The Swedish Sports Confederation is striving towards supporting youth develop a lifelong relationship with sport, but statistics show a tendency of dropouts around the age of 12. This study aims to nuance the understanding of coaches’ perceptions of youth sports within martial arts. The research questions were: How are central aspects of sport for youths valued among coaches? What opinions exist among the coaches concerning involvement and their role in relation to that? Structured interviews were conducted with eight participants. The data were analyzed by forming concentrations of responses which then was categorized. Finally, the data were interpreted in a broader context and compared with previous research. The result shows that joy and development were seen as central parts of youth sport. Improvement of physical and mental health was viewed as important in a long- term perspective. The competitive part of the sport was rated as the least important. Regarding participation, the most common definition by the coaches was inclusion in decision-making, preferably a physical kind such as voicing out opinions or suggestions. However, sometimes participation of children was thought to interfere with or obstruct the plan of a training session and therefore the two components need to be balanced. The role of the coach was perceived as relatively essential for ensuring that children or adolescents were and felt included. This paper concludes that there are several aspects to consider in youth sport. Furthermore, the coaches were seen to have a significant role in creating an open environment for children and adolescents to be involved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-175048 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Andersson, Maja, Svensson, Klara |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Pedagogiska institutionen, Umeå universitet, Pedagogiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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