Øivind Granerud
UiT The Arctic university of Norway, Campus Alta
This article is written for sports students to gain insight into various topics that it is important to have knowledge of for those who will train future athletes who have the goal of performing at a high level. Hopefully this can be of interest also to those with a general interest in sports.
In small and large sports teams in Norway, there are young football players who dream of becoming a new Lionel Messi, Martin Ødegård or Ada Hegerberg. Many young athletes dream of achieving the same success as Therese Johaug, the Ingebrigtsen brothers, Karsten Warhom or Johannes Høstflot Klæbo. There are many circumstances that affect their chances to realize their dream.
In this article, I address the following factors that affect the possibility to realize the dream that many children and young people have to become a top athlete in sports: The importance of play; Versatility versus early specialization; Talent, what is it and who is it; Motor maturation – relative age effect; Internal and external motivation; Self-confidence and anxiety in sports; The importance of the coach; The importance of parents; Sports as the arena of integration; Dropout; All performers are equally important.
All children need to be physically active. Participating in playful sports also helps children understand the importance of friendship, empathy, good spirits, to endure loss and, not least, the will to overcome adversity.
Get the full-text article in Norwegian!
ØIVIND GRANERUD is 1st Lecturer in Sports Science at the School of Sport at UiT Norway’s Arctic University. He was part of a management group that worked on the preparations for a new Sports College in Northern Norway in the period 2011 to 2013. He was program director at the college in the period 2013 to 2018 and has also been vice-dean. He started his professional career as a teacher at Øytun folk high school in Alta in 1981, where he was headmaster in from 1985 to 1999. Øivind has also coached football teams for men, women and youths of different ages
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