”Ithink it is actually incredibly bad that you need to choose your career, when it comes to sports at such a young age” : A qualitative interview study about early drop-out among youth within ice-hockey in Västerbotten county]. Examensarbete i idrottspedagogik för kandidatexamen, 15 hp. Pedagogiska institutionen, Umeå universitet.

The physical activity among youth and children in Sweden has dropped in recent years. One of the reasons is that dropouts in sports are getting more and more common at a young age.The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about the underlying reasons for dropout in ice hockey in Västerbotten. The study also aims to investigate if there was any difference between elite and non-elite organizations within the county, and if there is anything the organizations could have done to avoid the dropouts from the child's perspective. The study performed eleven semi-structured interviews with boys between 15–18-years that quitted ice hockey at age 12–13-years. To process the material from the interviews, a thematic analysis was used. Leisure Constraints Theory was used as a theoretic perspective to identify and explain the underlying reasons for dropout.The result showed that there were different kinds of Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Structural reasons behind the dropouts. The main reasons as perceived by the interviewees was that ice-hockey was far too time consuming and that there was too much pressure from the coach. The latter was more obvious in elite organizations than non-elite. The most repeated suggestion that ice-hockey could have made to avoid the dropout was to have less training sessions. The conclusion is that ice hockey in Västebotten has to change in structure. According to the respondents, the focus shifted from a more developing and enjoyable climate to a competitive-oriented one too early in the ages. The final suggestion is that organizations and Västebottens Ice Hockey Association should cooperate with the Swedish Ice hockey Association to solve this problem togethe