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.