A Child´s perspective in football coach education : an action research project

Background: This action-research project was initiated by a Regional Football association in Sweden. The region encompasses, 380 clubs, 2.500 youth teams and approximately 25.000 players between the age of 6 and 12 years. 150 football-coaching courses are completed yearly and a total 2.710 coaches have completed these courses, since 2010. A board decision was made (10/1/2016): To make a shift down-sizing the importance of winning that exists at the youth-level to focusing on the individual soccer-development of all participants. This decision was made because the drop-out rate has increased in the age-group around the age of 10, and reports of both physical and verbal abuse has increased during the later years. The Association contacted Malmö University with an initial request to enforce the board decision: What research is available on positive youth development in sports and children´s development over time? Initial actions: The process started with 10 two hour meetings, discussing definitions and perspectives to gain a common ground of understand both the problem at hand and the interpretations of possible mechanisms creating the problem. The collective view on what needed to be done after these initial meetings, was a change in perspective away from a focus on sports to a see the world from a child´s perspective. Thus, a major culture change is needed on all levels in order to alleviate the problem at hand. Consequences of actions: The greatest leverage for a cultural change is the coach education. Coaches are the “keeper” of values and belief systems on the grass-root level. The initial collective analysis revealed a gap between the research and the material distributed by the National Football Federation, based on the UEFA standards. The gap was between “what to do in organized football” and “how to do it, from a child´s perspective”. In the material, the sport transpose it´s importance and the child gets lost in translation. Further actions: The next step is in progress and it entails participation in coach education courses, analyzing course evaluations and further discussions to the identified the incongruences between the child´s perspective and the focus on football. Initial analysis has identified three problematic factors: The lack of participation of youth soccer players, the focus on ball-movement in all videos and the constant use of a grown-up terminology in analyzing the game of football. To alleviate this problem the use of authentic learning is suggested, by the research team