sharing leadership. sharing leadership in youth-sport: mission impossible? for the efpm-cifp fair...

Sharing leadership

Sharing leadership in Youth-sport:mission impossible?

For the EFPM-CIFPFair Play Congress6-8 oct. 2015Baku

Dr. Albert BuismanEm. Associate professorSport-educationUtrecht UniversityNetherlandsCIFP-Council-member

Content

1. Introduction2. Meaning Youth-participation3. Objectives Fair Play Education4. Interviews with 35 young football-players (12-18)5. Discussions in frameworks6. From passion to reality7. The good ones and the bad ones (C1 versus C7)8. He ruins our game9. Youth-participation, potentional enough10. Conclusion for Avanti, a nice football-club

IntroductionPicture Youth-participationA phantom for the trainer?1.Two views– A mess, poor leadership– Involvement of the kids

2.Perspectives– Youth-participation– Involvement– Sharing leadership

2. Meaning Youth-participation

• Youth-participation means the influence of youth in their own sport-practice. The youngsters are motivated in sharing leadership, and have confidence in their competences. There was mutual commitment with the trainers and the club.

• Levels of involvementInvolvement can be considered a condition for active participation. There are 3 levels:– Involvement with the sport football– Involvement with the team– Involvement with the sport-club

3. Objectives Fair Play Education

• For example– Respect for your opponent– Stimulating autonomy and youth-participation

• ObjectivesAlways in connection with the landscape of the youth, their possibilities, experiences

• Educational objectives without a landscape-discussion becomes isolated

• Educationis dialogue, communicate with the youth about their meanings.

4. Interviews with young football-players 12-18from one club• All members of one club Avanti (see poster)• Questions– What are your experiences with youth-

participation and what is your opinion?• Open interview– With topiclist (see poster)

• Reason for Avanti to participate:– Drop-outs• Presenting results in a framework for discussion.

5. Discussions in frameworks

• Important comparable experiences and opinions together in a frame.

• The frame gets a label, recognizable for club members.

• Sometimes is one quote from one player enough for a clear interpretation in a frame

• Not an systematic presentation from results.Frames are useful for a discussion in the football-club..

6a. From passion to reality Young players (C 12-14) with passion about football

• “You are active and become more manly” (Pieter, 14, C6)

• “If I lose my legs now you can kill me, I wouldn’t want to go on, football is so deeply part of me” (Ben, 15, C3)

And the ambitionDreaming about the Dutch National team or Barcelona, or at least the first team of the club.

Older players (A 16-18)More reality

• “Having fun is most important; it’s not about winning for me. We don’t need to yell at each other when it goes wrong, just walk to the field with a smile.”(Patrick, 15, B3).

• “I’m wondering whether to keep playing or not. It’s really busy with studying… It’s too much right now to play football 4x per week. Obsessed with the game? No, I’m not.” (Tieme, 18, A1).

7. The good and the bad ones (C1 versus C7)

7.a.Good and bad

“What I don’t like about our club is the arrogance! It’s just plain bad when you’re playing in the C5, C6 or C7 and you’re not anygood unless you play in the C1. Real arrogance. I can’t really say the C7 isn’t bad… everyone else says that anyways. I don’t think I’m that bad.” (Karel, 13, C4)


7b Everything is pro-selection• “It’s unfortunate that everything revolves around

the selection. Everything is pro selection. Everything for the first team. They don’t really think about the other non-selection teams. All of the players that don’t make the cut get sent to our team, that’s really too bad. They’re only concerned with the selection. As if other teams are secondary. We often get older used stuff and worn-out balls, that’s disappointing.” (Niek, 18, A3)


7.c.Avanti as a performance club Dumping your own players

• Clubs have to stop collecting players from other clubs for the youth selection teams. He says: “The players from my club have less of a chance when players come from other clubs. Those players go straight to the selection. They dump their own players for players from another club. I was in the selection first, but not anymore.”(Jaap, 13, C3)

8. “He ruins are game” “They ruin the game”

8a . Being clumsy

“He played poorly all season. He missed important balls by being clumsy. We don’t pick on him, but we do say what we think of it, and then we get mad…” “Maybe we should have reacted calmer, but that’s hard when he ruins it for us.”(Wim, 17, A2)

8. They ruin our game”

8b. A conflict between task- and fun orientations

The boys, Wim again:• “It’s too divided and too mixed up between the guys that

play for the fun of it and the fanatics. It is terrible that not everyone gives it 100%.”

• Later in the interview Wim shows how deeply he is frustrated. “I go home around 2 and drink less. But the others don’t come home ‘til 7, completely drunk and don’t win any duels and can barely touch the ball when they get it.”(Wim, 17, A2)

8. They ruin our game”

8.C Some girls talk too much

“They don’t do anything during practice or during the game. When the ball comes they do nothing, just stand there. They’re only talking the whole time.”(Moniek, 14,C1)

9. Youth-participation Avantipotential enough

9a. Involvement in the preparation of the training

• Does not happen often• In a discussion trainer/team some suggestions

are accepted• Avanti hase an agreement with a club from

the National League and…• Special the selections use their trainingsplan• Other teams are more flexible


9b. Motivation of the players for participation• Most of the junior-players have no need for

participating in the preparation of the training.

• Different reasons were given.– “No, it is a task for the trainer”(Michel, 13, C2)– “The trainer makes an analysis of the match, than

he decides what we are doing in the training” (Henk, 16, B2)


• 9c. Coaching the team• Coaches and trainers mostly different persons in one

team.• A chance for youth-participation. A jewel!

“I make the composition of the team myself. I work together with the trainer of the team. My father is the coach, but he does not know that much about football. He likes to attend the match. For my teammates it is OK. Sometimes they ask me for a certain position. We have 16 players and everybody is playing in the match. So I am very busy in the match to put in the substitutes, at the right time and in the right place. (Jan, 13,C7)


9d. Team captains• A good excersize in leadership• The captains, we interviewed, were active in the field• They communicated directly with the players• They felt responsible for the team

“I have a very short fuse as a player. But as a captain of the team it is a must to have self-control and discipline. In the interest of myself and my team”. (Tim, 15, C5)


9e. Involvement as a referee or junior-coach for 8-10 years old

Only a few players in our interview had someexperience.• “I was referee, I like it that kids are so fanatic….”• “I received guidance and supervision with the first

two matches. That was helpful because (some of the parents) call names such as cow and dumbo. But now everything goes fine”(Kees, 14, C4)


9f. The quote of the yearAvanti has volunteers enough.We do not need youth-participation!

More thinking in the interest of the cluband not in the educational interest of the player.

10. Conclusions for Avanti, a nice club

10 a. Discussions in framework1. Presenting the results of this study in frameworks was

useful for discussions2. The players gave feedback about their experiences and

the club listened to their voices and started discussion.3. There were additional important topics that asked for a discussion in a framework, for example:• Aggression and violence• Position of girls and women in sports• Striving for championship or striving for personal

development of the players

10. Conclusions for Avanti, a nice club

10.b SummaryFirst : it seems there is little youth-participation in practice.

Second: when we look at the involvement of the players, in theirmeanings about the sport and the club, when we look at some examples, there aremany opportunitiesfor youth-participation in Avanti.Mission impossible: Certainly not!

MISSION POSSIBLE!

sharing leadership. sharing leadership in youth-sport: mission impossible? for the efpm-cifp fair...

Documents