Relationships Between Perfectionism, Training Load and Elite Junior Football Players’ Self-Assessed and Coach- Assessed Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe Norwegian elite junior football players’ perfectionism and training load assigned and self-imposed and examine how these factors were related to their own and their coaches’ assessments of their skills. The participants were 115 Norwegian junior football players (M age = 17.8 yrs, SD = .79 yrs) representing six professional football clubs at the two highest levels in Norway. Self-ratings on dimensions of perfectionism were highest for personal standards and lowest for perceived parental pressure. The players reported taking part in 6.2 organized weekly training sessions lasting a total of 10.6 hours and 2.1 weekly self-organized sessions lasting a total of 4.4 hours. Correlation analysis showed that coach-assessed player skills correlated positively with personal standards and frequency and duration of organized training but not independent training. Self-assessed player skills correlated positively personal standards and duration of self-organized training, but not with measures of organized training. T-tests comparing players with high and low coach-assessed skills showed that highly skilled players did more organized training, both in terms of frequency and duration of sessions, and reported higher personal standards. The less skilled players perceived higher pressure from parents and coaches. Overall the findings suggest that players’ ratings of their skills are related to the volume of self-organized training whereas coaches’ ratings are related to involvement in organized training sessions. Having higher personal standards was associated with volumes of both organized and independent training and coaches rated players with higher personal standards as more skilled. These findings indicate that personal standards are essential to skill development and coaches should encourage players to strive for high personal standards.

Published version available from: http://thesportjournal.org/article/relationships-between-perfectionism-training-load-and-elite-junior-football-players-self-assessed-and-coach-assessed-skills/