Browsing by Subject "harrastustoiminta"

Psychological coaching is an important but often not enough used part of coaching a sports team. However, doing sports in a team environment has major impact on the growth and development of children. The aim of this thesis is to study how coaches of a football club in Helsinki coaching boys’ teams in a primary school age implement and define psychological coaching in their teams and how they see the impact of childhood sports on children’s schooling, social relationship, and future. This study was carried out as a qualitative study based on interviews with coaches of four junior football teams. The interviewees have plenty of coaching experience and have coached children of different ages, both boys and girls. The interviews were conducted by means of semi-structured thematic interviews, in which the interviews were recorded and transcribed. The transcribed material was analyzed by means of theoretical content analysis, and the results of the thesis are based on the themes presented in the theory section. Coaches see the importance of psychological coaching as important and believe that by implementing it, children's readiness to succeed in other areas of life in addition to sports and active lifestyle will increase. The coaches define the meaning of psychological coaching in similar ways, but each implements psychological coaching in their own way, and there were hardly any clear models or plans for the implementation of psychological coaching. However, the areas of psychological coaching are part of their coaching process, and the responses emphasized the best interests of the child and the need to meet them as individuals, as well as motivational factors and skillful feedback. Coaches need more ways and help to plan and implement good psychological coaching as part of their coaching process in their teams. According to the study, the coaches believe that participation in sports brings not only health benefits, but also benefits for an individual's schooling, social relationships, and future.