Thriving in youth talent development environments

In this chapter we will explore the concept of thriving and discuss how it might offer avenues to promote the holistic functioning of athletes; that is, athletes who have the physical, social, and psychological capacity to handle the day-to-day demands and challenges within their sporting environments. Thriving, which is broadly defined as “the joint experience of development and success” (Brown, Arnold, Fletcher et al., 2017, p. 168), has been characterised in sport by individuals perceiving a high level of performance and experiencing a high level of well-being (Brown, Arnold, Standage, et al., 2017; Brown et al., 2018). Therefore, we propose thriving as a worthy pursuit for those tasked with nurturing young talent, as when environments are created that foster thriving, both athlete well-being and performance are seen as equally important in developing optimally functioning athletes (Passaportis et al., 2022). Further, fostering thriving will likely equip athletes with personal resources and competencies that transfer beyond the boundaries of their athletic experiences, thus benefiting them outside of their sporting careers.