The role of community sports coaches in creating optimal social conditions for life skill development and transferability – a salutogenic perspective

Sport is widely recognised as having the potential to enhance the personal development of socially vulnerable youth, yet there is very limited knowledge on how community sports coaches can create optimal social conditions for life skill development and transferability. We adopt a salutogenic approach in order to study whether and how community sports coaches create these optimal social conditions. Based on the salutogenic framework, a thematic analysis was conducted of 15 in-depth interviews with community sports coaches providing sports lessons to socially vulnerable youth. As part of the interviews, the sports coaches were presented with several training scenarios and asked how they would respond in specific training situations. The results showed that the sports coaches aimed to create meaningful sporting experiences for youths. These meaningful sporting experiences were considered a precondition for keeping youths engaged in the sporting activities, as well as a precondition for life skill development. The sports coaches specifically focused on creating little moments of success and on making sure that the youths felt they belonged to a group. In order to ensure that the youths could experience moments of success, specific coaching strategies were implemented to increase the youths’ comprehensibility and manageability in specific sport situations. According to the sports coaches, experiencing little moments of success could contribute to an increase in socially vulnerable youths’ understanding of the everyday challenges that they face, as well as contribute to their ability to deal with these challenges. Creating meaningful sporting experiences may help youths ‘to learn to cope' – a skill that could be beneficial over their lifespan and in different societal domains.     

Transcultural football. Trajectories of belonging among immigrant youth

Football can play different roles in the lives of immigrant youth. It can be a site for leisure, sport performance and socialization. Even more critically, it can be a place where to negotiate sense of belonging to a local community and to gain access to national sporting cultures. Football can also represent forms of exclusion and discrimination. This article aims to elucidate the meanings that participation in football hold for black immigrant males in a country of recent immigration such as the Republic of Ireland. The article discusses the findings of a long-term ethnographic study with a youth team based in a working-class area of Dublin, the Irish capital. The youth football club plays a special role as a term of identification for the local community. Teenage players of different African backgrounds are presented with the challenge of acquiring different levels of inclusion. They can attempt to appropriate cultural codes that define local working-class men on and off the pitch or they can practice forms of ‘resistance’ that emphasize their own racialized positioning in Irish society. Overall, these dynamics affirm the importance of grassroots football as a venue for young people’s transcultural encounters.     

From sporting past to future well-being: sport heritage and intergenerational learning in Glasgow

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the context of private sporting clubs, previously referred to by sports historians as ‘the long residuals of sport’, as important sites of sporting culture and sport heritage in local communities. The project explores the history and meaning of sport through intergenerational collaboration between the academic researcher, primary school children and experienced members of Glasgow Southside's sports community. The research reflects on the process of intergenerational learning, reminiscence and heritage activities to inform future cultural histories of sport, as well as sports development and future well-being. Through a focus on interpreting cultural and social change in Glasgow sport by educating children and elder members of the community in the use of sport media archives, as well affording opportunities to examine the usefulness of intergenerational communication in community settings, the project investigated the cultural transmission of sporting cultures of the past, and its influence over, or disconnection from, contemporary sporting practices of young people. The article concludes that by acknowledging and sharing the heritage of private sport clubs, such ‘communities of practice’ have an important role to play in fostering stronger socio-cultural ties between clubs, their members and young people.     

‘It’s alpha omega for succeeding and thriving’: parents,children and sporting cultivation in Norway

It has become increasingly apparent, internationally, that childhood is a crucial life-stage in the formation of predispositions towards sports participation and that parents are increasingly investing in the sporting capital of their children via a process of ‘concerted cultivation’. It is surprising, therefore, that parents’ involvement in the development of their children's sporting interests has received so little attention in Norway, given that sport is a significant pastime for Norwegians and participation has been steadily increasing – among youngsters, in particular – over the past several decades. Through a qualitative case study of a combined primary and secondary school in a small Norwegian city, this study sought to add to recent explorations of the role of parents in children's sporting involvement in Norway. As expected, it was evident that sport becomes taken for granted and internalised very early on in Norwegian children's lives. Less expected was the recognition that children's nascent sporting interests were often generated by sports clubs via early years schooling and, therefore, that parents played only one (albeit very important) part in the formation of their youngsters’ early sporting habits. Thus, parents, sports clubs and early years schooling appeared to form something akin to a ‘sporting trinity’ in youngsters’ nascent sporting careers. These findings may have implications for policy-makers looking towards Norway for a ‘recipe’ for sports participation.     

西班牙体育俱乐部的历史渊源和发展现状

通过对西班牙体育俱乐部历史渊源的分析我们发现,西班牙在接受体育俱乐部这一新型的组织形式中,也经历了两种针锋相对的大讨论,由于承载着与其它欧洲国家相似的宗教文化传统,所以接受较快,过程较短,并在接受的过程中仍然保留着自己民族的传统项目。西班牙政府主导参与管理大众体育的社会代表制,是一种有别于其它欧洲国家管理体育俱乐部的成功典范。政府由最初的强制的、高压的、集中的管理,发展到现在的合作的、协商的和在法律框架范围内的契约式合作模式的建立,为西班牙体育俱乐部的健康发展和体育组织网络的形成奠定了基础。     

Breast pain affects the performance of elite female athletes

ABSTRACT

Although breast pain is problematic for many active women, no published research has investigated breast pain experienced by elite female athletes. This study aimed to examine the extent that mastalgia and exercise-induced breast pain affected the sporting performance of elite female athletes during training and competition. A custom-designed online survey with questions related to sport participation, as well as the frequency, severity and perceived performance effects of mastalgia and exercise-induced breast pain, was distributed to sporting organisations, coaches, medical staff and teams/clubs throughout Australia. Five hundred and forty female athletes competing nationally or internationally across 49 different sports participated in the survey. Sixty-three percent of respondents reported experiencing breast pain associated with their menstrual cycle and 33% reported that this pain worsened during activity. Forty-four percent of athletes reported experiencing exercise-induced breast pain during training or competition. Both types of breast pain were also reported to negatively affect sporting performance (20% and 32%, respectively). Mastalgia associated with the menstrual cycle and exercise-induced breast pain should be acknowledged as potential problems affecting the sporting performance of elite female athletes. Awareness around the impact of breast pain and the development and implementation of breast pain management strategies are essential for this population.     

试论青少年体育俱乐部的开展

随着青少年体育俱乐部陆续在各地开展,广大青少年积极投入到这一活动中,为避免认识上的误区,更好地开展体育俱乐部教学,为广大青少年学生营造一个和谐愉快的体育锻炼环境,文章主要运用文献资料法进行研究,提出应该从性质上、思想上对青少年体育俱乐部有一个正确的认识,并了解一些先进的教学经验,以更好地为青少年体育俱乐部教学服务。     

Sport Education as a pedagogical application for ethical development in physical education and youth sport

The purpose of this paper is to consider four pedagogical applications within the Sport Education model to examine the ways in which a young person can become a literate sports person and develop ethical behaviour through engagement in physical education and youth sport. Through a systematic review of the Sport Education research literature we present evidence to suggest that although notions such as inclusion, responsibility and ownership, personal and social development and social justice are part of the architecture of this pedagogical model, our findings show that rather than simply being caught, ethical conduct must be taught. Consequently, in the final part of the paper, we present four pedagogical applications within Sport Education that physical education teachers as well as youth sport practitioners and administrators may find useful to promote ethical development: (1) ethical contracts; (2) sports panels; (3) modified games; and (4) awards and rewards.     

The Beginnings of Hockey in 1930s Galicia (Spain): A Female Phenomenon

This article considers the early days of field hockey in Galicia from the perspective of a female phenomenon, as in this region women's teams emerged before those of their male counterparts. The fact that women were the first to play field hockey in Galicia, and formed the driving force behind this sport in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula offers an interesting insight into the phenomenon of sport in 1930s Spain. The prevalence of Galician hockey teams and the presence of Galician players in international competitions provide ample evidence for this research. This article discusses the history of field hockey in Galicia, taking into account the influences of precursors. It also analyses the socialising aspect for women of participation in clubs and other activities related to hockey, as well as the role of sport in the creation of female sporting identities and the initiatives led by the women themselves. The text includes images with the objective of making the protagonists of the dissemination of women's sport in Spain more visible.     

The School Sport Co-ordinator Programme: Changing the Role of the Physical Education Teacher?

Over the last decade or so, young people have increasingly become a focus of UK sport policy. Fuelled in part by concerns such as the increasing levels of childhood inactivity and obesity, and the lack of international success in sport, a plethora of policy initiatives aimed at young people have been developed. In April 2000, the government published its sport strategy document, A Sporting Future for All, pulling together all the threads of recent policies, and in it, restating its commitment to youth sport, sport in education, excellence and sport in the community. One such policy initiative, the School Sport Co-ordinator programme, is the focus of this paper. The School Sport Co-ordinator programme, currently being introduced into schools in England, is an initiative that involves two government departments (sport and education) and a number of other agencies, reflecting the government's current agenda to ensure 'joined up policy' thinking. It aims to develop opportunities for youth sport through co-ordinated links between PE and sport in schools, both within and outside of the formal curriculum, with those in local community sports settings. The essence of the School Sport Co-ordinator programme is to free up nominated teachers in schools from teaching to allow them time for development activities, specifically to encourage schools and community sports providers to work in partnership. This paper draws on data from an ongoing research project examining the implementation of one School Sport Co-ordinator partnership, 'Northbridge'. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it explores the perceptions of the newly established School Sport Co-ordinators of their changing role. The paper highlights some of the initial tensions and challenges for them in their task of working across different educational and sporting contexts.     

Optimising physical activity engagement during youth sport: a self-determination theory approach

Research suggests participation in youth sport does not guarantee physical activity (PA) guidelines are met. Studies indicate few children achieve recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during their youth sport involvement, and habitual levels of MVPA are below the recommended 60 min per day. Informed by self-determination theory, this study examined whether the coach-created social environment and related player motivation predict variability in objectively measured MVPA within the youth sport setting. Seventy three male youth sport footballers (Mean age = 11.66 ± 1.62) completed a multisection questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the social environment created in youth sport (autonomy supportive and controlling) and motivation towards their football participation (autonomous and controlled). Intensity of PA during youth sport was measured using accelerometers (GT3X, ActiGraph). Results supported a model in which perceptions of autonomy support significantly and positively predicted autonomous motivation towards football, which in turn significantly and positively predicted youth sport MVPA (% time). A significant indirect effect was observed for perceptions of autonomy support on youth sport %MVPA via autonomous motivation. Results have implications for optimising MVPA engagement during youth sport and increasing daily MVPA towards recommended and health-enhancing levels on youth sport days.     

Wartime rugby and football: sports elites, French military teams and international meets during the First World War

The First World War is traditionally considered in history as a temporary halt for cultural and sporting activities. If the Olympic Games and the Tour de France were actually cancelled, football and rugby were in fact stimulated by the circumstances of war. Indeed, the gathering of allied nations behind the Western Front emerged as the main factor in the development of these two sports. Reading the sporting press and military archives shows that international sporting exchanges were stimulated during the Great War. To be specific, France benefited from the golden opportunity provided by the presence of the masters of the game to strengthen its practices and affirm its status as a sporting nation. Inter-allied sporting exchanges were primarily characterised by informal encounters between military selections. Then, following the recognition of these sports by the military authorities, the number of exchanges increased. At the end of 1917, the official status acquired by sport within the military forces created the conditions for the structuring of the French sporting elite. From that point, we can witness the birth of the first French military rugby and football teams, as they demonstrate, through their good performances during the demobilisation period, the progressive build-up of the international dimension of French sport during the war years.     

Not everything is a contest: sport,nature sport,and friluftsliv

Two prevalent assumptions in the philosophy of sport literature are that all sports are games and that all games are contests, meant to determine who is the better at the skills definitive of the sport. If these are correct, it would follow that all sports are contests and that a range of sporting activities, including nature sports, are not in fact sports at all. This paper first confronts the notion that sport and games must seek to resolve skill superiority through consideration of sport activities that have no such aim. The reduction of sport to game is also shown to be untenable and due to misunderstanding the point of sport activities, specifically, why people engage in them. This leads to reconsideration of the dominance of an instrumental conception of sport and the pursuit of excellence as anthropomaximising efficiency. The Norwegian tradition of frilutsliv is explored as a counterpoint to both conventional and nature sport.     

Women,Sport, and the Press in Twentieth-Century Mexico

Abstract

The concept of women engaging in physical recreation was anathema to late nineteenth-century Mexican society. While underlying scepticism continued throughout the decades that followed, post-Revolutionary reforms provided a surprisingly open arena within which both men and women could practice sport. We analyze how the issue of gender influenced these reforms and the degree to which this affected popular participation in sports. Identifying media coverage as a barometer of broader society’s perceptions of female sporting activity, we consider the salient trends in the Mexican press, how these changed over time, and the ways in which female journalists approached women’s sport. Our findings suggest the need for caution in leaping to gender-based assumptions and provide evidence that, in some respects, male journalists became more enlightened than their female counterparts in confronting underlying prejudices.     

Are sports club members big spenders?: Findings from sport specific analyses in Germany

This paper analyses the sport expenditures of people who are members of non-profit sports clubs (N = 10,013) in Germany. Adult members, active in 21 sports, were asked about their sport expenditure relating to several defined categories. The results show that members spend an average of €1610 per year on their chosen sport. Sport specific analyses reveal big differences in expenditure between sports, ranging from badminton (€338) to equestrian (€7902). According to sport-specific regression analyses, personal income, level of performance, and weekly time of participation are the main predictors of sport-specific expenditures. Compared to other studies, these results show that the financial status of members of non-profit sports clubs is very strong.     

Childhood practice and play as determinants of adolescent intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among elite youth athletes

Abstract

The study empirically tested the postulate of the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP; Côté, J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. (2007). Practice and play in the development of sport expertise. In R. Eklund & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (pp. 184–202). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley) that diversified childhood self-led sport play will beneficially affect future, adolescent intrinsic motivation. Participants were 178 elite youth athletes (age 15.3?±?1.5 years) from several game and non-game sports; 117 were members of the federal state or national junior squad in their respective sport. A questionnaire measured current (adolescent) intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the youth athletes using the Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier, L. G., Fortier, M. S., Vallerand, R. J., Tuson, K. M., Brière, N. M., & Blais, M. R. (1995). Towards a new measure of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation in sports: The sport motivation scale (SMS). Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 17, 35–53) and their earlier volume of childhood engagement (through 12 years) in coach-led practice and self-led play in their respective main sport and other sports. Analyses revealed that adolescent intrinsic motivation was not significantly correlated with earlier childhood self-led sport activities, self-led play in particular, or childhood sports diversification. Furthermore, considering all different types of childhood sport activities together in multiple regression analyses, they did not provide meaningful explanatory power regarding adolescent intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. In summary, the results did not provide support for the postulate of the DMSP among elite youth athletes. The findings suggest that future research may seek to enable more robust empirical substantiation of the DMSP postulate.     

Lifelong Participation,Physical Education and the Work of Ken Roberts

A broad consensus has emerged in recent years in relation to the desirability of one particular purpose for physical education (PE); namely, the promotion of lifelong participation in sport and physical activity. This paper represents an attempt to rectify what is taken to be the relative failure of those investigating (whilst typically advocating) lifelong participation through PE to make use of a sociological perspective on leisure, youth cultures and sport. More specifically, it brings the seminal work of someone often referred to as a 'founding father' of the field, Ken Roberts, to bear on the topic, on the premise that any study of young people's propensity towards ongoing involvement in sport and physical activity needs to be viewed as an aspect of their lives 'in the round' and that, in this regard, Roberts' contribution is especially important. The paper argues that among a number of lessons to be learned from Roberts' work over the last decade or so is that sports participation--contrary to the common-sense views of teachers, government and other interested parties--has become part of present-day youth cultures and that this is, in no small measure, a consequence of a trend over the last 25 or so years towards a broadening of PE curricula in a manner that mutually reinforces broader trends in young people's leisure styles. The paper concludes that if lifelong participation is to be a primary aim of PE, then there needs to be a shift in policy towards the development of wide sporting repertoires, during the crucial secondary school years by, amongst other things, incorporating a significant element of choice on the part of pupils from a broad range of curricula and extracurricular activities, including so-called 'lifestyle' activities.     

太极拳教学探讨

太极拳是一项具有广泛社会价值、功能、健身价值和民族文化特色的中国传统体育项目,是贯彻落实《中共中央国务院关于加强青少年体育增强青少年体质的意见》精神的有效举措,可以有效推进亿万学生的阳光体育活动,促进学生全面健康成长。目前,太极拳已经列入国家正式的体育竞赛项目,国家体育总局对太极拳也作了系统的整理和研究,编写了一系列规范、统一的教材,有配套的太极拳书籍、挂图、音像制品等,使太极拳在发扬传统、百花齐放的基础上走上了规范化、系统化的现代体育道路。文章着重分析了如何进行太极拳的教学,使学生通过练习太极拳来增强体质,培养学生兴趣,为终身体育的发展奠定良好的基础。     

The Diffusion and Transmission of Cricket among European,Indigenous and Migrant Communities in the British Straits Settlements and Malay States during the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, 1786–1899

The British colonised Penang in 1786, Malacca in 1895 and Singapore in 1819. In 1874, the British, through its Residents, came to control the Governments of Perak, Selangor and Sungei Ujong, and wherever they went, they indulged in their leisure pursuits such as horse riding and cricket. This research attempts to show how the immigrant Malay Eurasian, Chinese and Tamil communities come into contact with the different British and European communities and were introduced to cricket. The process of diffusion and acceptance becomes evident when the local populations in turn set up their own sports clubs and cricket clubs. The study tries to identify the various means of the cultural transmission of sports by the different ethnic groups during British colonial rule from 1876 to 1899.     

An Ironic Imbalance: Coaching Opportunities and Gender in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) is a sport designed specifically for women. With roots in ballet, calisthenics and eugenics, it was meant to showcase femininity, beauty, and encourage healthy bodies for motherhood, therefore offering socially acceptable sporting opportunities for females. This paper considers whether such sporting opportunities extended to female coaches. We examine the recruitment patterns in relation to gender of some of the top coaches in Australia and New Zealand since the 1980s, who are predominantly migrants. Using archival sources, interviews and personal experience, this paper argues that while so-called feminine or artistic sports can offer greater opportunities for female coaches, WAG in Australia and New Zealand remains dominated by male coaches, who have held the majority of the head coach positions and in many cases, been actively recruited from overseas. The few females who have been employed in top positions have been appointments of ‘convenience’ rather than reflective of a shift away from these gendered employment patterns. Thus, while its creation as a specifically feminine sport may lead WAG to be viewed as a site of increased opportunities for women coaches, deeper exploration reveals an unresolved tension between the use of male and female coaches.