Development pathways in sport are challenging and beset with multi-faceted issues of choice and obstacles in realising a sustainable outcome. Developing a framework into sport elite is an expensive investment and features expectational risk taken by individuals, advocating sport associations and Government indulging from the many phases and parameters of development and programming; interfacing early engagement or late specialisation, nurturing, structured training, competing and ultimately measured achievable performance and not least important the post active participative sustainable career. This paper outlines the frameworks and models pertaining to sport development and career pathway espousing the importance and relevancy in the contemporary environ particularly in the context of the equestrian sport organisation i.e. EAM. Successful equestrian nations have adopted the generic Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model to guide their elite pathway for their equestrian sport development. Successful sporting nations have set the standard for other aspiring nations to emulate. Nevertheless, nations using the benchmarks of other countries have frequently showed failure in attaining goals, suggesting the adaptational process is crucial. The contemporary view is that sport development and pathway should be moulded in frameworks as per contained in LTAD, DMSP etc. of a long-term structure rather than ad hoc or short-term perspective and the most successful sport development and career process theoretically must satisfy conditions and achievement of key critical success factors in relation to SPLISS framework. The findings reveal the stakeholder sport organisation i.e. EAM adherence is rather piecemeal and is suggested to practically takes on board exploratory study through communicative and adaptive processes toward formulation of frameworks in the form of development plan and blueprint for equestrian elite development pathway.
Adelfinsky, A. (2021). Ordinary, Adequate, and Crazy: Reconsidering the “Pyramid” Metaphor for Mass-participation Sports. Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie / Russian Sociological Review, 20(2), 224–249. https://doi.org/10.17323/1728-192x-2021-2-224-249
Ahmad, M. F., Low, J. F. L., & Nadzalan, A. M. (2020). A Review of Pathways Towards Expert Performance on Elite Youth Athletes (M. H. A. Hassan, A. M. Che Muhamed, N. F. Mohd Ali, D. K. C. Lian, K. L. Yee, N. S. Safii, S. M. Yusof, & N. F. M. Fauzi, Eds.). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3270-2
Ahmad, M. F., Low, J. F. L., Nadzalan, A. M., & Aziz, A. A. (2020). Developmental Practice Activities of Youth Soccer Players. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, 7(2), 5874–5882.
Baker, J., Gayman, A., & Johnston, K. (2023). Lifespan models of athlete development: What have we learned from previous attempts? In Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (Vol. 5). Frontiers Media S.A. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1179767
Baker, J., Johnston, K., Singh, H., Farah, L., & Lablans, D. (2023). Excellence fulfilled? On the unique developmental needs of professional athletes. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1164508
Coutinho, P., Ramos, A., Afonso, J., Bessa, C., Ribeiro, J., Davids, K., Fonseca, A. M., & Mesquita, I. (2023). To Sample or to Specialise? Sport Participation Patterns of Youth Team Sport Male Players. Children, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/children10040729
De Bosscher, V., Descheemaeker, K., & Shibli, S. (2023). Starting and Specialisation Ages of Elite Athletes across Olympic Sports: An International Cross-sectional Study. European Journal of Sport Sciences, 2(5), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejsport.2023.2.5.100
De Bosscher, V., & Shibli, S. (2021). TOKYO 2020 EVALUATION OF THE ELITE SPORT EXPENDITURES AND SUCCESS IN 14 NATIONS.
Dowling, M., & Washington, M. (2021). The Social Construction of the Long-Term Athlete Development Framework. Journal of Global Sport Management, 6(2), 143–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2018.1557017
Eime, R., Charity, M., & Westerbeek, H. (2022). The Sport Participation Pathway Model (SPPM): a conceptual model for participation and retention in community sport. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 14(2), 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2022.2034913
Gallant, F., & Bélanger, M. (2021). Empirical Support for the Tenets of Sport Participation and Physical Activity-Based Models: A Scoping Review. In Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (Vol. 3). Frontiers Media S.A. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.741495
Gómez-Rodríguez, J., Seguí-Urbaneja, J., Teixeira, M. C., & Cabello-Manrique, D. (2024). How Countries Compete for Success in Elite Sport: A Systematic Review. In Social Sciences (Vol. 13, Issue 1). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010031
Kitching, N., & Campbell, M. (2019). An examination of the elite development pathways for male golfers in Ireland. Managing Sport and Leisure, 24(6), 372–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2019.1684834
Ku?era, J., Zimková, E., Nemec, J., & Nemec, M. (2023). A comparative analysis of the efficiency of public funding policies for sports in the European Union. Cogent Social Sciences, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2023.2280335
Low, J. F. L., Mohamad, N. I., Ong, K. B., Aziz, S. A., Abdullah, M. R., & Maliki, A. B. H. M. (2018). The developmental pathways of Malaysian elite youth badminton players. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Special, 842–857.
Mackintosh, C. (2021). Foundations of Sport Development. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326707
Millar, P., Clutterbuck, R., & Doherty, A. (2020). Understanding the adoption of long-term athlete development in one community sport club. Managing Sport and Leisure, 25(4), 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1713197
Minikin, B., & Robinson, L. (2015). Resources and capabilities? Developing Malaysian National Sport Associations. In S. S. Andersen, B. Houlihan, & L. T. Ronglan (Eds.), Managing Elite Sport Systems Research and Practice (1st ed., pp. 67–87). Routledge.
Murata, A., Goldman, D. E., Martin, L. J., Turnnidge, J., Bruner, M. W., & Côté, J. (2022). Sampling between sports and athlete development: a scoping review. In International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (Vol. 20, Issue 6, pp. 1752–1776). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2021.1995021
Muslim, M. R., Abu Bakar, M. Z., & Omar, Z. (2021). Developing a Model to Produce Elite Amateur Golfers in Malaysia: A Concept Paper. Journal of Islamic, Social, Economics and Development (JISED), 6(35), 132–139.
Nolte, P. L., & Hollander, W. (2020). Elite netball players’ perspectives on long term athlete development programs in South Africa. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 20(5), 2560–2566. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2020.05349
Patatas, J. M., De Bosscher, V., Derom, I., & Winckler, C. (2020). Stakeholders’ perceptions of athletic career pathways in Paralympic sport: from participation to excellence. Sport in Society, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2020.1789104
Ridpath, B. D., Rudd, A., & Stokowski, S. (2020). Perceptions of European Athletes that Attend American Colleges and Universities for Elite Athletic Development and Higher Education Access. Journal of Global Sport Management, 5(1), 34–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2019.1636402
Shilbury, D., Phillips, P., Karg, A., Rowe, K., & Fujak, H. (2023). Sport Management in Australia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003317791
Staff, H. C., Solli, G. S., Osborne, J. O., & Sandbakk, Ø. (2023). Long-Term Development of Training Characteristics and Performance-Determining Factors in Elite/International and World-Class Endurance Athletes: A Scoping Review. In Sports Medicine (Vol. 53, Issue 8, pp. 1595–1607). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01850-z
Tan, A. L. S., Malik, Z. A., & Low, J. F. L. (2019). Developmental Pathways of Malaysian National Sports School Athletes. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 27(S3), 121–133.
Taylor, J., MacNamara, Á., & Taylor, R. D. (2022). Strategy in talent systems: Top-down and bottom-up approaches. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.988631
Thuany, M., Gomes, T. N., Weiss, K., Knechtle, B., Rolim, R., & Moura dos Santos, M. A. (2023). Beyond the border of the athlete-centered approach: a model to understand runners’ performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1137023
Till, K., & Baker, J. (2020a). Challenges and [Possible] Solutions to Optimizing Talent Identification and Development in Sport. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00664
Till, K., & Baker, J. (2020b). Challenges and [Possible] Solutions to Optimizing Talent Identification and Development in Sport. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 664. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00664
Till, K., Lloyd, R. S., McCormack, S., Williams, G., Baker, J., & Eisenmann, J. C. (2022). Optimising long-term athletic development: An investigation of practitioners’ knowledge, adherence, practices and challenges. PLoS ONE, 17(1 1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262995
Valenti, M., Scelles, N., & Morrow, S. (2020). Elite sport policies and international sporting success: a panel data analysis of European women’s national football team performance. European Sport Management Quarterly, 20(3), 300–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2019.1606264
Varghese, M., Ruparell, S., & LaBella, C. (2022). Youth Athlete Development Models: A Narrative Review. In Sports Health (Vol. 14, Issue 1, pp. 20–29). SAGE Publications Inc. https://doi.org/10.1177/19417381211055396
Viollet, B., Scelles, N., & Peng, Q. (2023). From Sport Policy to National Federation Sport Policy: An Integrative Literature Review and Conceptualisation Attempt. Sustainability, 15(4), 29–49.
Westerbeek, H., & Eime, R. (2021). The physical activity and sport participation framework—a policy model toward being physically active across the lifespan. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.608593
Anuar, M. A. M., Mahadi, N., Maideen, M. H., & Rahuman, S. A. H. (2025). Conceptual Framework in Developing Malaysia Equestrian Sport Elite Development Pathway. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 15(11), 953–963.
Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
