Chapter 9: Dialectical Negotiation of Values and Goal Setting in Practice

The following chapter will try to paint in words how values, goal setting and actions are being negotiated in a Badminton Elite and Talent Centre in Aarhus (ETCAA) in a world class performing sport in Denmark. The chapter will try to exemplify how an empirically based motivational theory like selfdetermination theory is integrated into a talent development setting with all the practical dilemmas involved. The theoretical terms and concepts like intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation are being treated more as prerequisites rather than opposites. The chapter thus takes a point of departure in a very explicit dialectical worldview, where synthesis is sought for and created—both in a systemic and reductionistic approach, in a practical and theoretical approach, and, in the area of goal setting, in a both goal and task-oriented approach. Theoretical models are being used as a scientifically based point of departure, to qualify the dialogue and negotiations in the practical environments, and not as eternal truths and restraints that cannot be qualified themselves.

My own point of departure as a writer of this chapter is both through my experience as study assistant professor at Aarhus University in the course Talent Development, Coaching, and Performance Enhancement, and experience as the head coach at the ETCAA. That means both as a theoretical disseminator of, and practical leader of talent development environments.