Whose Game Is It? Rethinking Youth Sport

The aim of this assignment is to practise and develop some of the skills that you will require for the final Project by critically evaluating literature on your chosen study topic option in relation to a case study. There are two options: Option A relates to Study Topic 4A (The science of recovery from sport and exercise) and Option B relates to Study Topic 4B (Whose game is it? Rethinking youth sport).

Option B – Youth sport Read the case study and then answer the essay question below: Write a critical essay that discusses the effectiveness of the different approaches that Aarav has experienced in these two youth sport environments.

Case study: Aarav’s struggles Aarav is a 12-year-old cricketer who has been identified as being very talented and showing potential. Aarav’s passion for cricket started when he began playing during PE at primary school and took part in a school tournament. At the tournament one of the coaches invited him to a junior session at a local cricket club. Aarav attended and had a fantastic time. The lead coach, Rob, was great and made the sessions exciting by playing lots of fun games. He often let the children choose which games they wanted to play and what they wanted to work on.

From that moment, aged nine, Aarav was hooked and all he wanted to do was play cricket. He played all year round, training and playing matches in the summer and training indoors over the winter. Once at secondary school Aarav was selected for the County under-12 squad where he excelled and gained a place on an Emerging Player Pathway (EPP). After his first EPP session Aarav came away feeling a little deflated as it was not quite as much fun as his club experiences. He continued to attend as his parents had paid money for the kit and he felt it was an honour to be selected; however, Aarav began to dread the sessions. He did not like having to miss club training as the sessions clashed. The coaches at the EPP were pleasant enough but they were quite formal and businesslike. The sessions were extremely serious and very different from the environment created by Rob.

There was little opportunity to socialise with the other boys and make friends; they were there purely to train and develop their cricket skills. The boys were treated like professional cricketers and the sessions were physically and mentally challenging. The coaches would film them and then analyse their technique, often pointing out where and how they needed to improve. Even though Aarav knew he was as good as the other boys, he felt his confidence dwindling and started to feel overwhelmed by the high expectations and felt pressure with talk of where he might progress to in the future. Consequently, his performance suffered. Aarav felt disconnected from this version of the game and that he was missing out by no longer training with his club and his friends. He was falling out of love with cricket and didn’t know what to do.

Whose Game is it? Rethinking youth sport.

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Option B (Youth sport)

Your essay will consist of an introductory section, a main section critiquing the evidence in relation to the case study, and a conclusion detailing the implications for practice and pointing towards future study directions. Guidance on writing essays can be found in the Help Centre and the guidance below indicates what is expected within each of these sections, as well as a suggested word count for each section. You should not include section headings or subheadings to structure your essay.

Introduction (300 words)

The task asks you to produce a critical essay that discusses the effectiveness of the contrasting approaches to youth sport experienced by Aarav in the case study. In this introductory part you are setting out the foundation for your work. First you need to introduce the topical context of the essay i.e. approaches in youth sport. Then you should precisely state what the focus of your answer will include and define the key terms where appropriate. For example, it is important that you define how you are interpreting the word ‘effectiveness’ within the essay, as effectiveness may relate to performance (e.g. whether Aarav’s performance improves), and/or participation (e.g. whether Aarav continues to participate in cricket).

Main section: critiquing the evidence (1300 words)

This section of the essay should discuss the approaches used in both of the coaching environments experienced by Aarav and link them to relevant theories and concepts from the module materials to evaluate their effectiveness. Since a feature of this study topic is the links between ideas across all four units, you should aim to draw from one theory or concept from each of the units. For example, some of the relevant theories and concepts you may wish to draw upon across the study topic include: Early specialisation (Unit 11b, Sections 11.1.2, 11.5 and 11.6 may be useful) Early talent identification processes (Unit 12b, Sections 12.3, 12.6 and 12.7 may be useful) Models of youth development (Unit 12b, Section 12.2 may be useful) Premature professionalisation (Unit 13b, Sections 13.2, 13.4, and 13.5 may be useful) Early engagement (Unit 13b, Section 13.6 may be useful) Deliberate play (Unit 11b, Sections 11.2, 11.3 and 11.4 may be useful) Athlete voice (Unit 14b, Section 14.3 may be useful). Please note that you do not have to cover all the points above. There may be additional concepts and theories not stated here that you may wish to refer to. In this main section you are demonstrating your familiarity with arguments in the academic literature and any underpinning background knowledge needed to discuss, evaluate and critique the two contrasting approaches detailed in the case study. You should include any debate or controversy that makes it a contemporary issue (including media evidence often helps show how an issue is perceived). Your argument should have a clear direction: you are working towards clarity and a reasoned conclusion as to the effectiveness of the two different environments experienced by Aarav. You should refer to the module framework for further advice on investigating a contemporary issue and Activity 14.6 may be useful for this.

Ensure you include key academic research as well as more contemporary academic research to back up your argument. This means that there is an expectation that you will source additional evidence and that some of the academic literature will be recent. We normally expect ‘recent’ to mean literature from 2021 onwards. However, subject areas are built upon key academic research that is more dated and these sources can also be included in the discussion: the skill is in recognising how knowledge has developed over time from the early literature. You should also address non-academic evidence – media representations, for instance, which can often illustrate academic theories and concepts – although you should always make clear your awareness that this is not a substitute for academic material and is secondary to it. You may choose to do this mainly in one subsection or distribute throughout your narrative. It is recommended that you consider the credibility of different media sources. Once again it is important that you extend the media sources beyond those presented in the study topic to ensure that your answer considers any new developments/perspectives. You may find it useful to refer to the activities where you undertook a search for further academic literature and media sources such as

Study Topic 4B Activities 11.2 and 13.3.

Conclusion and implications for practice (900 words)

In this final section you should clearly state the conclusions you have drawn based on the evaluation of the evidence presented and discuss the implications of this conclusion for youth sport practices. It might help when thinking about this section to consider these three prompts: 1. What does the evidence point to in relation to the study topic area? (The conclusion.) 2. How is this information of any value to those working in youth sport? (The implications for practice.) 3. Are there any future research directions proposed that would further evolve the subject area?

Whose Game is it? Rethinking youth sport.

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By admin in Blog on January 16, 2025