Translating & Using the TDEQ Scale to Propose Improvements in the Talent Development Environment of a Finnish Ice Hockey Club
Bajc, Lovro (2024)
2024
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024120332189
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024120332189
Tiivistelmä
Developing athletes from novices to elite requires a supportive talent development environment (TDE). Growth is fostered through quality coaching, psychological support, and cooperation among family, coaches, peers and educational institutions. Together, these elements significant-ly shape an athlete’s path to success.
This thesis aimed to understand TDE in Finnish junior ice hockey. Initially, a literature review ex-amined talent identification, talent development, and the characteristics of effective TDEs. Re-search was then conducted in two phases. (1) The Talent Development Environment Question-naire (TDEQ) was adapted for use in Finland. The result was the TDEQ-Fin. (2) TDEQ-Fin was then used to assess the current state of TDE within a Finnish junior ice hockey club competing at the highest level of junior ice hockey organised by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. This fo-cused on 7 key factors: Communication, Athlete Understanding, Support Structures, Challenging & Supportive Environment, Quality Preparation, and Long-Term Development. Analysis, con-nected with the literature, leveraged the results to identify opportunities for improvement.
The findings demonstrated that the TDEQ-Fin, despite minor discrepancies in psychometric properties, effectively captured critical aspects of the TDE. It is a reliable and relevant tool for assessing the TDE in Finnish sports environments, mainly ice-hockey.
Further analysis of the 7 key factors indicated the athletes had a moderate to favourable level of satisfaction towards their TDE. However, variability between subscales pointed to specific areas that needed targeted interventions. Therefore, factor results could not be generalised. Instead, an item-to-item basis analysis was deployed to pinpoint specific items with the quartile ranking ap-proach, based on proportion of agreement. After establishing the upper (strengths) and lower (weakness) quartile (52.42% and 27.42% respectively), the shortcomings of the TDE were re-vealed. These were deemed as needing improvement. This analysis showed that the greatest current weakness of the environment was within the Communication factor (5 items), followed by Long-Term Development Fundamentals (3 items), Long-Term Development Focus (2 items), Support Network (2 items), Challenging & Supporting Environment (1 item), Athlete Understand-ing (1 item) and Quality preparation (1 item).
This research has implications on both current research and the broader sports environment. Its insights can help shape talent development theory and practice. The use of the TDEQ-Fin and its results offer a concrete way to identify weaknesses and improve TDEs in Finland, thereby un-locking a greater potential for athlete development in the future.
This thesis aimed to understand TDE in Finnish junior ice hockey. Initially, a literature review ex-amined talent identification, talent development, and the characteristics of effective TDEs. Re-search was then conducted in two phases. (1) The Talent Development Environment Question-naire (TDEQ) was adapted for use in Finland. The result was the TDEQ-Fin. (2) TDEQ-Fin was then used to assess the current state of TDE within a Finnish junior ice hockey club competing at the highest level of junior ice hockey organised by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. This fo-cused on 7 key factors: Communication, Athlete Understanding, Support Structures, Challenging & Supportive Environment, Quality Preparation, and Long-Term Development. Analysis, con-nected with the literature, leveraged the results to identify opportunities for improvement.
The findings demonstrated that the TDEQ-Fin, despite minor discrepancies in psychometric properties, effectively captured critical aspects of the TDE. It is a reliable and relevant tool for assessing the TDE in Finnish sports environments, mainly ice-hockey.
Further analysis of the 7 key factors indicated the athletes had a moderate to favourable level of satisfaction towards their TDE. However, variability between subscales pointed to specific areas that needed targeted interventions. Therefore, factor results could not be generalised. Instead, an item-to-item basis analysis was deployed to pinpoint specific items with the quartile ranking ap-proach, based on proportion of agreement. After establishing the upper (strengths) and lower (weakness) quartile (52.42% and 27.42% respectively), the shortcomings of the TDE were re-vealed. These were deemed as needing improvement. This analysis showed that the greatest current weakness of the environment was within the Communication factor (5 items), followed by Long-Term Development Fundamentals (3 items), Long-Term Development Focus (2 items), Support Network (2 items), Challenging & Supporting Environment (1 item), Athlete Understand-ing (1 item) and Quality preparation (1 item).
This research has implications on both current research and the broader sports environment. Its insights can help shape talent development theory and practice. The use of the TDEQ-Fin and its results offer a concrete way to identify weaknesses and improve TDEs in Finland, thereby un-locking a greater potential for athlete development in the future.