Sport, Youth and Elite Development

This chapter examines changes in sport participation during the youth life stage (roughly ages 13 to 25). It considers the changing nature of youth sport careers, how this is related to the extension, destandardization, and individualization of the youth life stage, and the significance of youth leisure as the context for youth sport careers. The chapter also considers the sporting experiences of those young people who embark upon elite sport careers from the early teenage years. Attention is drawn to the significance of family support, coaching practices, and elite sports cultures and structures for young people who pursue elite sport careers, and some of the “costs” incurred by the young people who progressively engage in elite-level sport pathways. These issues are considered from largely sociological vantage points on the study of youth and the youth life stage.