Category: Professional presentations

I had a big recognition at the 35th National Scientific Student Conference, as I reached the first place in the Sports Psychology section at this year’s competition. Besides, I received the “Pro Scientia Hope Badge” special award. I was able show my presentation online in the virtual presence of well-known sports professionals, representing the University of Szeged. I am grateful for having been able to crown my university years in Szeged with such a recognition.

My presentation was about the presentation of the “Responsibility Development Training Program” (hereafter RDTP), which I developed three years ago and about the effects of applying it to an U19 team. The RDTP is a series of 30 occasions of group sessions, which lasts for an entire league season (9 months, including the breaks and preparation periods), developing the sense of responsibility of youth footballers week by week. Its three basic pillars are the player’s sense of responsibility for his individual performance, the team success and the club.

I worked with the mentioned U19 team (experimental group) even in Gyula and for the impact assessment I also involved another team (control group), but they did not receive any kind of development. Based on the results, the RDTP had a preventive function, as the sense of responsibility of the players of the experimental group for their own performance and the club did not decrease during the 9-month period, while the control group did (we can talk about significant decrease). This age stage is extremely sensitive, in terms of transitioning from youth to adult football as well. However, during this period the members of the experimental group took sufficient responsibility for both their individual performance and their club, although in the end only two players out of 25 managed to join the first team next season.

However, it is an interesting question how can the RDTP affect the football-specific sense of responsibility of other age groups? To explore this, in September 2020 I also started the training program developed by myself for the age groups of U14 and U15. We are currently on our 21st occasion. Incidentally, the RDTP fits well into the coaches’ weekly microcycles, usually a day or two before the matches as part of 45 to 60 minutes, enjoyable sessions based on the players’ feedbacks. After the age-specific development of the training program, my goal is to get it included in the Hungarian football coaching training program. Based on my idea, after completing the program, the professionals working in the youth will be able to employ them - in cooperation with the sports psychologists of the academies - on their current teams.

I would like to say thank you to Szeged-Csanád Grosics Academy for the years of support, now in connection with my work as a psychologist. I would also like to thank the Head of Department of Psychology of the University of Szeged, dr. Szabó Éva for the professional mentoring in the development of the training program and in the related researches. The biggest thanks go to my wife, who believes me from the beginnings and supports me during my career as a psychologist, which way I entered after finishing my football career.

The Hungarian football falls short of the European elit considering successfulness. Some experts see the possible reasons of it in the deficiency of our youth system. Still as an active footballer and already as a student majoring in psychology, I have started to watch those young footballers, who made it to the first team year by year. In my opinion the attitude towards hard and persistent training has changed, whose fundamental reason, I consider, the decreasing extent of the sense of responsibility. I decided to examine the sense of responsibility of youth players because of this.
In connection with this, at the 17th Hungarian Sports Science Congress I presented my research, which I made with 346 footballer (average age: 17,51). It has an interesting result as the players feel bigger sense of responsibility with their individual sport performances, than with their academic achievements (although their average academic achievement is 3,89). Beside this, they feel bigger responsibility at their team, than in their class. Furthermore, their responsibility towards their football club is bigger than towards their school. According to this, our youth footballers have a high football-related sense of responsibility, although it is not always shown on the pitch, in the locker room or in their private life.
I examined separately the differences between the football-related sense of responsibilities of players performing in the first and the second division. It has a suprising result as the second division players feel bigger responsibility for the success and cohesion function of their team, than their peers in the first division. It is possible that a training, whose aim is to improve the sense of responsibility at team level, may have a positive impact on the youth players at the academies. Therefore, the successfulness could increase, but let’s not forget that one match can be won by outstanding individual performances, but only the team can win the championship!