Early maturation and technical skill development in elite soccer: Tom's case

Motor Processes in Sport

Tom is an 18-year-old goalkeeper who recently moved up in class from youth to adult football. He was an early maturer and has a history of being more advanced in soccer than his peers but now a weakness is exposed. He never learned to kick with his left foot and this has been a problem at this level. The current paper discusses the proposed reasons for his difficulty and outlines a plan of intervention.

Understanding the Effects of Early Maturation as They Apply to Tom

The traditional view holds that early maturation in boys has more positive consequences for psychosocial adaptation than late maturation. The early literature by researchers like Mussen and Jones (1957) described early-maturing boys during late adolescence (17 -- 18 years) as having higher self-esteem and self-confidence, a more positive self-image, and as being more socially mature, which may have led to more favorable perceptions of early maturation in males by the adult world. These effects seem to be enduring as the researchers found that the effects of greater prestige experienced by early maturing males was still evident at age 33, when they were found to be more responsible, cooperative, sociable, and self-controlled compared to late maturers. However, they were also found to be more rigid, moralistic, humorless, and conformist (i.e., indicating high conscientiousness, high agreeableness, but low openness to experiences). There have been some other findings that do not paint such a rosy picture. Ewert (1984) using a German sample found that early-maturing boys in late adolescence (age 18) were no longer superior to their late maturing counterparts in physical appearance and interests, as was the case during early adolescence. They were, however, rated as being more dominant in social interactions (i.e., taking over responsibility), which indicates higher conscientiousness than found in their peers at age 18.

Contrary to the aforementioned traditional view, several investigations of larger samples supported a link between perceived, as well as objective, early maturation in boys and emotional problems (Petersen and Crockett, 1985), depressive feelings, and anxiety, especially in mid to late adolescence (Silbereisen and Kracke, 1997). In a more recent longitudinal sample Ge, Conger, and Elder (2001) also found that objective early maturation in boys was associated with higher emotional distress in grades eight and twelve as compared to their peers.

With respect to athletics, particularly soccer, the research has been clear in establishing that early maturing boys are more often a part of elite soccer teams than the later maturing counterparts and that as time goes on the differences between early maturers and later maturers tends to subside (Malina, Bouchard, & Bar-Or, 2004). Often, younger athletes who are more than two standard deviations ahead of their peers in terms of physical variables such as height and measures of strength are not motivated to learn the proper techniques and methods of their specialty and rely on their physical superiority to carry them through (Malina et al., 2004). From the above case description this certainly appears to be the case here.

In youth sports a confounding factor that hinders the development of talent is often early physical maturity. The organization of youth sports tends to bias player selection over skills and talent in favor of physical maturity (Starkes, 2000). For example, research on the birth quartiles of elite youth athletes in soccer (as well as in other sports) indicates that they are more likely to be born in the first quartile of the selection year as opposed to the last quartile (Brewer, Balsom, & Davis, 1995). Over time however, when these athletes move on these advantages disappear and their lack of skills may be a hindrance to their performance. Depending on the individual case, such circumstances can be rectified by intensive practice; however, there is a sort of no-man's land here as well as one can never be sure how such an athlete will respond to a sudden change of being relatively dominant to one of being more or less equivalent to the other players. Each case requires individual attention and a special approach (Malina et al., 2004; Starkes, 2000).

It appears as if Tom has been able to get away without developing the inherently weaker points of his skills. His situation appears consistent with early maturing boys that play sports. It is safe to presuppose that he has not been in the situation of having to independently improve aspects of his game. We are also told that he prefers to kick the ball out of bounds with his right foot as opposed to use his left, more evidence that he is trying to hide a weakness as opposed to developing it. We are left wondering how Tom is processing these events cognitively.

Schemas are organized patterns of thought that structure the world for the user (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003). They might be thought of as cognitive scripts that organize the individual's knowledge and their assumptions about a person, thing, activity, concept, situation, etc. Schemas are used for processing and interpreting information about the world. They are quickly activated, automatic, and affect how we act, feel, and believe, but can be altered (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977; Young et al., 2003). Markus (1977) in her seminal work developed the notion of the self-schema that is an organized pattern or series of scripts a person has of the self; in lay terms a complex form of self-image. One's self-schema is instrumental in determining one's attitudes, motivations, interpretations of events, self-worth, and one's ability to adapt and change. Markus and other researchers have found the one's self-schema is instrumental in determining how one views the world, what information one will attend to, and how a person will adapt to change. Early maturing boys can generally be observed to have more positively developed self-schemas than late maturing boys but as mentioned in the review above there are caveats to this trend and especially regarding sports performance from adolescence to young adulthood (Malina et al., 2004; Starkes, 2000). It is very difficult to determine how Tom views his situation outside of the information that he has never needed to develop his left foot kicking, he has always been more adept at the game than others his age, and he does not attempt to kick with his left foot. We can surmise that Tom's self-schema includes the notion that is inadequate in kicking with his left foot and that in other aspects of the game he is generally more confident in his other abilities; however, it will be very important to discuss how Tom feels about the situation, what he believes can be done about it (does he view the situation with an internal or external locus of control?), and how motivated he is about learning to kick with his left foot (these issues are discussed further when a proposed assessment of Tom's situation is described below).

In Tom's case we also are told that he has realised that he has a major weakness kicking with his left foot. This indicates that the athlete has indentified an area of his game that is deficient and we can surmise that he understands that this situation will not remit spontaneously. This could be an advantage in the current case. We are also told that when he does attempt to kick with his left foot his performance is quite amateurish, at the level of a beginner; therefore we can conclude that Tom will have to learn to kick with his left foot starting with the basics and working from there.

One of the related issues we might consider is bilateral transfer of skills. Inherently we might believe that if Tom has already learned to kick the ball with his dominant foot learning to kick with the nondominant foot will be easier. He could simply apply the same routine to his left leg; however, the current description of his problem does not support this idea. Moreover, the research is somewhat mixed on this idea. For instance Kumar and Mandal (2005) looked at the effects of bilateral transfer of skill with regard to speed and accuracy left-handed and right-handed participants. Non-preferred to preferred and preferred to non-preferred hands were tested a mirror-drawing task. Left and right-handed participants did not differ in the extent of bilateral transfer, which was modest at best. Bilateral transfer was greater from the non-preferred to the preferred side and speed in learning demonstrated very moderate bilateral transfer but not accuracy. Conversely, Chase and Seidler (2007) also investigated whether the degree of handedness is related to the magnitude of bilateral transfer in a sensorimotor adaptation task and sequence learning task. Transfer was generally better when first practiced with the dominant side, but there was a task effect. Thus, the type of task appears to be important when considering bilateral transfer and the research is not clear whether transfer occurs more effectively from the preferred to nonpreferred side or vice versa. In the current case the description of Tom's kicking technique with his left foot indicates that he has no confidence in kicking with his left foot. The approach for Tom might be best if the bilateral transfer notion is ignored and Tom's weakness is approached from a very basic instructional level. If there is bilateral transfer in this case it will reveal itself as Tom begins working on his left foot kicking technique and make the learning process all the smoother.

Given the above facts of the current case we can outline a program to help Tom improve his left foot kicking techniques and at the same time remain sensitive to the potential psychological issues in this situation.

Assessment Issues in Tom's Case.

The first step in the current process would be to perform both a physical and psychological assessment of Tom. The physical assessment would concentrate on Tom's left leg, his core, and left arm to determine factors such as strength, flexibility, and coordination in his left leg to rule out any significant physical imbalances that may be present and contributing to his difficulties and also to develop an understanding of what areas, if any, need improvement before beginning the skills training of kicking. In addition, a physical assessment would help to identify any potential congenital issues that might be contributing to Tom's difficulties. While there is no reason to believe that Tom has some form of long-standing physical disability affecting his left side it certainly is a possibility given the description of his ability to kick with his left foot and a physical assessment would help to rule this out. If such a disability is present identifying it as a possibility would allow for further assessment by specialists.

The psychological assessment would be done to determine of Tom really understands the nature of the difficulty that he is having, how he feels about it, and what he views as the solution to the problem. We start with a brief discussion of what would be covered in the psychological assessment.

Developing Kicking Tom's Skills

We can characterize Tom's difficulty as a need to develop a specific motor skill on his left side. The classification of skills in sports has been described as a single dimensional continuum that ranges from one extreme to the other. The best known system of classification used for the development of sport skills involves the stability of environmental contexts. These contexts can range from open to closed skills (Magill, 2007). In closed skills the environment is generally stable and the athlete acts upon or initiates the movement. In soccer the goalie kick is a good example of a closed skill. At the other extreme continuum are open skills where the environment is unstable or variable. During open skills the variability of movement can be due to the movement of the athlete, an object, or both. Dribbling, passing, and shooting the ball are excellent examples of open skills since there are many variables involved with the performance of these.

When teaching motor skills for sports coaches should consider the open/closed dimension as prerequisite to setting up instructional and practice conditions. For example, passing and dribbling need be practiced under a variety of circumstances, whereas a goalie kick can be practiced under relatively static conditions. However, most motor skills in sports are much more complex.

Gentile (2000) outlined a two-dimensional classification system for teaching motor skills. Since motor skills range from simple skills to complex skills, Gentile expanded the one dimensional system to include the context of open and closed skills as well as the function of the action of the skill. When considering the environmental context of soccer skills coaches need to determine the relevant features or regulatory conditions that dictate the kind of movement necessary to perform the skill (Gentile, 2000). Regulatory conditions effect one's movement and may be closed sport skills open sport skills. The goalie kick is relatively closed but there is some need for intertrial variability.

Gentile's nomenclature also includes the function of the action. This incorporates body orientation, which in the current case is unstable (there is body motion in the kick) and object manipulation, which in the current case is present (the ball). Skills that require bodily transport and object manipulation are more complex than those that do not. Therefore it is important to practice the motion with and without the object in order to develop the skill.

Breaking down the task for Tom

Following an information processing approach is important as Tom learns to use his left foot. Because of the limits of working memory and the complexity of the task it is helpful to break the task down for Tom (Baddeley, 2003). Secondly, since Tom is relatively inept at kicking with his left foot breaking down the task will allow Tom to focus on each segment of the task by reciting the proper procedure as he practices (Castaneda & Gray, 2007). As he develops skill and puts the pieces together he should do less reciting of the steps (Castaneda & Gray, 2007). Thus as he begins to learn the technique he should remain internally focused but as he masters the procedures outlined below he needs to externally forget them and just "kick" (Dugdale & Eklund, 2002; Castaneda & Gray, 2007).

However, one important point to remember as that due to the relatively closed nature of the task Tom's coaches can focus on having Tom apply a consistent strategy to his approach to kicking with his left foot until he has mastered the fundamentals. This involves kicking the ball as far away from the goal as possible and keeping it in bounds. Once he has master the basics coaches can work on special cases where Tom attempt to work on accuracy and place the ball closer to team mates. There are several steps to an effective goalie kick that Tom should memorize (e.g., see www.soccer-training-guide.com):

1. Proper placement of the kicking is crucial to delivering a powerful kick. The higher the goalie can bring their kicking leg back before the kick will result in greater power that they will be generate on the ball.

2. Proper ankle placement of the kicking foot so that when performing the kick Tom keeps the ankle of his left foot locked.

3. The knee of the supporting leg should be slightly bent. This allows for the goalie to kick the ball with their half instep. The more the supporting knee is bent the easier it is to hit the ball solidly with the kicking foot's half instep.

4. The supporting leg / foot should be roughly a foot away from the ball when kicking. This will allow Tom to kick the ball from a 45 degree angle with maximum power. The direction of the supporting foot will determine the direction the ball takes.

5. The position of the body is also important. Leaning forward will most often keep the kick low to the ground, whereas leaning back will result in a higher kick. Most goalkeepers have a preference to leaning back in order to get enough height. Tom's coaches can set a standard on the minimum height they want him to achieve and then this can adjusted as he masters technique.

The following breakdown has been demonstrated to be beneficial in teaching basic soccer techniques (Ford, Yates & Williams, 2010). Making the technique simple by breaking it down will help Tom understand what is expected of him, allow for transfer from working memory to procedural memory, and also lessen any anxiety (Baddeley, 2003; Vaeyens et al., 2007). These points can be written down so Tom can review them in practice. He can also go over them with his coaches. If we follow Gentile (2000) in the development of Tom's technique we would begin training with no body transport (no running into the kick) and no manipulation (no ball). Simply focus on the kicking motion. The next step of training would require manipulation but without body transport. Once the kick looks good we would continue practicing kicking the ball interspaced with body transport and no manipulation. Finally transport and manipulation would be practiced together. Once this is achieved to the satisfaction of coaches and Tom other variables like trying to place the ball can be added. As Tom hits plateaus in his development the use of training tapes can be helpful as well as dropping back a step in the sequence (Vaeyens et al., 2007).

Self-talk during practice and mental imagery will also help improve his kicking technique (Neck & Manz, 1992; Vaeyens et al., 2007). In order to assist Tom we could also recommend that Tom supplement physical practice with imagery where he imagines kicking the ball properly and attempts to incorporate seeing, feeling, and hearing the process of the left footed kick. This can take place for 15-20 minutes a day and can lead to dramatic improvements in performance. Finally, Tom can model good kick form by watching films of goalies kicking the ball (Stokes et al., 2010).

A typical practice for Tom should begin with developing flexibility and warming up with a slight focus on the left leg. Then during skill practice Tom should work on left leg kicking as outlined above in accordance with the stages discussed and under supervision of the coaches. When skill practice is complete strength training can be undertaken and areas identified in the assessment regarding strength should be addressed. Finally a cool down with stretching and some left leg focus can finish of the training session.

Tom's coaches can keep records of his kicking progress. Viewing video tapes of his performances in practice can help highlight his strong points and also identify areas that require extra focus. The coaches can also help Tom to determine when he should begin kicking with his left foot in actual completion. As mentioned above the literature on social facilitation suggests that the dominant response is more likely to occur when the athlete is being observed or during completion (Strauss, 2001). Thus, when training new skills for competition a certain amount of over-learning may be required before one can expect a positive correlation between practice performance and competition performance. In addition, rushing headfirst into attempting new skills during live games in this case might psychologically damper any progress Tom makes in practice. There should be clearly established goals for both practice and completion so the Tom is allowed to develop confidence in his left kick. By being sensitive to Tom's history and applying the principles of motor skill development Tom's coaches should be able to make dramatic improvements in his left leg kicking technique. However, as discussed in the section on early maturers and development there is the potential for Tom to languish due to not having to work so hard in the past. By remaining sensitive and supportive but firm Tom's coaches can assist him to develop to the best of his potential.