«Flest mulig, lengst mulig, best mulig» : En kvalitativ studie av trenere, spillere og foreldre som har hatt tilknytning til Bryne Fotballklubb G99

Abstract

Sports participation has for many led to positive youth development, while many want to be as good as possible in their sport. The purpose of this study is to investigate a soccer environment for boys whichhassucceeded in keeping children and young people active in the sport for a long time, and at the same timemany of the athletes have developed such good skills that they have reached the elite level.The study is a case study of a football team consisting of a cohort born in 1999 that has played in the football club Bryne, in the southwestofNorway. Ten people who have been associated with the environment have been interviewed. Both parents, players, the coach and club representative make up the ten respondents of the study. To create enoughbreadth and depth in the data collection, two parents and two players who have participated at the recreation level are interviewed. In addition, two parents and two players representing the elite level are interviewed. None of those interviewed have had family relationships with each other.All interviews were conducted using individual semi-structured in-depth interviews. A theoretical framework, Personal Assets Framework (Côté, Turnnidge & Evans, 2014; Côté, Turnnidge & Vierimaa, 2016) has been used to frame andstructure the study. The data wereanalysed using thematic analysis (Braun, Clarke & Weate, 2016) with both inductive and deductive approaches to the data material. The results show a soccer environment that has had a very high level of activity, especially through very much unorganized football for large parts of the developingenvironment.The coaches have been inclusive, had great football knowledge and pedagogical skills. They have been good at encouraging self-activity and having good leadership skills. The cohesion of the group has been strong across skills, and in the environment, comparing skills has helped to push the boundaries of development in a positive way. The football club has possessed an indoor artificial turf hall that has been important, and the club has had a conscious philosophy of facilitating loop football, especially on weekends.The environment has been development-oriented rather than result-focused, adapted to challenges to the participants' skills, but at the same timepreserved the cohesion of keeping elite and breadth in the same group.Keywords: talent development, recreational sport, performance development,sports participation, positive youth development, unorganized training, youth sport, coaching role