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Talent Development Environment in Nigeria: Athletes’ Perceptions of Barriers, Opportunities and Facilitators

Received: 20 September 2016     Accepted: 2 October 2016     Published: 27 October 2016
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Abstract

Environmental factors have been considered as critical to successful talent development in sports. The entire backgrounds of development including the home, school, community and the organizational culture in sport should provide consistent and coherent support for the developing champions if the goal of effective talent development is to be realised. This study explored the nature of talent development environment in Nigerian in order to uncover the barriers, opportunities and facilitators of effective talent development in the country. Eight successful national athletes were interviewed. Inductive analysis revealed the barriers (e.g. family barriers, finance, facilities, lack of regular competitions, issues with injury/rehabilitation), opportunities (e.g. luck, school sport, early senior participation) and facilitators of development (e.g. hard work, peer influence, coach-athlete relationship). It was suggested that the barriers be mitigated by encouraging the relevant parties (e.g. parents, governments) to promote an enabling environment for talent development in sport. Recommendation was made for further studies.

Published in American Journal of Sports Science (Volume 4, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11
Page(s) 98-104
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Talent Development Environment, Barriers, Opportunities, Facilitators

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Adeboye Israel Elumaro, Andronikos Georgios, Martindale Russell, Westbury Tony. (2016). Talent Development Environment in Nigeria: Athletes’ Perceptions of Barriers, Opportunities and Facilitators. American Journal of Sports Science, 4(6), 98-104. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11

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    ACS Style

    Adeboye Israel Elumaro; Andronikos Georgios; Martindale Russell; Westbury Tony. Talent Development Environment in Nigeria: Athletes’ Perceptions of Barriers, Opportunities and Facilitators. Am. J. Sports Sci. 2016, 4(6), 98-104. doi: 10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11

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    AMA Style

    Adeboye Israel Elumaro, Andronikos Georgios, Martindale Russell, Westbury Tony. Talent Development Environment in Nigeria: Athletes’ Perceptions of Barriers, Opportunities and Facilitators. Am J Sports Sci. 2016;4(6):98-104. doi: 10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11,
      author = {Adeboye Israel Elumaro and Andronikos Georgios and Martindale Russell and Westbury Tony},
      title = {Talent Development Environment in Nigeria: Athletes’ Perceptions of Barriers, Opportunities and Facilitators},
      journal = {American Journal of Sports Science},
      volume = {4},
      number = {6},
      pages = {98-104},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20160406.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajss.20160406.11},
      abstract = {Environmental factors have been considered as critical to successful talent development in sports. The entire backgrounds of development including the home, school, community and the organizational culture in sport should provide consistent and coherent support for the developing champions if the goal of effective talent development is to be realised. This study explored the nature of talent development environment in Nigerian in order to uncover the barriers, opportunities and facilitators of effective talent development in the country. Eight successful national athletes were interviewed. Inductive analysis revealed the barriers (e.g. family barriers, finance, facilities, lack of regular competitions, issues with injury/rehabilitation), opportunities (e.g. luck, school sport, early senior participation) and facilitators of development (e.g. hard work, peer influence, coach-athlete relationship). It was suggested that the barriers be mitigated by encouraging the relevant parties (e.g. parents, governments) to promote an enabling environment for talent development in sport. Recommendation was made for further studies.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    AU  - Andronikos Georgios
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    AB  - Environmental factors have been considered as critical to successful talent development in sports. The entire backgrounds of development including the home, school, community and the organizational culture in sport should provide consistent and coherent support for the developing champions if the goal of effective talent development is to be realised. This study explored the nature of talent development environment in Nigerian in order to uncover the barriers, opportunities and facilitators of effective talent development in the country. Eight successful national athletes were interviewed. Inductive analysis revealed the barriers (e.g. family barriers, finance, facilities, lack of regular competitions, issues with injury/rehabilitation), opportunities (e.g. luck, school sport, early senior participation) and facilitators of development (e.g. hard work, peer influence, coach-athlete relationship). It was suggested that the barriers be mitigated by encouraging the relevant parties (e.g. parents, governments) to promote an enabling environment for talent development in sport. Recommendation was made for further studies.
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Author Information
  • Human Kinetics & Health Education, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Nigeria

  • School of Life, Sport & Social Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

  • School of Life, Sport & Social Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

  • School of Life, Sport & Social Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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