Table Of ContentAdopting a network science approach to the performance development process
helps to highlight, appreciate, and address the complexities surrounding
the reality of the non-linear and complex factors associated with the player
development pathway.
Dr. Dave Adams, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Coach
Educator and Football Association of Wales (FAW) Technical Director
Player Development
Player Development: The Holistic Method provides the first holistic, evidence-
based performance development method in sport. Focusing on the world’s
largest sport, soccer, this book weaves together the interconnected layers
driving player performance development to define a novel training method.
In performance sport, narratives defining success or failure are steeped with
stories of chance. The reality is that player performance and athlete development
leading to career success is the byproduct of optimizing interconnected
experiences toward maximizing the likelihood of individual success. It is the
application of a holistic method that reduces the influence of luck and increases
the likelihood of individual and team success. This book is the pathway to
understanding and facilitating individual player development leading to elite
performance success. This book reveals not only a holistic method, but also
a universal method breaking down perceived and real barriers to provide a
method transcending domains and specializations – a unified approach.
The book introduces an evidence-based method toward performance
development in soccer. It is key reading for students of coaching, talent
development, sport performance and ancillary specializations, and practicing
professionals in the field of player and performance development and coaching.
Dr. John Cone is a sports scientist working with the United States Soccer
Federation and professional, collegiate, and youth teams. He was a director of
sports science in Major League Soccer and an assistant coach in the MLS and
in colleges across the United States. John has developed and taught the sports
science curriculum for the USSF pro, A, B and C, and goalkeeping licenses
since 2015, and performance development for return to play in Athletic
Training Education Programs at UNC-Greensboro and High Point University.
Dr. Gareth Smith has coaching experience at youth, collegiate, and senior
national team levels. He serves as a coach educator and coach educator
developer with the United States Soccer Federation and in similar roles in
other federations in the Confederation of North, Central America and
Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and Union of European
Football Associations (UEFA). Gareth has a Ph.D. in educational leadership
with research areas including sport psychology, methodology, and curriculum
design and has over two decades’ experience in leadership as a technical director
of national, regional, and state sport systems within the United States.
Player Development
The Holistic Method
John Cone and Gareth Smith
Cover image: Getty
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 John Cone and Gareth Smith
The right of John Cone and Gareth Smith to be identified as authors of
this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-15909-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15907-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24626-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003246268
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
1 Holism: The Interconnected Nature of Performance
Development 3
2 Player Performance Development as a Nested Process in
Human Development 64
3 The Player in the Game 99
4 Design of the Player Experience in Training 119
5 The Outer Ecosystem Encapsulating the Player Experience 194
6 Application of the Holistic Method 263
7 Application of the Holistic Method – Special Topics and
Specializations 302
Index 349
Figures
1.1 The conceptual whole and potential interactions between
the structures 17
1.2 Conceptual anatomical–functional interactions within and
between anatomical layers of an organ structure 18
1.3 Conceptual interactions within and between anatomical structures 19
1.4 Theoretical static temporal network of the whole 20
1.5 The looping timeline of the player experience 23
1.6 The time-oriented continuum of stress through adaptation 28
1.7 The cumulative adaptive response driving performance
development permanence 30
1.8 Spectrum of synchronization 35
1.9 The relationship between system synchronization and
isolated node training 37
1.10 Player experience within the ecosystem 40
2.1 Emotional connectivity of the experience and the ecosystem 74
2.2 The single training experience in relation to development 80
2.3 Dynamics of the player performance experience 83
3.1 Performance interdependence of dyad in the team 101
3.2 The network interactions of player functional groups
considered relative to triadic relationships 103
3.3 The interactions between the two teams 106
3.4 The player experience relative to the constants and coach-
derived game moments 107
3.5 Game stability and the antithetical experience of two teams 108
3.6 The syncing of looping timelines across a single player network 110
3.7 Levels of manipulation from the individual to group to team 111
4.1 Reduction in complexity as a function of player interactions 123
4.2 Proximal player groupings across variable size games 124
4.3 Comparison of spatiotemporal moments in 4v4 versus 11v11 126
4.4 3v3 derivatives relative to the game 127
4.5 The spatiotemporal interdependencies of players in a 3v3
derivative of the game 128
4.6 Derivatives of the 3v3 in training 130
Figures ix
4.7 Spatiotemporal experience of players in a 2v2 132
4.8 Vertical shift in the 11v11 spatial relationships 133
4.9 Analysis of spatial relationships of two teams (meters) in
the game 135
4.10 Numerical offset in a 7v6 training exercise 136
4.11 Time in relation to the player experience 138
4.12 Holistic dynamics of the performance training exercise 139
4.13 The competency-to-complexity ratio 141
4.14 Increasing and decreasing ratios of complexity and competency 142
4.15 Universal spectrum of training methodology 144
4.16 Layers of exercise complexity 145
4.17 Interconnected elements accelerating the training exercise for
fitness development 150
4.18 Holistic consideration of the fitness-fatigue relationship 151
4.19 Shift in cognitive processing with numerical complexity 153
4.20 Syncing readiness and training demand toward maximizing
developmental effect 157
4.21 Interconnected nature of readiness and the player’s
developmental trajectory in the session 158
4.22 Global demand, session duration, readiness and adaptive
permanence 159
4.23 Dynamics of a microcycle 161
4.24 Mapping the year’s competition demands 164
4.25 Network-based interactions driving the macrocycle 165
4.26 Network of prescriptive training and programming variables 166
4.27 Layers of specificity in athleticism from holistic to isolated 169
4.28 Physical agility and its underpinnings 171
5.1 Sport systems’ influence on the individual player experience 196
5.2 Constants within sport systems 197
5.3 Comparison of the relative extremes in chronological age,
ages 5–25 years 199
5.4 Trajectory of relative age changes within a team 201
5.5 Chronological age and the interaction of two teams 202
5.6 Relative age differences and associated sprint differences
in males 203
5.7 Chronological age and rate of growth in height and weight,
and percentage differences in age within each year 205
5.8 Interconnected layers of age, rate of growth in height and
maturity 206
5.9 Maximal potential variability in chronological age, growth
metrics and maturation 207
5.10 Team comparison of chronological versus biological age
range in U14 males 209
5.11 Percentage relative differences in chronological and
biological age in U14 males 210
