Training and motivation in childhood and adolescence in Finnish elite footballers at different phases of their athletic careers
Holopainen, S., Lyyra, N., & Kokkonen, M. (2021). Training and motivation in childhood and adolescence in Finnish elite footballers at different phases of their athletic careers. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 21(6), 3476-3482. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2021.06471
Published in
Journal of Physical Education and SportDate
2021Copyright
© 2021 JPES
This study retrospectively explored 1) early specialization and hours of training in childhood and adolescence
and 2) the interrelations of different types of motivation in four samples of elite male footballers in different
phases of their athletic careers (N=91): Finnish first-tier players (n=23), youth national team players (U19 and
U21; n=33), national team players (n=22), and Finland’s so-called Golden Generation players of the 1990s and
2000s (n=13). For this study, the Golden Generation was defined by FAF as footballers who had played at least
ten official World cup or European championship qualifying games between the years 1996‒2008 and played in
international top leagues during their career. Data were collected anonymously by an online survey. Descriptive
statistics were used to analyze the mean values of childhood and adolescent training hours and motivation types.
The normality of the data distribution was tested by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Differences between the player
groups in practice hours in childhood and adolescence were analyzed by the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test
and the significance level for pairwise comparisons was adjusted by Bonferroni correction. Interrelations
between the players’ motivation types were analyzed with Spearman’s correlational coefficients. The results
showed that the players had specialized in football at around age 11. Most (81%) had also practiced another
sport. Football practice hours, which increased throughout childhood and adolescence, were higher than
combined training for other sports. The Golden Generation players spent the least time on organized practice and
the most on unorganized training and other sports in the early years. The elite footballers scored highest in
intrinsic motivation and lowest in amotivation towards football. Intrinsic motivation and the two forms of
autonomous extrinsic motivation were positively intercorrelated. Amotivation was negatively associated with
intrinsic motivation and positively with external regulation.
...
Publisher
Editura Universitatea din PitestiISSN Search the Publication Forum
2247-8051Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/104261350
Metadata
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- Liikuntatieteiden tiedekunta [3124]
Additional information about funding
This study was conducted at the University of Jyväskylä in collaboration with the Football Association of Finland.License
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