Edinburgh Napier University

  The Talent Development Environment (TDE) refers to the organised system influencing the progression of players and it is a crucial part of the development pathway. The purpose of the present study was to examine players’ perceptions regarding the quality of their TDE in order to identify potential differences between elite and grassroots academies. The Talent Development Environment Questionnaire-5 (TDEQ-5) was completed by 131 male football players (mean age= 16.19 ± 2.08 years, elite= 63, grassroots= 68) in the UK. Elite participants elicited significantly higher mean scores for all five factors of their development environment in comparison to their grassroots counterparts (p < .05). Specifically, while elite players perceived high scores across all subscales, grassroots players reported deficiencies particularly in relation to “player preparation”, the “availability of sport-specific support” and “communication between coaches and athletes”. The findings provided evidence of the gap between elite and grassroots academies in the UK. Implications for practitioners and policy makers include the broader use of TDEQ-5 to evaluate TDEs and its use as a mechanism for evidence-based interventions to improve the quality of TDEs.