ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses specifically on two of the outcomes – performance and personal development – and addresses the concern that an overemphasis on one of these outcomes, may compromise the emergence of the other. It explores the potential to mediate and balance these potentially conflicting outcomes. Time invested in an activity has emerged as a defining feature of youths' performance and personal development outcomes, while also being one of the most contested constructs of talent development. Mixed associations between time investment and personal development are likely related at least in part to how time is spent within sport programmes – or type of activities. It is likely that coaches have the most complex challenge in facilitating a balanced approach to talent development and positive youth development (PYD), given deeply rooted social and cultural beliefs within sport that performance success sometimes comes at the expense of athletes' personal development and well-being.
