Political socialization and the coach-created educational environment of competitive games: the case of grassroots youth soccer in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Grassroots youth soccer is a major education environment in which coaching not only influences the quality of young athletes’ performances, but also their political socialization. I.e. their formation of political identities, values, attitudes and norms, their adaption to, learning about and sometimes changes in the political culture of a community. Based on an empirical study exploring competitive games of grassroots youth soccer in Sweden, the article contributes knowledge about political socialization in coaching and the coach-created educational environment of competitive games. In particular, it offers a typology that can be used in research, coach education programmes and for practitioners to analyse and understand the socio-political dimension of coaching practice. Two main coaching approaches are identified, Growth (include all and focuses on the process) and Selective (optimizing the team and focusing on the results), constituted by different social and learning norms having specific political socialization and education consequences for the players.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Andersson, ‘Situational Political Socialization’, 967–83.

2. Côte and Gilbert, ‘An Integrative Definition of Coaching Effectiveness and Expertise’, 313.

3. Henriksen, Storm and Larsen, ‘Organisational Culture and Influence on Developing Athletes’, 216–27.

4. Gearity, ‘Poor Teaching by the Coach’, 81.

5. Smith et al., ‘Observing the Coach-Created Motivational Environment across Training and Competition in Youth Sport’, 149.

6. Cf. Gearity, ‘Poor teaching by the coach’,79–96.

7. Cf. Jones and McNamee, ‘Moral Reasoning, Moral Action, and the Moral Atmosphere of Sport’, 131–46.

8. Cf. Potrac et al., ‘Exploring the Everyday Realities of Grass-Roots Football Coaching’, 919–25.

9. Cf. O’Gorman, ‘Introduction’, 793–99.

10. Andersson and Carlsson, ‘Football in Scandinavia’, 299.

11. Peterson, ‘Landskrona BoIS as an Environment for Nurturing and Education’, 125–39.

12. Brackenridge, ‘Children’s Right in Football’.

13. Ibid., 3.

14. Walters et al., ‘“It Just Makes You Feel Invincible”’, 241–57; O’Gorman, Introduction; O’Gorman and Greenough, ‘Children’s Voices in Mini Soccer’, 810–26; and Pitchford et al., ‘Children in Football,’ 44.

15. David, Human Rights in Sport.

16. Tjomsland et al., ‘Enjoyment in Youth Soccer’, 827–42.

17. Temple and Crane, ‘A Systematic Review of Drop-out from Organized Soccer Among Children and Adolescents’, 856–81.

18. Ommundsen et al., ‘Perceived Motivational Climate in Male Youth Soccer’, 397–413; Boixadós et al., ‘Relationships among Motivational Climate, Satisfaction, Perceived Ability, and Fair Play Attitudes in Young Soccer Players’, 301–17; Jowett and Chaundy, ‘An Investigation into the Impact of Coach Leadership and Coach-Athlete Relationship on Group Cohesion’, 302–11; García-Calvo et al., ‘Perceived Coach-created and Peer-created Motivational Climates and Their Associations with Team Cohesion and Athlete Satisfaction’, 1738–50; Appleton and Duda, ‘Examining the Interactive Effects of Coach-created Empowering and Disempowering Climate Dimensions on Athletes’ Health and Functioning’, 61–70; Høigaard et al., ‘Team Identity in Youth Soccer’, 697–707; Fenton et al., ‘Empowering Youth Sport Environments’, 423–33; and Smith et al., ‘Observing the Coach-created Motivational Environment’, 149–58.

19. Appleton and Duda, ‘Examining the Interactive Effects of Coach-created Empowering’, 61.

20. Lorentzen, ‘Allocation of Playing Time Within Team Sports’, 20.

21. Lindgren Hilingh and Linnér, ‘Children’s Stories about Team Selection’, 633–44.

22. Lindgren Hilingh and Linnér, ‘Children’s Stories about Team Selection’; Walters et al., ‘It Just Makes You Feel Invincible’.

23. Cushion and Jones, ‘Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence in Professional Youth Soccer’, 142–61.

24. Chow, Murray and Feltz, ‘Individual, Team, and Coach Predictors of Players’ Likelihood to Aggress in Youth Soccer’, 428.

25. Ibid.

26. Kooistra and Kooistra, ‘The Ins and Outs of US Youth Soccer’, 955.

27. Eliasson, ‘Gendered Socialization among Girls and Boys in Children’s Football Teams in Swede’, 820–33.

28. Cushion and Jones, ‘A Bourdieusian Analysis of Cultural Reproduction’, 276–98.

29. Parker et al., ‘Sporting Intervention and Social Change’.

30. Mouffe, Agonistics. Thinking the World Politically.

31. E.g. Appleton and Duda, ‘Examining the Interactive Effects of Coach-created Empowering’.

32. Cf. Flyvbjerg, ‘Five Misunderstandings about Case-Study Research’, 219–45.

33. Cf. Cushion and Jones, ‘A Bourdieusian Analysis of Cultural Reproduction’.

34. Walters et al., ‘“It Just Makes You Feel Invincible”’; and O’Gorman; O’Gorman and Greenough.

35. Cf. Cushion and Jones, A Bourdieusian Analysis of Cultural Reproduction; Parker et al.

36. Peterson, ‘Landskrona BoIS as an Environment for Nurturing and Education’, 125–39.

37. Cf. Walters et al., ‘“It Just Makes You Feel Invincible”’; and Tjomsland et al., ‘Enjoyment in Youth Soccer’; Lindgren Hilingh and Linnér, ‘Children’s Stories about Team Selection’.

38. Temple and Crane, ‘A Systematic Review of Drop-out from Organized Soccer’.

39. Gearity, ‘Poor teaching by the coach’,81.

40. Cf. Lorentzen, ‘Allocation of Playing Time within Team Sports’, 20–32.

41. Nicholls, The Competitive Ethos and Democratic Education, 153.

42. Cf. David, Human Rights in Sport; and Eliasson, ‘Gendered Socialization among Girls and Boys’.

43. Boixadós et al., ‘Relationships among Motivational Climate’, 303.