ABSTRACT
The development of skill and expertise in young soccer players is the main goal of youth academies and national development programmes around the world. Expert athletes involved in sports other than soccer in countries such as Canada have been shown to progress from participating in play activities early in their development to more structured practice activities later on (Côté , 1999). Three stages of youth development have been proposed by these researchers. These stages are sampling (6-12 years), specialising (13-15 years) and investment (16+ years) (Côté et al., 2003). During the sampling years athletes are expected to participate in a large amount of play activity across a number of sports, but a low amount of structured practice. During the specialising years the prediction is that they should participate in similar amounts of play and structured practice in one or two sports. During the investment years they are expected to participate in a large amount of structured practice in their primary sport, but a low amount of play activity.
