Road to the top – Department of Sociology and Political Science
Project: The Road to the Top
Project period: 2011-2014
Project leader: Stig Arve Sæther and Nils Petter Aspvik
The transition from junior football to senior football can be difficult, even for the best players. Why is that? A natural explanation would be the skill level required to become a top-level player, and furthermore the demands put on the players in a high expecting environment. For most players this transition would mean that they go from being one of the players with the highest skill level in the group to being one of the players with the lowest skill level in the group, and at least the less experienced. This project wishes to explore the mechanisms of this transition from a player perspective. A topic that we are exploring is training load and total PA-load (both inside and outside the football). Other themes are psychological stress factors in this transition, coach-athlete relationship and thoughts about the future. The project is currently including junior teams in elite level football.
Recent Publications
- Engan, C. & Sæther, S. A. (2018) Goal Orientations, Motivational Climate and Stress Perception in Elite Junior Football Players: A Comparison of Club Levels. Journal of Physical Education and Sport,1, 107-113.
- Klund, F. & Sæther, S.A. (2017) Relationship between Perfectionism, Training Load and Elite Junior Football Players' Self Assessed and Coach-Assessed Skills.
- Sæther, S.A. & Aspvik, N.P. (2017) Descriptive analysis of Objectively Assessed Physical activity among talented soccer players – a study of 3 Norwegian professional football clubs. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 2, 1-5.
- Sæther, S. A.& Aspvik, N. P. (2016) Norwegian junior football players - player´s perception of stress according to playing time. Sport Science Review, 1-2, 85-96.
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Sæther, S. A. & Aspvik, N. P. (2014) Seasonal variation in objectively assessed physical activity among young Norwegian talented soccer players: A description of daily physical activity level. Journal of sports science & medicine, 13, 4, 964-968.