ABSTRACT
David Burston’s fifteen-year experience in sport psychology is primarily in the elite English Premier League. Thanks to the Internet revolution, sports have become high finance and big business. The promise of ever-expanding sales is attracting vast corporations, even countries, to buy soccer teams or pay to broadcast them. Burston shows how sport and commerce have always been linked and this chapter explores that relationship today. Child labour has been outlawed in the West, but many children still labour in sports academies, as clubs desperately search for the next Ronaldo or Messi. This chapter describes what is happening today.
Shocking abuse cases in the West have demonstrated a stark need for education and welfare regarding children in sport. This timely chapter outlines the cases and conditions for abuse, and what can be done about it. Burston outlines optimum cultures for youth in sport, and some of the clinical models currently used by the top clubs, which realise, like the Greeks did, that culture matters. Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages and age-appropriate learning models are described, complimented by Carol Dweck’s groundbreaking work on mindset. Important connections with neuroscience help demonstrate how much the science of chemistry matters for performance.
