged 14.0 (1.7) years, on average. We grouped players by the age of onset of deliberate basketball practice as related to biologic maturation milestones (pre-puberty deliberate practice onset, mid-puberty deliberate practice onset and late-puberty deliberate practice onset). Results: There was no substantial variation among contrasting players by the onset of deliberate practice in all of the outcomes. Adjusting for gender, male players with late-puberty deliberate practice onset had better functional performance than players with pre- and mid-puberty onset of practice. Females players with late-puberty deliberate practice onset had slightly worst functional performance than players with pre- and mid-puberty onset of practice. Conclusions: Early deliberate basketball practice does not appear to provide an advantage for the development of physiological functions. Likewise, enjoyment, motivation for deliberate practice and motivation for achievement and competition do not appear to be negatively influenced by early deliberate basketball practice. The debate about the relationship between time spent in deliberate practice and performance development in young athletes will need to emphasize the coaching pedagogical quality and the training environment and account for informal practice and deliberate play.

Retained foreign objects in casts in children.

Cast immobilization is a noninvasive and effective option in the treatment of fractures in children. However, its use can be associated with complications, such as pressure sores, skin infections, thermal injuries, and joint stiffness. In clinical practice, retained foreign objects in casts are not uncommon. This study aims to ascertain reasons for foreign objects being retained in casts and their effects on the skin. Eighteen children with retained foreign objects in their casts were identified and interviewed. Patient demographics, type of fracture and cast applied, nature of foreign body, and medical complications caused directly by the foreign object were also recorded for analysis. The foreign objects retained included coins, stationery, toy parts, cutlery, and hygiene items. The most common reason for their retention was to relieve itch, followed by accidental insertion and deliberate play. More than half of the children did not suffer complications, and the rest were all skin complications, with the most severe one being an infected skin ulcer that required oral antibiotics. Although the complications of retained foreign bodies are limited to the skin, they can worsen with delayed treatment. Cast care and itch reduction advice must be clearly communicated to patients and their caregivers. Foreign objects in casts must be emergently removed. Level of Evidence: Level 4 Evidence.

Distinct trajectories of athlete development: A retrospective analysis of professional rugby league players

ABSTRACTContemporary models of athlete development (e.g., Development Model of Sport Participation) suggest attainment benefits from early age multi-sport “sampling” behaviour before progressive transition into “invested” single-sport involvement in teenage years compared to intensive early-age specialisation. However, specific examinations of these development patterns across a number of team sports and cultural contexts remains limited. This study involved a large sample of professional Australian Rugby League (RL) players (N = 224) who progressed along the RL system pathways. It defined two contrasting athlete development trajectories based upon initial entry into formal age group representative teams (“Early”: U16, U18; “Later”: U20+) to compare their developmental participation patterns using the National Rugby League Athlete Development Questionnaire (NRLADQ). Between-Within Analyses of Variance (BW-ANOVA)’s identified interaction effects as the ‘Later’ group reported lower volumes of deliberate practice from 10–20 years, RL-game involvement from 10–20 years, deliberate play from 5–12 years, and a later reduction in other sporting involvement. Group differences in RL-related deliberate practice and play were supported by qualitative descriptions of training at age-categories. Conclusion: RL professional senior elite success level can be attained via early intensified specialised investment and accelerated youth success as well as by a rather decelerated, much less cost-intensive participation pattern.

The developmental pathways of Malaysian elite youth badminton players

This study examine the developmental factors of Malaysian elite youth badminton players. The participants were badminton players from the national back-up players (n = 16) and youth state players (n = 20) from three states in Malaysia, chosen based on their performance in previous Malaysian Games. Retrospective analysis of the participants’ type and amount of badminton related practice activities throughout their career showed that although the national players achieved some badminton performance milestones later than the state players, further examination into their accumulated hours in structured and unstructured badminton practice activities showed almost similar patterns in their engagement in those activities with more emphasis on structured practice from the beginning of their career. It suggests that both the national youth and state badminton players conform to the early specialization pathway.Keywords: Developmental pathways; deliberate play and practice; youth badminton players

The Spawns of Creative Behavior in Team Sports: A Creativity Developmental Framework.

Developing creativity in team sports players is becoming an increasing focus in sports sciences. The Creativity Developmental Framework is presented to provide an updated science based background. This Framework describes five incremental creative stages (beginner, explorer, illuminati, creator, and rise) and combines them into multidisciplinary approaches embodied in creative assumptions. In the first training stages, the emphasis is placed on the enrollment in diversification, deliberate play and physical literacy approaches grounded in nonlinear pedagogies. These approaches allow more freedom to discover different movement patterns increasing the likelihood of emerging novel, adaptive and functional solutions. In the later stages, the progressive specialization in sports and the differential learning commitment are extremely important to push the limits of the creative progress at higher levels of performance by increasing the range of skills configurations. Notwithstanding, during all developmental stages the teaching games for understanding, a game-centered approach, linked with the constraints-led approach play an important role to boost the tactical creative behavior. Both perspectives might encourage players to explore all actions possibilities (improving divergent thinking) and prevents the standardization in their actions. Overall, considering the aforementioned practice conditions the Creativity Developmental Framework scrutinizes the main directions that lead to a long-term improvement of the creative behavior in team sports. Nevertheless, this framework should be seen as a work in progress to be later used as the paramount reference in creativity training.

Talent development in sport: A critical review of pathways to expert performance

This review aims to examine the most significant research regarding the development of talent in sport, with a focus on the quantity and type of practice necessary for the attainment of expertise. A total of 54 peer-reviewed empirical articles were collected and analysed for their content. The literature reveals considerable evidence demonstrating that both early specialization and early diversification can lead to expertise development. However, the contrasting views of deliberate practice and deliberate play do not provide a sufficient spectrum of different learning activities for talent development. Furthermore, the content analysis highlights some inconsistencies in the criteria used to characterize different types of learning activities, pointing to the need for a more rigorous and detailed characterization of activities that affect talent development throughout the lifespan. Finally, this review underscores the need for different methodological approaches to complement athletes’ perceptions of their past practice experiences gathered from retrospective interviews. The potential value of using systematic observations to provide a detailed examination of the microstructure of different learning activities is discussed.

Deliberate Play and Preparation Jointly Benefit Motor and Cognitive Development: Mediated and Moderated Effects.

In light of the interrelation between motor and cognitive development and the predictive value of the former for the latter, the secular decline observed in motor coordination ability as early as preschool urges identification of interventions that may jointly impact motor and cognitive efficiency. The aim of this study was twofold. It (1) explored the outcomes of enriched physical education (PE), centered on deliberate play and cognitively challenging variability of practice, on motor coordination and cognitive processing; (2) examined whether motor coordination outcomes mediate intervention effects on children’s cognition, while controlling for moderation by lifestyle factors as outdoor play habits and weight status. Four hundred and sixty children aged 5–10 years participated in a 6-month group randomized intervention in PE, with or without playful coordinative and cognitive enrichment. The weight status and spontaneous outdoor play habits of children (parental report of outdoor play) were evaluated at baseline. Before and after the intervention, motor developmental level (Movement Assessment Battery for Children) was evaluated in all children, who were then assessed either with a test of working memory (Random Number Generation task), or with a test of attention (from the Cognitive Assessment System). Children assigned to the ‘enriched’ intervention showed more pronounced improvements in all motor coordination assessments (manual dexterity, ball skills, static/dynamic balance). The beneficial effect on ball skills was amplified by the level of spontaneous outdoor play and weight status. Among indices of executive function and attention, only that of inhibition showed a differential effect of intervention type. Moderated mediation showed that the better outcome of the enriched PE on ball skills mediated the better inhibition outcome, but only when the enrichment intervention was paralleled by a medium-to-high level of outdoor play. Results suggest that specifically tailored physical activity (PA) games provide a unique form of enrichment that impacts children’s cognitive development through motor coordination improvement, particularly object control skills, which are linked to children’s PA habits later in life. Outdoor play appears to offer the natural ground for the stimulation by designed PA games to take root in children’s mind.

The Progressive Involvement of Youth in Niche Sport: The Perspective of Youth Participants and Their Parents

The current study explores youth sport participation by examining the factors perceived to influence youth sampling and specialization in a niche sport. Further, the role of parental influence was examined as a contributing factor to youth sport progression. In-person semi-structured interviews were performed with 18 youth target archery participants and their parents (N = 28). Data analysis revealed target archery may provide a unique context that enhances previously agreed upon perceptions of sampling and specializing within youth sport development. The youth participants’ experiences with target archery were found to both confirm and challenge previous conceptions of the deliberate play and practice framework, while parental influence was largely based on opinion and prior experience. Based on these findings, theoretical contributions, suggestions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.