Elite sport is tied to high demands and the sport milieus are on a constant quest to get new top results and produce new talented athletes to achieve them. According to Systems Theory, no phenomena is to be understood without understanding the context in which it exists. Former research within the Holistic Ecological Approach have relied on this perspective to study how the environment can be formed to develop talented athletes. What has not been studies is elite athletes’ own perceptions of how the characteristics of the environment has contributed to their athletic career, and what characteristics of the environment they find important to be able to continue their elite career. This purpose of this thesis was therefore to investigate this by interviewing 10 elite athletes who compete with the world top athletes in their sport. Each of the participants lived in the south-west of Sweden and represented traditionally individual sports. The thesis concluded that the values of the family and the competition friendly culture of the childhood sports club had been important environmental characteristics in developing the career, together with interactions of key persons and key events. To continue their careers, the participants expressed the importance of a holistic wellbeing through the understanding from all parts of their environment, together with the possibility of equal sparring as most important. / Elitidrott har många höga krav knutna till sig och idrottsmiljöer strävar ständigt efter nya toppresultat och att få fram nya talangfulla elitidrottare som kan utföra dem. Enligt systemteorin kan inget fenomen - så även elitidrott - förstås om man inte också förstår kontexten det befinner sig i, och tidigare forskning inom det holistiskt ekologiska perspektivet har utifrån detta undersökt miljöns betydelse ur ett Holistiskt Ekologiskt Perspektiv för att undersöka hur miljön kan utformas för att bidra till talangutveckling. Vad som inte undersökts är elitidrottares egen uppfattning om hur miljön har bidragit till deras idrottskarriär, och vilka egenskaper i miljön de ser som viktiga för att kunna fortsätta bedriva elitidrottskarriär. Syftet för uppsatsen var därför att undersöka detta genom att intervjua 10 elitidrottare som tävlar på internationell elitnivå inom respektive idrotter. Samtliga deltagare var bosatta i sydvästra Sverige och representerade traditionellt individuella idrotter. Det framkom att familjens värderingar och en positiv tävlingskultur i moderklubben varit viktiga för idrottskarriären, samt interaktionen med nyckelpersoner och nyckelhändelser. För att fortsätta utvecklas såg idrottarna ett holistiskt välmående genom förståelse från alla delar av sin miljö, och möjlighet till jämbördig sparring som de viktigaste miljöegenskaperna.

The purpose of the study was to examine coaches’ experiences of working with RIU (Riksidrottsuniversitet)-dual career (DC) athletes with foci on the coaches’ DC awareness, perceived challenges, resources, and strategies. The authors of this study conducted 9 interviews, including both men and women, ranging from 23 to 54 years of age (M=33.33, SD=10.20). Through combining the holistic athletic career model (Wylleman, 2019) and the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003), semistructured interview guides were designed and applied by the authors. The results showed a lack of awareness regarding what the RIU concept entailed for the coaches, and their greatest challenge was to help their athletes remain focused on their practice. The coaches expressed that the most important resources were the coaches’ own professional support network, as well as the athletes’ support network, which would aid the coaches in their work. The coaches had difficulties with articulating what strategies they utilized when helping their student-athletes, though they could still explain situations in which that they had acted in certain ways to help ease the demands for the DC-athlete. These strategies were “planning together with the athlete” and “adjusting schedules in line with the student-athletes demands”. The results of the study highlight the need for a better communication between the coaches and the schools, in terms of optimizing the environment for the student-athletes. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka tränares upplevelser av att arbeta med studentidrottare, med fokus på deras upplevda utmaningar, resurser och strategier. Författarna till uppsatsen genomförde nio intervjuer, vilket inkluderade både män och kvinnor från 23 till 54 års ålder (M = 33,33, SD = 10,20). Genom att kombinera Holistiska karriärutvecklingmodellen (Wylleman, 2019) och Karriärövergångsmodellen (Stambulova, 2003) designades semistrukturerade intervjuguider av författarna. Resultaten visade brist på insikt i RIU (Riksidrottsuniversitet) konceptet från tränarna och deras största utmaning var att hjälpa idrottare att behålla sitt fokus under träningarna. Tränarna uttryckte att den viktigaste resursen var tränarnas egna professionella stödnätverk, tillsammans med idrottarnas egna stödnätverk, vilket bidrog till att tränarna kunde behålla fokus på sin egen uppgift. Tränarna hade svårigheter att formulera de strategier som de använde sig av när de hjälpte sina studentidrottare. Dock, kunde de fortfarande förklara situationer när de hade agerat på särskilda sätt för att hjälpa underlätta kraven för studentidrottaren. Dessa strategier var “planering tillsammans med idrottaren” och “anpassa scheman i enlighet med studentidrottarens krav”. Resultaten av uppsatsen önskar belysa att det behövs en bättre kommunikation mellan tränaren och skolorna för att kunna optimera miljön för studentidrottare.

This comparative study assessed the usefulness of the convergence thesis as a tool for understanding developments in leisure, recreation and sport in New Zealand and Malaysia. The study examined the interrelationship between 'global' and 'local' or 'contingent' factors and their impact upon leisure behaviour, leisure policy and leisure structures. 'Local' factors included institutional arrangements (notably political ones) and national cultural practices. A social history of New Zealand and Malaysia with particular reference to leisure, sport and recreation and national cultural practices was provided as a context for discussion of these issues. The study utilised a mixture of archival and library research and semi-structured interview, and was guided by an explicit comparative framework, concentrating on the development of leisure, sport and recreation in the two countries between 1970 and 2002. Interviews with 'key players' in both countries captured valuable data in the form of 'insiders' views' on leisure behaviour, policy and structure. These data were analysed with the relevance of the convergence thesis in mind. This study shows that contemporary leisure behaviour in New Zealand and Malaysia is shaped by the media and is highly commercialised, placing a high value on entertainment, and involves increasingly passive forms of participation. Informal sport and individualised recreational activities are replacing organised team-based sports in popularity. Leisure behaviour trends have led governments in both countries to encourage greater participation in sport and physical activity and to encourage private sector ventures into leisure-related products, services and infra-structures in the form of private-public partnerships. In terms of leisure policy, developments in leisure, recreation and, noticeably, sport, in Malaysia and New Zealand have been shaped by the wider agendas of the governing political parties. This is particularly noticeable at central government level. Individual political leaders in both countries have been influential in setting leisure-related policy. They had the vision to see that sport in particular might serve wider, national interests and that investments in sport could help raise the profiles of their countries in international markets and among trading organisations and the regulatory bodies that oversee trading practices. Malaysian and New Zealand governments seek to make leisure, sport and recreation policy supportive of other priorities. In Malaysia, the government legitimises its control over the policies which affect people's lives by appeals to Islamic principles and the need to put collective needs of nation building ahead of individual concerns for freedom. In terms of institutional, political, arrangements, this impacts at both central and local government levels in Malaysia. New Zealand, following a pluralist, Westminster, tradition of political representation, experiences regular changes in political management at central government level and a system of local government whereby local autonomy is jealously protected. Malaysia has resisted 'the global', by virtue of the nation-building policies of the Barisan Nasional, which has been in power since 1957. New Zealand's 'resistance' stems in part at least from the autonomy which local government enjoys. These experiences demonstrate that resistance to 'global' change can take varied forms at the 'local', contingent, level (Thorns, 1992). Differences in leisure structures reflect, once again, different agendas stemming from different political arrangements. The Malaysian government's approach is multi-Ministry, and micro-managed. In New Zealand, a 'hands off' approach via a quasi-autonomous non-government organisation (‘Quango'), became the favoured means of structuring central government leisure provision in the 1980s and 1990s. This was with a view to encouraging stability and consistency in leisure policy and provision in a pluralistic political system. Overall, and 'cautiously', this study provided support for the convergence thesis as a way to explain development in leisure, recreation and sport in New Zealand and Malaysia over the past 32 years. Although institutional arrangements and national cultural practices have provided some resistance to convergence processes, changing consumer sentiments may weaken such resistance in future.