This article is based on a selection of Norwegian girls' accounts of backcountry, freeride skiing and mountain biking to better understand how they form and are formed by cultural identity standards. The study is conducted by using the precepts of discourse analysis, which have language and social communication as the central component of the…

This study aimed to translate the modified Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) and the Youth Sport Environment Questionnaire (YSEQ) into Norwegian, examine the factor structure and reliability of the scales through independent clusters model confirmatory factor analysis (ICM-CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), and examine…

The development of young athletes is a complex process characterised by dynamic changes and uncertainty [Abbott, A., Button, C., Pepping, G.-J., & Collins, D. (2005). Unnatural selection: Talent identification and development in sport. "Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences," 9(1), 61-88]. Talent development systems are…

Recently parental involvement in youth sport has intensified, challenging the understanding of youth sports as an arena where adolescents can develop their identity and autonomy. On this background, our study explores how adolescents understand and negotiate their parents' involvement in sport and how they define ideal and undesirable forms of…

While earlier research on coaches' careers and the development of coaching expertise appears 'gender blind', the focus of this article on the underrepresentation of women in elite-level coaching is how various forms of capital interact in recruitment to coaching. Using Bourdieu's analytic concepts, the study explores Norwegian female and male…

Research on Generation Z's (Gen Z) sport education is limited in scope. This study explores Gen Z's perceptions of gender equity in sport, with a focus on topic areas that warrant attention in sport management higher education courses to increase awareness around gender inequality. This study of Gen Z students across four European countries,…

The background of the article is the recurrent discussion about allocation of playing time in team sports involving children and young athletes. The objective is to analyse "why" playing time is a topic for discussion among parents, coaches and athletes. The following question is addressed: Under which condition is it "fair" to…

This study explored the motivational experiences of nine successful elite performers in ballet, music, and swimming at Norwegian talent development (TD) schools. Semistructured interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis revealed that the performers navigated within and between several contextual layers, characterized by egalitarian values,…

Structured talent identification and development, it has been argued, is one of the foundations of international sporting success and many modern elite sport systems have applied normative talent development (TD) models. The success of Norwegian handball, however, is based on an alternative approach to TD. Norwegian handball is characterized by a…

Purpose: The health promoting benefits of sport participation are under-utilized and should be further developed, particularly at the grassroots level. The purpose of this paper is to examine how grassroots coaches in youth football perceive their coaching practices after participating in a community-based coach education program aimed at…

This article looks at whether higher levels of perceived coaching competencies focusing on relational issues, were associated with higher satisfaction among elite athletes with their progress in sport. In order to explore this, we investigated elite athletes' perceptions of their coaches' coaching competence (CCS) and how these perceptions related…

Sport has long been considered by policy makers to contribute to a wide range of ideals associated with Putnam's notion of social capital, such as voluntarism, citizenship, democracy, community well-being, trust, inter-cultural knowledge and social networks. However, sport research that confirms such assumptions is scarce. This article focuses on…

Forty-five members of the Norwegian national team in orienteering and 11 coaches ranked 18 items regarding their importance in being a good coach. In addition, the athletes evaluated their individual coaches using the evaluation version of the scale. Compared responses of males and females, junior and senior athletes, and coaches and athletes. (KS)