Coaching life skills through football.

Case study of
coaches’ perceived importance of teaching life skills
within grassroots football

Abstract:
The following study explores the experience of a grassroots football coach in
terms of teaching life skill through football. Using semi structured interview as
a data collection tool, the methods adopted by the coach were compared and
contrasted against existing life skills teaching programs. Results supported
previous theories on the topic and identified the participant in this study
considers communication, respect, hard work, ownership and leadership skills
to be the most vital life skills to develop when coaching football to youth
players. The present research examined only one coach’s experience of the
teaching life skills through football. Further investigation of players perception
of these is needed, as well as the development of a more objective tool for
evaluation of life skills gains through football practice.
Keywords: life skill, grassroots football, coaching, youth development
 Introduction:

The literature identifies that youth sport participation promotes healthy

lifestyle habits, develops life skills and prepares adolescents for the future (The
World Health Organisation, 1999). Moreover, sports psychologists suggest
there is a relationship between sport participation and life skills acquisition
(Danish and Nellen, 1997). Holt and colleagues (2009) defined life skills as skills
needed to cope with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Without a
doubt gaining life skills in adolescence may be beneficial for one’s future
development and progress. Whereas these can be physical, cognitive or
behavioural, and regardless of whether gained in a sporting environment, they
may be applied in many different life domains (Papacharisis et al., 2005).
In team sports, researchers have extensively explored programs that aim at
improving athletic performance but to this moment strategies that coaches
use to enhance personal development through sport participation have been
studied less frequently (Gould et al., 2007). There are, however, few sports-
based life skill development programs that attract the attention of scholars
recently. Danish’s (2002) Sports United to Promote Education and Recreation
(SUPER) program were designed as workshops-based learning for youth
athletes, that focused on sport-specific skill information delivery as well as
general life skills knowledge acquisition through sport. Teaching Personal and
Social Responsibility (TPSR) was another model, developed by Hellison (2003),
which was designed to help teachers promote and teach individual
responsibility through physical education in high schools setting. These
programs focused on enhancing life skills such as individual responsibility,
leadership qualities, respect and personal honesty.
However, according to the authors, the successful application of both these
frameworks in school setting requires regular interaction between the teacher
and the students, integration of life skills teaching into the physical education
curriculum and promoting core values such as “self-development”, “individual
first” and “human decency” (Hellision, 2003; Holt at al., 2008). Although, youth
who participated in these programs reported positive impacts like higher goal-
setting and better problem-solving skills post-intervention compared to a
control group, the nature of the self-reported evaluation and the little to no
information of the overall effectiveness of the programs make the general
assessment of these practices difficult.
Positive Youth Development (PYD) is one more concept practitioners and
scholars use to define the promotion of beneficial competencies youth
develops through sports participation (Gould and Carson, 2008). PYD in
previous studies emphasizes on developing life skills, such as effective
communication, decision making, goal setting, leadership and time
management (Danish and Nellen, 1997). Gould and Carson’s PYD model
summarizes the existing programs and suggests a practical template sports
coaches could follow when developing life skill in youth sport participants.
Their model for coaching life skills consists of five core components.
Firstly, the authors propose the coaches should familiarize themselves with the
players’ internal (already existing competencies) and external assets (social
circle, peers, family influences). The coach needs to know the personality of
the athletes if he or she is to find a way of influencing the learning process.
The second component of Gould and Carson’s model is the practical coaching
of life skills. The factors influencing this process the authors identify as one’s
coaching philosophy, relationship and communication skills, competence and
the frequency of accessibility to the athletes. Worth note here is the coaching
philosophy adopted by the coach, as this is proposed to be the most influential
factor when creating a positive learning environment for youth athletes (Cope
at al., 2017). Moreover, the strategies used by the coaches can be defined in
two ways – implicit approach, when athletes experience life skill acquisition
from the environment created by the coach but life skills were not
intentionally taught to the players; and explicit approach, when the coach
purposefully emphasize on certain life skills importance and focus on these
during practical delivery (Pierce et al., 2018).
The third unit of Gould and Carson’s model stresses on how life skills are being
formed and how the acquisition of these can be influenced positively. The
authors suggest the social environment could have a major impact on the
athletes’ personality development factors, such as the formation of one’s
identity and competence, self-worth evaluation and experience of autonomy
and independence. Another point of view suggests that common life skills like
communication and stress management can be learnt tacitly because they can
be applied in everyday life and people are usually exposed to these in any life
domain (Camire et al., 2012).
The fourth component focuses on the positive and negative results from sports
participation. Literature well documents the benefits of life skill development
through sport participation as enhanced health, better teamwork, academic
achievements and psycho-social development, some studies however, report
that failure to generate desired life skills may lead to physical injuries, stress
and burnouts (Camire et al., 2011; Sagar et al., 2010), and dropouts form sport
(Molinero et al., 2009). This is especially relevant to football as the drop-out
rates in that sport in youth age is almost 24% annually according to recent
studies (Mollerlokken et al., 2015). Maintaining a positive coach-athlete
relationship is shown consistently in the literature to be a key factor in PYD and
life skills acquisition. Coaches should connect to their athletes on a personal
level and should make an effort to gain knowledge of any meaningful events in
their lives. Regular communication and expressing genuine interest in one’s life
beyond sport are defined by scholars as significant factors influencing the
effective coach-athlete relationship (Jacobs et al., 2017; Sagar et al., 2010).
The last module of the PYD model explores the process of transferring the life
skill acquired in the sport context into a non-sporting domain. It has been
suggested that few factors influence this process – athlete’s perceived value of
the competence, confidence and understanding when transferring these in
other life domains, and social support and praise for the transfer. This last part
of the module may prove to be difficult to assess by the coach, so the social
circle of the athlete could provide better support for the life skills transfer and
reinforcement outside of sporting settings. It is, therefore, important for the
coach to outline the values and life skills he is teaching through sport into his
or her coaching philosophy and share this with the parents or significant others
of the athletes. Scholars suggest that only then, and only if both parties share
the perceived importance of these values, can life skill acquisition have
sustainable positive effects and manifest in life domains outside of sport
(Collins et al., 2009).
To put all of the above-mentioned models into a football context, the game is
one of world’s most popular sports in terms of participation with almost 4%
world's population playing some format of it (FIFA, 2006). As such popular
social activity, football is a universal tool to reach out and influence youth
development and it is often used to promote positives like improved health,
diversity, inclusion and social integration (Mollerlokken et al. 2015). In a
practical context, the person of authority the youth interact the most in
football is the coach (Camire et al., 2011). Football coaches have a great impact
on youth development and positive physical, psychological and behavioural
changes are often related to one’s participation in organised football practice
throughout their youth and adolescence (Nache et al., 2005).
Given the significance of the football game as a phenomena, influencing
millions of people’s lives worldwide, it is vital for stakeholders, such as the
coaches, to better understand how to provide youth players with the best
experience of the game, how to promote PYD and how to teach skills and
habits for life through football participation. The main purpose of the following
reading is to investigate the experiences of and the methods for teaching life
skills through football participation, of a grassroots football coach working with
a team of under 18’s male athletes. Topics, identified in existing PYD models as
significant, are explored and analysed against the data from the current study
participant’s. The present research hypothesizes that teamwork, leadership,
respect, effective communication and social skills are amongst the core
competencies coaches focus on when addressing life skills development.
 Method:

Procedures and protocols

A semi-structured interview was the data collection tool. A pilot study was
conducted before the participant’s interview and as suggested by scholars,
questions were then revised and reworded when needed (Silverman, 2006).
Both interviews were voice recorded and transcribed verbatim (see Appendix B
and E). The research interview took 37 minutes to conduct. A participant
information sheet was sent via e-mail to the participant one week before the
interview took place (see Appendix F). Written consent was obtained from the
participant on the day of the interview (see Appendix C). The participant had
the freedom not to answer any questions without giving justification to the
interviewer. The interview took place in a quiet group study area in
Mountbatten Library at Solent University. The researcher and the participant
had no previous experience in taking part in similar studies. No funding or
grants were awarded for the present study.

Interview scheme
The semi-structured interview consisted of 15 open-ended questions (see
Appendix D), arranged in 6 themes: Coach’s background; Coaching philosophy;
Coaching style; Character and life skills development; Evaluation of players’ life
skills and Practical advisory to other coaches. This framework was advised by
Martens (2004), who states that coaching education, coaching philosophy and
style of delivery should be highlighted when exploring football coaches’
psychological approach to practical delivery of any teaching content. The
themes were adopted from the work of Gould and colleagues (2006) who
investigated coaches’ methods of developing life skills through sport. To better
understand the methods of coaching life skills, the researcher was free to use
probes to gather a thorough comprehension of the answers. Moreover, that
ensured that the participant was asked about his views on subjects the
researcher had already identified in the existing literature as relevant to the
topic under investigation. Additionally, questions related to life skill
development, tacit knowledge of the coaching field and potential barriers for
teaching life skills were included as themes in the interview, since these were
identified as significant by the work of Martinek and Hellison (1997). For clarity
of the topic prior the interview life skills were identified as: “…. the attributes
and skills an athlete gains through participating in competitive organised sport
activity, that can be transferred out of the sporting context in other life
domains” (Gould et al., 2006).

Method of enquiry
The research used epistemological interpretative design in the form of a case
study. This is a qualitative approach and is justified for the current research
because it investigates the participant’s own experiences and methods of work
within the topic in question – coaches experiences of and methods for
teaching life skills. Qualitative study designs tend to collect rich data and
assumes that one’s social reality is a subjective experience that can be
interpreted in the immediate social context (Gratton and Jones, 2014; Flick,
2018).

Participants
Using Patton’s purposeful sampling procedure, which identifies a sample for
whom the research question is relevant, one football coach was interviewed
for this study (Patton, 2002). The participant was 36 years old and from the
white ethnic origin. The interviewee covered the inclusion criteria of being
UEFA B in coaching football qualified, having a minimum of 4 years coaching
experience in youth grassroots football setting and being actively coaching at
least once a week at present. Moreover, the coach that took part in this study
is also part of the Football Association coaching mentor program and actively
mentors and influence other grassroots coaches which gives further relevancy
for his point of view and methods of delivery.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval for the study was obtained by the Health, Exercise and Sports
Science Ethics Committee (HESSEC) before the participant was approached
(see Appendix A).

Data analysis
Content data analysis, using interpretative inductive approach was adopted for
this study. That method was appropriate because sport and football, in
particular, are social constructs within the public domain that can make sense
of participant’s lived experiences, which are individual and can’t be quantified
(Gratton and Jones, 2014; Mason, 2017). Moreover, interpretations of human
experiences are fundamental when the researcher attempts to acknowledge or
make these experiences visible (Denzin, 2001).
 Results and Discussion:

Coach’s background and influences

Participant’s own experience of grassroots football was in the extremes,
negative and positive. Vella and colleagues (2013) identified the positive
coach-athlete relationship to have a moderate correlation with positive
youth development experiences of football. In to this context, the
participant’s positive football experience and relationship with his youth
football coach influenced the pursuit of a career in football, as he
states “…he was fantastic…he welcomed me in, supported me, gave me
some ideas how to improve quicker…” about his coach. He also mentioned
him as one of his mentors in coaching football and one of the reasons to
become a coach, “I still speak to him now…in a coach to coach
conversation…he is always at the end of the phone, so if I have any
questions he is happy to answer”. The other influence he had as a young
coach was from his father and grandfather, both of whom coached
grassroots teams. This comes to support the findings of Mossman and
Cronin (2019) of the importance of parental support in developing life skills
through football. They also identify parents as a key stakeholder impacting
the perception and enjoyment of football by youth athletes.
As well as positive, the participant also reported negative coaching
experiences as a youth player: “I was pretty much marginalised within the
group…bullied by the coaches and the players… I was not that good
technically, so was pushed aside…the coaches were: if you can’t do it, you
are rubbish...you will sit on the bench, we don’t care!”. Due to confidence
loss and the negative learning environment provided in his team, the
participant dropped out of youth football for a few years. Disliking the
coach in was stated as one of the main reasons for dropouts in youth
football according to Cronin and colleagues (2018). The personal
experiences of football of the participant gave him a more holistic view of
the coaching as improvement process as he states: “I go back to that
negative influence that I had when I was younger… and revisit that a lot… I
try to flip these into positives influences for my players”.
Coaching philosophy and coaching styles. Coaching
environment
The participant’s coaching philosophy was again inspired by his own
experiences of being coached and has changed “dramatically” over the
years. It is now based more on players ownership and it orbits around the
coach’s values – honesty, hard work, communication and enjoyment of the
activity. This implicit approach of teaching ownership skills is suggested by
Pierce et al. (2018) to enhance the transfer of life skills to non-sporting
context, as the athletes experience a level of autonomy and produce their
developmental gains from the environment created by the coach. The
coach about his coaching philosophy: “more towards ownership now, I have
certain values that I expect my players to adhere to in my practice… within
my sort of control… I expect honesty from everybody…dedication, hard
work, commitment… I want a fun environment…” and he continues: “two-
way communication is vital… they (the players) want to see me working
hard off the pitch, so it inspires them to work hard on the pitch”. By
reflecting on his own experience as a player, the coach sets an example for
his players to follow in the same way he was once supported and cared for
by his coach in his youth football development. Temple and Crane (2016)
recognized a lack of enjoyment as a discriminating factor between retained
and released players in an adolescent football context.
By tailoring the challenges to suit the individual needs the coach has
created a group environment where the athletes feel catered for, and
potential conflicts between personal aims have been avoided. As he
answers a question about his coaching style and the clash between
development and results orientated players: “They understand my
perspective, that is not about winning… I try to give them more challenges
in the gameplay, so that can take their mindset away from the winning side
of it…” and he continues: “… winning is inbred in some players…do we need
to focus on it? No! It will at the back of their minds, but we can deflect it a
little bit.” According to Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory (2004),
positive learning environment which caters for individual’s basic needs
leads to a better player experience of autonomy, sense of ownership,
perceived competence and relatedness to the group (Quested at al., 2013).
Challenging the players in the right way by stating: “it’s just framing the
picture and the question in the right way to see if they could come up their
own answers” is a part of his coaching style at present. He continues: “… my
intervention strategy is trying not to give too much information, give a bit
more ownership”. Gould and colleagues (2013) found that poor
communication skills and failure to take responsibility and ownership were
identified as the main issues coaches face when they teach life skills
through sport participation. Addressing these issues by developing coach-
athlete rapport through communication and players’ responsibility and
ownership provides a positive learning environment for youth athletes to
develop transferable skills.

Coach’s behaviours and life skills development

Based on his values – honesty, respect, effective communication, dedication
and ownership, the coach employs these into his practice implicitly and
explicitly. As he mentions: “… we are volunteers in the game, we are giving
them a platform to go and to enjoy themselves, to have fun and play… the
least they can do is show respect towards their peers and their
colleagues”, he adds: “we see it sometimes… little things like the pleases
and thank yous”. By using yellow and red card warning system, he is
enabling the group to control themselves, because “if they are disrespectful
to one of their peers, they (need to) know about it”. Certainly, Jones and
Lavalee (2009) state that in football context youth players consider social
skills such as respect, leadership and discipline to be an important necessity
for success in life.
However, the participant reported difficulties when he tries to develop and
teach honesty through football. He gives an example: “They are now
questioning the decisions… last night the ball went out of play for a throw-
in, both teams argued and I didn’t see it…I am looking at the players to be
honest here, but actually, they just argued”. After throwing another ball
into play he continues: “I am hoping with a little stuff like that it might
actually say he is just going to give it back to play anyway, so just be honest
and give the ball” and concludes about honesty “honesty is a difficult one to
coach”. Indeed, Gould and Carson’s PYD model suggest that a coach need
to know the personalities of their players to be able to influence them
positively (Gould and Carson, 2008).
From the data, it is also evident that coach’s behaviours during practice
could influence the dynamics of the group and the coach presented a case
where he had to deal with a player that was misbehaving: “I lost my
patience with one of the guys because he was questioning, arguing and
being aggressive towards other players… eventually, I sent him away from
the practice, I sent him home” and as a consequence “post that situation
the players were very cagy, communication died right down, they (the
players) did not really interact…had a negative impact on the whole
group”. Undoubtedly that situation affected the learning environment and
the athletes’ learning process. Vella and colleagues (2013) found that
positive role modelling is one of the most influential leadership behaviours,
on the other side, negative coaching attitudes affect players motivation and
enjoyment of the activity (Nache et al., 2004).
 Conclusion:

The main purpose of this study was to identify the experiences of a UEFA B
qualified coach when coaching life skills through football participation.
Results showed the participant considers communication, respect, hard
work, ownership and leadership skills to be the most vital life skills to
develop when coaching football to youth players. The methods and
strategies of delivering life skills employed by the coach varied and he used
implicit and explicit technique in his coaching. Personal approach and
knowledge of individuals’ internal assets and values proved to be crucial in
influencing positive outcomes in terms of life skill development. External
factors, such as social circle, family and interests outside football were
identified as main barriers for positive character development and progress.
Cronin and Allen (2017) developed a life skill scale for sport (LSSS), which
was designed as a measuring tool for transferable life skill gained through
sport participation. Teamwork, leadership and communication were
amongst the life skills most frequently perceived by the athletes' to be
develop through sport. The results from the current study suggest that the
participant reported the same perceived importance for these life skills in
his coaching. In addition to that, respect and commitment/dedication were
also suggested to be valuable assets employed in his practice. The LSSS may
be useful tool to evaluate the coaches’ perceived life skill development
through football practice over a longer period of time.
This research presents an original investigation of one football coach’s
experience of teaching life skills through football and the information in this
paper is unique to the context of the coaching environment the coach
found himself in. The nature of the self-reported evaluation of the teaching
methods adopted by the coach may be identified as a limitation of the
present study. One should not make general conclusions about the
effectiveness of such methods and should interpret any findings presented
in this article with caution. Moreover, this study focused only on the coach's
point of view and assessment. Although relevant in the context the
participant also mentors other grassroots coaches, further investigation of
players perception of life skills gains from football and transfer to other life
domains is needed.
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 Appendices:

Appendix A – Ethical Approval and Ethics Form

 Health, Exercise and Sports Science Ethics Committee

Outline of proposed research to be submitted for ethical review

PLEASE NOTE: Students will need to discuss this form with their project tutor for each project undertaken. Before
completion the applicant is advised to consult the Health Exercise and Sport Science Ethical Policy available on the
HESSEA SOL page. In addition, the applicant should also read and understand the British Association of Sport and
Exercise Sciences (BASES) Code of Conduct and if the project falls within the auspices of psychology, then you are
advised to ensure you have read and understood the Ethical Principles for Conducting Research with Human
Participants published by the British Psychological Society.

This form must be completed by Staff, Postgraduates and Undergraduates before potential participants are
approached to take part in any research. Please complete all questions.

IMPORTANT:

Please confirm the following:

☒ By ticking the following box you confirm that your supervisor has checked your application and is happy for it to
be submitted to the Health, Exercise and Sports Science Ethics Committee (HESSEC). If you submit the application
and the box is not ticked then your application will be automatically declined.

Student Name:

Boni Bonev
Project Title:

Coaching life skills through football. Coaches’ perceived importance of teaching life skills within youth grassroots
football

Area to be studies:

- Biomechanics ☐

- Nutrition ☐
- Performance analysis ☐

- Physiology ☐

- Psychology ☒

- Sociology ☒

- Sport Therapy ☐
- Strength and Conditioning ☐
Please refer to the list of approved procedures in appendix D of the HESS Ethics document on the HESSEA SOL page
and detail which apply to your study:

Questionnaire

Proposed duration of study (i.e. from the start of data collection to completing the written report:)

4 weeks

Contact Number: 07831 965794

Level of study: Postgraduate (MSc / MPhil / PhD)

Supervisor: Scott Burnet

Other investigators: Click here to enter text.

Supervisor’s comments
 Please summarise the ethical issues associated with your proposed research project. For guidance, please see the
adapted BASES (2017) guidelines on the HESSEA SOL page.
Ethical Clearance: In order for research to result in benefit and minimise risk of harm, it must be conducted
ethically. The aim of ethical review is to protect participants. They are a valuable part of the research process and
not merely a means of accessing data. Participants have the right to know who has access to their data and what
is being done with it.

Informed Consent and Confidentiality: Informed consent is an important part of the researcher- participant
relationship. It occurs when the benefits and risks of a procedure are explained to the participants and then they
give permission for the research to take place. Participants have the right to either give informed consent or to
refuse.

Data protection and responsibility: Data will be collected and analysed in complete confidentiality adhering to
GDPR. Only the researcher and the project supervisor will have access to the data collected.

Competence: Conducting a pilot study prior to data collection, Addressing the potential issues that may arise
from the pilot study, Revising the questions, Acknowledging academic information related to the procedures used
for data collection

Professional and Personal Conduct: Participants will be informed by email about the purpose of the study and the
topics of discussion minimum of 1 week before the data collection. Participant information sheet will be provided
to the participants 1 week before the data collection. Any questions or unclear item will be discussed and
addressed prior the data collection.

Question 1:
- Does your study involve the use of human participants?
o Yes

- Minors (under 18 years of age) or vulnerable adults (e.g. adults with specific learning needs)

o No

- Overt observation techniques, such as notational analysis?

o No

- Questionnaires or semi-structured interviewing?

o Yes

- The discussion of sensitive topics (e.g. drug abuse)?

o No

- Covert observation or deceptive procedures (i.e. participants are unaware of the purpose of your research)?

o No

- Sub-maximal exercise testing (i.e. less than 85% heart rate) this may also involve testing flexibility testing,
massage techniques?

o No
 - Physiological testing that is maximal in nature and greater than that experienced in everyday life? This might
include activities such as one repetition maximum testing, time-trialling or maximal exercise testing (VO2 max
test)

o No

- High risk psychological or physiological distress or harm to participants that exceeds normal life. This might
include activities such as 1) paramedic or medicine attendance during a resting ECG and throughout
experiential testing; 2) clinical trials; 3) research on abnormal or clinical psychology; 4) in addition,
participants are children under 5, pregnant women or vulnerable adults:

o No

Question 2: Concisely describe the research problem / issue under investigation:

Academic research suggest more than 99% of the players involved in organised football in their youth are not making
it to the professional game. Moreover, only 0,012% of all young players will eventually play in the English Premier
League. With 99% drop out rate from academies at the age of 18, there is growing concern of available
developmental pathways for those released from football. How coaches understand the importance of and the
teaching of life skills through football is the main focus of this study. Life skills developed through football practice
are defined as skills, knowledge and habits gained and enhanced whilst participating in football, that are transferable
out from the sport in every other domain of life.

Question 3: What is the rationale that underpins the study (i.e. why is the research worth conducting)? Please
include theory (i.e. academic literature) in support of your study:

It is well documented in the literature that sports coaches have a major influence on athletes’ development (Gould
et al., 2007). The FA’s 4 corner model of development suggest coaches should improve athletes in technical,
physical, psychological and social aspects of the game (The FA, 2014). By doing this, the coaches also inevitably
develop personal characteristics and skills that could potentially be transferred for use in non-sporting settings.
Academics identify skills such as goal-setting, emotional control, and hard-work ethic to be the most influential ones
in one’s personal development (Camiré, Trudel and Forneris, 2012; Gould et al., 2007).
Considering the above, there is a growing need of better understanding of how these life skills are incorporated into
football practice, what is the rationale behind coaches’ selection of life skills taught and how important is the
development of these to the coaches?

Question 4: Concisely state the aim of the study (i.e. what is the aim of the study?):

The aim of this study is to investigate the coaches’ perception of the importance of teaching life skills through
football. The current research explores the views on the topic, theoretical and practical, of an UEFA B licenced
football coach that presently works with under 18’s college football team. The coach interviewed is also part FA’s
football coach mentor programme, which aims at supporting young and unexperienced football coaches in their
development in line with the FA’s guidelines.

Question 5: Which methodological approach are you looking to adopt?

- Qualitative

Question 6: Which research design are you looking to adopt?

- Case Study
Question 7: in the box below, please provide details of the questionnaires, protocols, techniques and procedures
to be used during your data collection (e.g. CSAI-2 inventory, Wingate test, capillary blood sampling, semi-
structured interviewing). This should include:

a. Warm-up and cool-down procedures:

No
b. Testing procedures (e.g. massage techniques, 1 RM protocols, questionnaires to be used, semi-structured
interview themes / questions):

The following themes arouse from existing literature on the topic by Gould et al., 2006; Gould et al., 2007;
Holt et al., 2009 and Camiré, Trudel and Forneris, 2012

Coach’s background:
Time spent coaching, reason for starting, personal influences for becoming a coach, what did
you learn from your coaches? Coach-player rapport.
Coaching philosophy:
Philosophy, inspired from, did it change over time? Focus on winning or development, conflict
between them, examples of dealing with these?
Coaching style:
Description, examples, rational behind it? Reaction to unfavourable events – misbehaviour,
injury, loss etc.
Character and life skill development:
Specific skills considered important, rationale behind it? Practical examples of development,
factors influencing these, strategies of delivery? Contemporary issues with players
characteristics – diversity, academics, anti-social behaviour etc, strategies for dealing with
these – practical examples.
Evaluation of players life skills:
Barriers to teaching life skills? Successful and unsuccessful examples. Overall evaluation of players’
development of life skills, practical advice for other coaches?
c. Reliability and validity data of the testing procedures:

Pilot study, Cross referenced by another researcher

d. Training procedures to be used (e.g. intensities, durations, frequency of training):

No

Question 8: How do you intend to analyse your data? For example…

- Qualitative methodology: Transcribe semi-structured interviews verbatim. Content analysis will be

undertaken and ordered into a hierarchy of themes.

- Quantitative methodology: A repeated measures study design will be used with measurements taken pre,
during and after exercise. Therefore a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used.

Verbatim transcribing semi-structured interview, Content analysis yields higher ordered

themes

Question 9: Briefly describe the sample demographic and the sample method. This should include:

a. Sampling procedure (e.g. convenience, purposive, theoretical):

Convenience, purposive
 b. Characteristics of the participants you wish to use (e.g. gender, age):

Male, 36 yo
c. Participant inclusion and exclusion criteria (e.g. inclusion - must play competitive sport; exclusion: lower limb
injury in the last 6 mth):

Actively coaching, hold UEFA B coaching certificate

Question10: Methods of recruiting participants (e.g. poster, social media, team briefing etc.) Please provide
details on the procedures you intend to use. Please note that when using social media anonymity and
confidentiality of the participants MUST be maintained.

Personal contact

Question 11: Where will the study take place [e.g. physiology laboratory (CC040), Solent University etc.]?

At the interviewers home

Question 12: Give an estimate of the amount of time you will require of each participant in the study / project.
Please break this down into potential sub-headings like briefing, testing / training, debrief etc.

- Briefing:

5 minutes
- Testing (include the frequency and duration):

15 minutes
- Training (include the frequency and duration):

15 minutes
- Debrief:

5 minutes
Click here to enter text.

Question 13: How do you plan to handle the requirement of participant confidentiality (e.g. password protected
laptop or file)?

Password protected laptop

Question 14: Does your study have the potential for “upsetting” participants (e.g. affective manipulation) and/or
for identifying distressed or disturbed individuals? If ‘Yes’, you must make “a priori” arrangements to mitigate
such effects (e.g. debriefing). Please specify the nature of such arrangements, if required, on a separate piece of
paper.

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒
Question 15: Do you intend to pay participants for their participation?

- No

Question 16: Will you be using any form of deception (i.e. the participants are unaware of the study aims)?

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 17: Will the study require the cooperation of a gatekeeper (e.g. coach or teacher) for initial access to the
groups or individuals to be recruited (e.g. school pupils, residents of nursing homes)? This is a letter FROM THE
GATEKEEPER AND NOT A LETTER TO THE GATEKEEPER. A letter to the gate-keeper is NOT acceptable. Please scan
and attach the letter with this application. The letter should be on headed paper from the gatekeeper OR in the
form of an email from an official email address.

- No

Question 18: Will it be necessary for participants to take part in the study without their knowledge and consent at
the time (e.g. covert observation of people in public places)?

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 19: Will the study involve the discussion of sensitive topics?

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 20: Are drugs, placebos or other substances (e.g. food substances, vitamins etc.) to be administered to
the study participants or will the study involve invasive, intrusive or potentially harmful procedures?

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 21: Will blood or tissue samples be obtained from participants?

- No

- If yes, please provide details (e.g. type of blood sampling, approximate number of samples, frequency of
sampling): Click here to enter text.

Question 22: Is pain or mild discomfort likely to result from the study? If so, how will the effects be moderated?

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 23: Is there any risk to participants (physical and, or psychological) greater than that normally
experienced in normal life? If so, please comment.

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
 - No ☒

Question 24: during your data collection will supervision or assistance be required (e.g. for experiments in the
physiology laboratory)? If so, please comment.

- Yes ☐
o Comment: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 25: Unless there are very good reasons, informed consent (possibly assent) will have to be obtained?
Please copy and paste your consent form (possibly assent form if you are working in minors) into the box below.
Use the template that can be found on the HESSEA SOL page.

See file attached

Question 26: Will a medical questionnaire need to be administered (e.g. Physical Activity Questionnaire – PAR-Q)?
If so, please comment below.

- No
- Click here to enter text.

Question 27: Will a pre-study questionnaire need to be administered (e.g. International Physical Activity
Questionnaire)? If so, please comment below.

- No
- Click here to enter text.

Question 28: Does your project involve using children as your participant population? If ‘yes’, for children under
the age of 18, their own consent (where possible) and parental / guardian consent is required this must to written
consent). Please enter your DBS number.

- Yes ☐
o DBS Number: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 29: Will your project require access to special populations (e.g. physically impaired / mentally impaired)
as your participant group? If so, please comment below.

- No
- Click here to enter text.

Question 30: Is parental / guardian consent required for your project? If ‘yes’ please enter the form in the box
below.

- Yes ☐
o If yes, enter parental / guardian consent form below: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Question 31: If undertaking questionnaire based research are you aware that you are required (i.e., this is not
optional!) to have an ID card (your campus card will suffice) on show at all times and if collecting your data off
campus you will be required to work in pairs (to maintain a safe environment) as well as informing one of your
peers of your leaving time, location of destination and expected return time. By ticking yes you are agreeing to
undertake this task.

- Yes
Question 32: Are frequent and repeated checks on your participants required during the data collection (e.g. heart
rate, rate of perceived exertion etc.)? If so, please comment below.

- No
- Click here to enter text.

Question 33: Is a first aider required to be available during data collection? If so, please detail the required
provision

- No
- Click here to enter text.

Question 34: Are you appropriately competent or qualified to undertake the testing AND training? Is a letter of
competence (e.g. from tutor or coach) or evidence of competence (e.g. REP’s or coaching certificate) required?
This is required if you are undertaking specific procedures such as laboratory testing (e.g. Wingate tests,
incremental exercising testing, blood sampling), massage / therapy-based procedures (e.g. FMS, MET) or gym-
based testing (e.g. 1 RM testing).

- Yes ☐
o If yes, please scan the letter or email and attach it to your submission
- No ☒

Question 35: Is a participant information sheet (PIS) required? If so, please enter the PIS here.

- Yes ☐
- No ☒

Question 36: Please copy and paste your participant information sheet (PIS) into the box below. Use the template
that can be found on the HESSEA SOL page.

See file attached

Question 37: Please complete the risk assessment form below. This may include

- Physical and psychological risks associated with the testing and training (e.g. over-exertion from testing / training or trauma associated from questioning – career
ending injury).
- Physical risks associated with the location (i.e. is the environment safe to collect data)
- Your safety if collecting data off-site (e.g. travelling to participants away from the University)

Name Boni Bonev Project Supervisor Date

Hazard Is risk adequately Risk rating Who might be harmed? Is further action Residual level of risk
controlled? necessary to control
the risk?
Look out for hazards which you could What precautions have Probability Severity Rating Tick the groups of people who are List the actions you will take Probability Severity Rating
reasonably expect to result in significant already been undertaken? especially at risk from significant where it is reasonably
harm under the conditions in your study. hazards which you have identified practicable to more
Provide a full description.
N/A Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
Others
Staff
Students
 Others

 PROBABILITY X SEVERITY = RISK RATING - 1-4 = The risk is low and adequately controlled
 5-8 = Review controls, take additional action if required - 9, 12, 16 = DO NOT UNDERTAKE ANY TESTING/DATA COLLECTION! Urgent action is required to reduce the risk!
Question 38: Please complete the following insurance form.

The purpose of this form is to decide whether the University requires additional insurance cover for a
clinical/research trial. The form should be fully completed, and returned to the Programme Administrator.

This questionnaire should be completed for every research project that will involve human participation.

Name of Sponsor (usually Southampton Solent University): Solent University

Title of Research: Coaching life skills through football. Coaches perception of teaching life skills within youth grassroots
football

Number of participants: 1

Is your research going to be based upon the following?

- Questionnaire or interviewing:
o Yes
- Venepuncture:
o No
- Measures of physiological processes:
o No
- Collections of body secretions by non-invasive methods:
o No
- The administration of mouth of foods or nutrients or variation of diet other than the administration of drugs
or other food supplements or psychological activity (this is outside the research definition:
o No

Is the research to be held in the UK? If it’s not, then please provide details.

- Yes ☒
o Please provide details: Click here to enter text.
- No ☐

Who will be involved in conducting the research? Boni Bonev

If medical practitioners are involved will they be covered by the Medical Defence Union (MDU) or any other
organisations?

- Yes ☒
- No ☐

Does the research involve use drugs or surgery?

- Yes ☐
- No ☒

Are any of the research participants (after enquiry) known to pregnant?

- Yes ☐
- No ☒

Are any of the research participants (after enquiry)?

 - Yes ☐
- No ☒

Is the purpose of the research to?

- Investigating or participating in the methods of contraception:

o Yes ☐
o No ☒
- Assisting with, or altering the process of contraception:
o Yes ☐
o No ☒

Does the research involve genetic engineering?

- Yes ☐
- No ☒

Will the research use pharmaceutical product designed or manufactured by the university?
- Yes ☐
- No ☒

Proposed commencement date AND the proposed duration of the research:

- Start date: 07/11/2019

- Duration: 1 hour

Will the sponsor pay for additional insurance costs if required?

- Yes ☐
- No ☒

If other organisations are involved in the research, is SSU the lead organisation for the research project?

- Yes ☐
o Please provide details: Click here to enter text.
- No ☒

Please confirm that the following has been met:

☒ I/we have assessed the ethical considerations in relation to the project in line with the policy set out in the
Health, Exercise and Sports Science Ethics document.

☒ I/we understand that the ethical considerations of the project will need to be re-assessed via a Research Project
Amendment form submitted to the HESSEC SOL page. The committee reserves the right to request a full ethics
application resubmission.

☒ I/we will endeavour to preserve the reputation of the University and protect the health and safety of all those
involved when conducting this research/enterprise project.

☒ If personal data is to be collected as part of my project, I confirm that my project and I, as Principal Investigator,
will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. I also confirm that I will seek advice on the DPA, as necessary, by
referring to the Information Commissioner’s Office further guidance on DPA and/or by
contacting freedom.information@solent.ac.uk. By Personal data, I understand any data that I will collect as part of
my project that can identify an individual, whether in personal or family life, business or profession.

☒ I/we have read the prevent agenda.

IMPORTANT: If the above criteria is not met, then your application will be declined and not reviewed.
Appendix B – Interview transcript

BB: How long have you been coaching for?

DP: I’ve been coaching now, coming up to 19 years. Grassroots, yeah.
BB: Ok. Why have you decided to become a coach?
DP: So, short story is I tore the ligaments of my ankle while I was
playing, and they basically said I could not play any longer. I needed a
surgery on my ankle but there was a year recovery, so my playing
career was over and I got into coaching but my father was a coach
when I was growing up in one of my younger teams, so sort of
influenced by family.
BB: So, basically your father was the influential person.
DP: Yes, without a doubt. Him and my grandfather, yeah.
BB: how exactly did he influenced you to become a coach?
DP: Erm. So, when I did my injury it was pretty much come with me
and help along. He still did not want to distance me from the sport, so
he got me engaged through supporting the sessions, putting cones out,
stuff like that. And then started to give me a little bit more
responsibilities through the process. So yeah, that’s sort of how he
influenced me. He kept me involved in the sport even though I felt I
could not be involved in the sport, which was good at the time.
BB: How long have you been working with your current age group you
are working with?
DP: Six years now.
BB: So you’ve been working with the same age group or the same
group of players?
DP: Same age group, but predominantly we’ve kept players and filter
through. At my club I am coaching the under 18’s but I started working
with them when they were younger, like 13.
BB: So, same players?
DP: Same players, yes.
BB: You mentioned you’ve played football. Did you participate in any
other sports?
DP: No, not really. Swimming as a recreational hobby but not
competitively in any way.
BB: Going back to football, think about your coaches, what did you
learn from your coaches when you played football?
DP: Interesting question, so, as a child growing up I was not coached by
my father. I was coached by a couple of guys and it was quite negative
impact at young age. I was very much marginalised within the group,
they had their favourites, I was not that good technically, I got pushed
a side a little bit. Looking at it now I could almost say bullied to an
extend by players and the coaches, because there was not any support
there. So I fell out of love with the game for a few years, when I got
back involved with football the coach was completely different. Spoke
to me 1 to 1, supported me, when I had any questions I could go to the
coach, the environment was a lot happier for me to be in, I found it to
be a bit more comfortable, so yeah, one negative and one positive
impact.
BB: The latter coach you had positive relationship with, how long you
worked with him?
DP: So, I still speak to him now. In coach to coach conversation. He was
fantastic, quite welcoming when I initially went to the club, because I
took a little bit of time away from football. I was not sure if I was going
to be any good, he welcomed me in, supported me, gave me some
ideas how to improve quicker. The main thing was the challenges
related to the ability within the sessions within the group. With the
other coaches, the negative impact ones, was if you can’t do it you are
not good enough and you are rubbish and that’s it! You are just going
to sit on the bench, we don’t care! Whereas this guy, the positive one if
he saw me struggling he would set me a new challenge and he would
try and support me.
BB: He tailored the challenge.
DP: Yeah. Absolutely!
BB: How often do you communicate with the positive coach?
DP: It’s a funny relationship, I see him out and about still. On the green.
He still coaches now, so if I see him we have a chat. But he is always at
the end of the phone, so if I got a question about anything then he is
happy to answer. I probably speak to him every couple of months
really, unless we bumped into each other away from that.
BB: Do you consider him as being your mentor?
DP: Yeah, absolutely! One of them.
BB: That’s great! Lets talk about your coaching at the moment. What is
your coaching philosophy and where was that coaching philosophy
inspired from?
DP: Good question. My coaching philosophy has changed dramatically
over the 19 years of coaching, as you would probably expect. More
towards player ownership now, I have got certain values that I expect
the players to adhere to within my practices, within my sort of control,
when they are with me as a group of players I have certain values that I
like them to adhere to. My coaching philosophy now is: I expect
honesty from everybody, and I will give it back to the players as much
as they give it to me, dedication and hard work and commitment, it
kind of all comes under one bubble, but that’s from both parties. The
players know from me, we do something at the start of the year when I
give players questionnaire: what do you want out of this team and
what do you want from me this season? And all the time they say
about planning, they want to see me working hard off the pitch so it
inspires them to work hard on the pitch. I am trying to look at that as
well. Two way communication is vital. I want a fun environment, but
development is the forefront of that, so for me as a coach can I make
their development steps fun and I use challenges like I enjoyed when I
sort of set for the players. So, honesty, hard work, communication,
dedication, erm…, and fun, enjoyment.
BB: Where did you got this values from?
DP: Pulling off my own experiences. I don’t look at the negative side of
things. Everybody makes mistakes, we know that. I don’t focus on that
in training, if I see a mistake once it’s a mistake if I see it again I might
give the player some challenge and try to support him in a positive way
mindset, rather than “Stop. Stand still!”, that’s wrong, do it my way,
the old-fashioned FA way.
BB: You mentioned development, when you coach do you focus on
results or development or you focus on mixture of both?
DP: Another good question, so my under 18’s for me they are still
development stage because there is no pressure for me in that team,
we don’t have the remit that we have to win the league or we have to
get promotion. My only thought process in my under 18’s is I have to
take them to a point next year when they can go and join the men’s
team and play competitively. My developmental stuff this year is based
around preparing them for the adult game. My university team, on the
flip side of it, we are results driven, to an extend, our remit at the start
of the season was we want to win the league and we want to try to win
the cup. So I have to tailor my package, if you like, to suit that need. It’s
a tricky one.
BB: From now on, lets focus only on the grassroots under 18’s team. Do
you any competitive players in that team who want to win at all cost?
DP: Yes.
BB: How do you deal with a potential conflict between development
and results?
DP: So, I’ve got two lads in there that want to win and they are quite
open about it. They understand my perspective, that it’s not about
winning, so what I try to do is: I try to give them more challenges in the
game play, so that can take away their mindset from the winning side
of it. I have one of my strikers, if he doesn’t score in a game he is
getting frustrated, angry and stuff like that. I have tried to give him
challenges to support that, rather than me saying to him “can you
score goals, can you win me the game” it’s “can you link play, can you
have lots of touches on the ball”, so I try to change the challenge and
the mindset a little bit. You never going to take it out of the player,
winning is inbred in some players, they have to win at all cost. Do we
need to focus on it? No! it will at the back of your mind, but we can
deflect a little bit.
BB: What kind of coaching style have you adopted?
DP: I use to be really command led, and that was probably learnt from
my grandfather and my father. And also the coaching qualifications I
did when I started back then. It was pretty much “Stop! Stand Still! I
want you to do it this way!”. Coaching has evolved massively now. My
father is pretty much command led, I try to use a different blend of
coaching styles, so my intervention strategy is trying not to give too
much information, give a bit more ownership. Although, I still like to
keep some level of authority.
BB: So you prefer the players to figure it out for themselves.
DP: Yeah, kind of. They are intelligent, they watch enough sport, they
watch enough football, they play FIFA and stuff like that all day long.
So, they probably know more than me effectively. Sometimes it’s just
framing the picture and the questions in the right way to see if they
can come up with their own answers.
BB: You are preparing these players for the adult team, what is going to
happen to those players who don’t make it to the men’s team?
DP: I am blessed. I have got a lot of contacts with a different areas f the
game, so at Botley we have got a men’s team which players low level
adult football on Saturday, I also got links with Wessex league, clubs
and I can signpost them elsewhere. What I have noticed with the last
years under 18’s cohort is: mid-season I have asked them to come and
train with my men’s team Wessex level. Some of them did, some of
them didn’t. the biggest problem I had with their transfer to the adult’s
game was when they went to university they went all across the
country. The ones that did stay down here, are now playing for the
clubs I have signposted them to, where they saw they fit in. I have few
of the lads playing at Botley men’s team, it’s a low level, fun based and
still enjoyable, not really results driven. A couple of guys are playing
reserves teams in Hampshire. And I have couple of guys playing at
Wessex League level where it is a little bit more results driven, again
it’s tailoring their individual preferences. Do you want to have fun -
you will be better off here, do you want to stretch yourself – that’s the
place for you, etc.
BB: Back to your coaching again, how do you react to any unfavourable
events during a practice or a game? Lets say a player is misbehaving, or
there is an injury of a player, or losing the game, something in those
lines?
DP: So in training we had few situations. With under 18’s they are quite
boisterous, they want to stamp their adult authority, I don’t swear a lot
in training, a few weeks ago I did, and I lost my patience with one of
the guys because he was questioning and arguing, and being aggressive
towards other players. I sort of took control of the situation in an
aggressive manner. Eventually I sent him away from the practice, I sent
him home. The week after he came back and apologise to us as a
group, the players and the coaching team. Post that session, I sort of
took him to one side and ask him what’s going on, is everything okay?
And found out his parents were having difficulties away from football.
So there was this impact there, so now I recognise that and the first
thing I do now when he comes for training is “how are you? Are you
okay? Is there anything away from here going on?” I tried to support in
that way. Match days I am quite calm at the side line, the players know
that if they step out a line we just do rotation. We have an agreement
within our team that if a player steps out a line, I am going to take
them off, they will have a “sin bin”, they will have a minute to think
about what are they doing, and relax.
BB: Do you thing the players can copy your behaviour?
DP: They could, yeah. 80-90 % of the time I am relaxed and friendly.
They know when they have crossed the line, because I don’t lose my
patience or lose my temper, but I am firmer, a lot firmer with them.
They will build their own values but if they start really disrespecting the
values of the group then they will know about it.
BB: Do you think actually your behaviours, either positive or negative,
can impact their learning ability?
DP: Yeah, it can. So when this player I had a go at the other week, post
that the players were very cagy in the session, communication died
right down, they did not really interact with the other players, so it did
had a negative impact post that session in my review, on the whole
group. Weather or not it was shock tactic almost, so they have realized
“he does mean business”, since then they have been absolutely fine
and carry on with the business as I expect them to do. Certainly,
immediately, if we are talking hot feedback from that moment in the
practice – it did negatively affected their learning.
BB: Which life skills do you consider to be the most important ones
when you coach? Start with the one you value the most.
DP: The most for me is respect. And it has to be two way. At that
moment in time that we just spoke about, that player showed a little
bit disrespect to me on one too many occasions in that session. Then I
was disrespectful to him, he did not like it, he appreciated. We are
volunteers in the game, we are giving them a platform to go and enjoy
themselves, to have fun and play. The least they can do is show respect
towards their peers and their colleagues out and around them.
Absolutely!
BB: Any other?
DP: Honesty as well. With my under 18’s, a lot of them play college
football and they play on a Wednesdays, so when they turn up for a
training on Wednesday night they have already played 90 minutes of
football that day. They also go to some testing time through university,
applications, it’s a tough point in their careers, so I like to try to get
them to be honest with me, and that’s where the pre-session stuff is
vitally important to me. We have a watsapp group and they all know if
they have to come to me as a side note that’s fine. In the last year’s
under 18’s team there was a family split and one of my players was
taking it tough, he came to me and said I need to use you as a
soundboard. It’s absolutely fine with me. We went out for a coffee, we
had a chat, he had few concerns and he used me a voice. Off course we
had to go through the child protection procedure and stuff like that.
BB: Almost like a counsellor.
DP: Kind of, but the long term goal was for him to stay and enjoy the
rest of his football season, and even more so, for me, he is now still
involved in the game.
BB: Respect and honesty, how do you think these transfer outside of
football?
DP: Is there enough respect outside of football nowadays? It’s one of
these things now, it’s a lot of talking about that there is not a lot of
respect for people. I would like to think that I am having that king of
effect on players and they are respectful. And actually we see it
sometimes, even little things like “pleases and thank yous”, last night
at training we were walking out of a gate, and this caretaker opened
the gate for one of the lads and held it for him and he said “thank
you!”. Too often nowadays that doesn’t happen. I know I am having
that impact on them, might only be a small impact.
BB: Do you actually try to develop these life skills you value the most
through your coaching?
DP: Yes, the respect stuff – definitely! I use red card and yellow card as
a warning system for my players in training sessions. If they are
disrespectful, they get a yellow card. I try to give them opportunities to
go and speak with their peers and share ideas with their peers, and
create that sort of environment where they are supporting each other.
If then they are disrespectful to one of their peers, they know about it
– they get yellow carded, we change their social circle. It’s another
thing I have used. Honesty. We have a bit of an issue with that at the
moment. When we play our practices we play off sides and there is a
lot of stuff going on now where they are questioning the decisions. We
had a situation last night, where the ball went out of play for a throw
in, both teams argued it’s our ball and I did not see it, I am looking for
the players to be honest there, but actually, they just argued. I ended
up throwing another ball in, I am hoping with a little stuff like that it
might actually say he is just going to give it back to play anyway, so just
be honest and give the ball…I don’t know. Honesty is a difficult one to
try to coach.
BB: Do you have a particular strategy to deliver some of these? You
mentioned in the beginning you value hard work etc.
DP: In terms of respect, as soon as players turn up I make sure I shake
their hand and speak to them on 1 to 1 basis. Just to show that from
the start of the session. I don’t get footballs out immediately, I let them
have 5 minutes window where they can have a jog around, have a little
stretch off and talk. They don’t see each other that much, so that’s
building a little bit of rapport within the group. Strategy for hard work
– I don’t let them stop. For an hour and a half session they are
constantly on task. I give them 2-3 minutes for drink breaks. But we
have that understanding that if they need a rest, toilet or a drink they
just go and get it, without asking. I am not going to stop the practice
for you, we are going to work hard. The respect stuff, like I said –
welcoming, at the end of the session we always shake hands and I
always stay for a little bit after the session in case anybody wants to
come and speak to me about something. There are few different things
we look at, but it’s personal skills for the respect for me.
BB: Do you use individual or team approach?
DP: A lot of my stuff is individual, but I plan for some team stuff as well.
Building a rapport and the communication within the camp, that’s
something I give them the first 5 minutes of the practice, because they
can communicate, they can do what they want, they still have to do a
warm up as such, but that’s their time to work as a group and
communicate as a group and chat. I plan for the collective but I deliver
to the individual.
BB: What factors do you think influence the development of these life
skills – honesty, respect, hard work, within the young players?
DP: A lot of the stuff that happens away from football has a big
influence. The coach spends time once or twice a week with the
players, but the external influences are huge. My under 18’s are
college football, there is a massive influence on them, the family like as
well, I would imagine the geographical location of the family can play a
big part. If they are close, far, in a city, out of the city, different
country. That all is going to have influences as well. My particular one
that I struggle to influence as a coach is the social circle outside of
football.
BB: Their peers.
DP: Absolutely! We have a young lad who is, I don’t want to say off the
rails, coz he is not, but his social circle is not the best and when we
turn up for a match on Sunday we play afternoons and his friends are
at the side of the pitch drinking beer, smoking and I am thinking: that’s
your influence at the moment, so I have to make sure my influence is
the positive one, because I see that one a s a negative at that age
group. We all see it and we all probably have people that have gone
through it but actually I have to influence on a different scale. That’s a
difficult one for me, especially in their age group.
BB: Do you think any of the players’ background, ethnicity can
influence their learning?
DP: It can, yeah, a little bit.
BB: Do you have ethnic diversity in your team?
DP: No, I don’t actually. We never really seem to have that. I don’t
really know if there is any difference in religion. We a re a little village
local team, and we really don’t have any differences like that,
unfortunately.
BB: When you are coaching, when you are teaching these values we
talk about, what barriers do you face?
DP: To a point, the external influences. This player that I mentioned
about, the social circle. Has he got the levels of respect for adults that I
expect, probably not, and we had a clash of heads the other week, and
that’s showing.
BB: How do you overcome these barriers?
DP: I am trying to influence him as an individual and talking to him
about the external influences that he is having. He is the hardest one I
had this year. Family break up going on, he was doing an
apprenticeship and he left that, he has found a new job and he is doing
this, he has broken up with his girlfriend and all of these kind of things
happening, but it’s not the sort of think I would expect them to do as a
group, collective. That’s why I am really sort of driven to speak to them
individually. The pleasing thing, during pre-season he was actually the
one who texted me asking to do some 1 to 1 sessions with him. So
again, I have influence on him, he wants to spend time with me, I have
invested in him, if that makes sense, we trust each other.
BB: Can you give examples of how successful and unsuccessful you
have dealt with situations when you face some of these barriers we
talk about?
DP: So, again with this lad that I mentioned, it’s a common thread but..
so the barriers that I face with him within that practice where he sort
of lost respect a little bit, post session, in my evaluation, my feedback I
sort of looked at it and I probably should not have attacked him
collectively in the group, I should have pulled him a side individually
then, because I might have been able to influence him straight away
within the session. That was probably the biggest take home message
from that. The barrier that I find is a constant barrier now with him, we
are building respect, we are developing, but actually there is always
that social circle that still influence him. I think if he was to lose the
social circle, we may have been able to influence him a bit quicker, if
that make sense.
BB: Did you had any such case, lets say in the past when you couldn’t
deal with something?
DP: No, not really. I usually find with my age group, if you get them 1 to
1 and you get them to open up to you and be honest with you, you can
then work together with it. You know, I did not have any major child
welfare issues or anything like that. Because we have feedback this
information back to our child welfare officer, but yeah, I haven’t really
had any case when I couldn’t help anybody. The other thing is, again,
we can signpost people to people for support. The child welfare officer
would do her bit but if we feel that the child needs additional support
we have to influence the parents, we have to speak to the parents at
some stage. Whether it would be the child welfare officer or the FA,
but we had not to go that route yet. Thankfully!
BB: Overall, what is your evaluation of the life skills you develop in your
particular players?
DP: Vital! For me, sort of my mantra with my under 18’s and actually
my coaching is, we have to produce good people first. And if you
produce the good people first, the players would take care of
themselves. The life skills that I try and display are the life skills that I
want to see the players thriving under, and I go back to that negative
influence that I had when I was younger a lot and revisit that a lot, I
didn’t have respect. They did not respect me, they did not give me
honest opinions, they did not challenge me, they did not communicate
with me, so all of those negative impacts I try and flip as those positive
influences for my players. Your own experiences are a vital in your own
approaches and you develop them further.
BB: Do you have any examples that show your players are actually
using those life skills you teach them?
DP: It is a difficult one. In and around our environment they are
respectful, they are honest, they communicate with each other, they
work hard for each other. A lot of it is false in my environment, you
know, when you turn up to match days, the respect stuff, you have to
shake referee’s hand, my players would do it anyway. But they are
forced to do it. Actually are they displaying it or are they just displaying
it because they have to? It’s hard to gage that. But my players are
always going to make an effort to go and shake the oppositions’
manager hand. I can’t say the opposition is doing that, so that might be
a little demonstration of respect, I don’t really know. Still in football
environment. I can’t say that I know anybody away from the football
environment other than, if I put a message on our group chat, we got a
fixture this week, KO 10:00, this place etc., please let me know as soon
as possible, the communication is there, because they come back as
fast as they possibly can. If anybody is not available, they tell me, they
don’t just not turn up, you know, that’s really important. Is it in football
environment, is it outside of football environment, I mean you’ll be the
judge. Can link absolutely!
BB: What else could you do to improve and further develop these life
skills with your players? Do you think you should develop something
else as well?
DP: Yes. I still need to develop my life skills, so I am still drawing on the
experiences that I am getting myself nowadays. I don’t really know. I
couldn’t really tell you what other life skills I want to develop in the
players. I would like to think I am giving them a good ground with the
respect and the hard work, the communication, stuff like that. I don’t
know. Good question. I’ve stumped me here! For me, my life skill is still
developing. I still want to go out there and develop, so maybe that one
– further development.
BB: You are also affiliated FA coach mentor. Can you just explain a little
bit what exactly do you do as a coach mentor?
DP: My role within the FA is grassroots support. My mentoring remit is
to go out and improve coaches on the grass. Across all of aour team we
kind of get signposted to a different areas or different strategies within
the FA grow the game process. So this year I’ve got a club that I am
supporting to go in and try to improve the coaches in there. And the
general coaching. My main role is to go and observe, feedback,
evaluate, set challenges, and support coaches with anything that they
might want additionally to that.
BB: In terms of that support that you mentioned, and your observation,
do you actually focus only on the technical stuff?
DP: No! No, no ,no. It’s football coaching only, so we don’t have any
influence over child welfare issues or the committee side of things,
financing and stuff like that, mine is just the coaching. That’s my
primary – what can I do to develop a coach on the grass.
BB: Do you actually try to share your own values in terms of life skill
development with the coaches you mentor?
DP: I do look at the coaches I go and mentor and sort of, see if I can
spot their values and I don’t really challenge them too much, mainly
because it’s their values and they would have gained those values from
somewhere. Part of the thing we have to look at for next year is
actually we have to take a closer look at the mentee itself as a person.
So, this year it’s been all around – are they implementing England
DNA? Are they coaching with intervention strategies? Are they
coaching based upon their qualification standards, where they want to
go, next year it’s going to be a case of developing the mentee through
development. What values do they hold? What’s their process behind
planning? Delivery? And what’s their background? What’s led them to
get where they are now? What influences do they have externally?
What might influence their delivery? All those kind of things.
BB: To an extend you are not trying to influence them in term sf their
own values?
DP: The biggest think with mentoring is we are not there to tell them
what to do, we are there to challenge why they are doing it.
BB: What practical advise can you give to other coaches working with
young players, in terms of life skill development?
DP: Know your players, get to know your players. It’s vital! If you don’t
know your players you are not going to get anywhere with them. that’s
the one key message I can give! As a mentor, I see lots of coaches
turning up and they turn up, they deliver a session, they go home, they
don’t care about the team. Get to know your players if you want
success – get to know your group. Absolutely!
BB: Thank you very much!
DP: You are very welcome!
Appendix C - Consent form
Appendix D - Hierarchy of themes in the semi-structured interview
(interview questions)
Coaching Life skills through football
“Life skills are the attributes and skills an athlete gains through participating in competitive
organised sport activity, that can be transferred out of the sporting context in other life domains”

Coach’s Background

1.How long have you been coaching for?

- How long have you been working with your current age group?
2.Why have you decided to become a coach?
- Did anyone influenced you in becoming a coach?
- How?
3.Did you participate in any organised sport?
If so
- What did you learn from your coaches?
- Did you have a positive relationship with your coaches?
4.Do you still keep in touch with your coaches or with the people that influenced you to
start coaching?
If so
- Why?
- How often do you communicate?

Coaching Philosophy

5.What is your coaching philosophy?

- Where was this philosophy inspired from?
- Did it change over time?
If so
- Why and how did it change?
6.Do you focus on results or development when you coach?
- Have you dealt with any conflicts between these?
If so
- Can you give an example of such situation?
 Coaching Style

7.What coaching style or styles have you adopted in your coaching?

- Why?
8.Usually, how do you react to any unfavourable events during practice or game (player
misbehaviour, player injury, loss etc.)?
- Do you think the players could copy your behaviour in such future circumstances?
- Do you think your reactions and behaviours, as a coach can influence the players’ learning
process and personal development?

Character and Life skill development

9.Which life skills do you consider to be the most important to teach to your players? Start
with the one you value the most?
- Why do you think these life skills are important for your players?
- How do these life skills transfer to non-sporting domains?
10.When coaching, how do you develop the life skills you value the most in the players you
work with?
- Do you use a strategy to deliver these as part of your coaching?
- Do you use individual or team approach?
- Can you give a practical example?
11.What factors do you think influence the development of such life skills
12.What barriers for life skills developing you face?
- How do you overcome these barriers?
- Can you give an example of how successfully and unsuccessfully you dealt with any such
barriers?

Evaluation of Players’ life skills

13.What is your overall evaluation of the life skills you have developed in your players?
-Do you have any examples that shows players’ effective use of such life skill to deal with a
contemporary issue they have experienced?
14.What else could you do to improve and further develop these life skills?
15.What practical advise can you give to other coaches working with players in the same
age group?
Appendix E - Pilot study transcript

BB: How long have you been coaching for?

DT: So, up to this point I have been coaching now for five years.

BB: How long have you been working with your current age group?

DT: At the moment I am working with few age groups ,starting with Under 9’s in academy, up to u 14’s I have been
working with these age groups now for a year and a half.

BB: Let’s focus on the u14’s. Why have you decided to become a coach?

DT: For many reasons, I had coaches throughout my life, in the different sports that I have participated in, that has
left huge impact on me growing up and the way I interact with other people, and also the way I approach tasks. For
me It was something that built my character in a certain way. So, that was one of the main reasons as well as of
course the love of football and team environments.

BB: You mentioned your coaches, what sports did you participated in?

DT: When I was young, I was allowed by my parents to play different sports. Professionally, I have participated in
football, volleyball and swimming. Not professionally I did martial arts and ball-room dancing.

BB: Ok, so few team sports and few individual ones you have experience of. What did you learn from your coaches?

DT: The interesting thing is that at the moment are the life lessons they have taught me rather than particular or
sports specific things that we have worked on. It has all become a bit blurred with the years now, but in general, the
things I do remember are the ways to approach sports, the way to approach people, your opposition, team mates,
the way to approach your coach, and overall to be willing to work hard to achieve or to even think of achieving
anything.

BB: You have mentioned hard work, is this actually one of the most important things your coaches taught you
throughout your sports participation?

DT: I believe respect and hard work are the main life skills taught to me by the coaches, teachers and my parents, off
course, which play a role in it.

BB: Let’s focus on your coaches now, did you have a positive relationship with your coaches? What was your rapport
with our coaches?

DT: I did not have any negative experiences as such. From the very beginning I was taught that there will be hard
times, times when you might struggle, times of injuries, times when you are not in tour best shape, but you have to
work through that. Since I was taught that way in the beginning, this work ethic, then I don’t see any of my
experiences as negative, or any other times when I was pushed to work harder by my coaches, it was still something
that you have to go through in order to succeed.

BB: By mentioning success, did your coaches focused on success or development in your youth sport? And let’s focus
on the team sports you have experience of?
DT: In volleyball and in football success was always the biggest target and when I talk about success I mean results.

BB: Do you still keep in touch with any of your coaches?

DT: No, I don’t.

BB: Why is that?

DT: Logistically it is difficult as I moved around three countries in the last six years.

BB: Have you got int touch with them when you were in the same location?

DT: Yes, I did. I recommended them to other people before. I met them once in a while just to check the progress of
the people I send there. I kept a good relationship with some of them.

BB: Were they happy to see you?

DT: Very happy off course, I mean, from my point of view now, as a coach I can see how valuable your time spent
with an athlete is to them, and even if you meet them years after most of the times there is big smile on their faces.

Coaching Philosophy

BB: In terms of you coaching football to your team of under 14’s, what is your coaching philosophy?

DT: My coaching philosophy is a process with the main areas I am stressing are respect and hard work. For me
respect does not end with just being able to behave in certain situations. For me respect firstly starts with self-
respect, then the most important things when we move to team environment is the respect for your team mates and
your coaches, and then in general I try to teach respect towards the game and the opposition.

BB: And where this philosophy was inspired from?

DT: This philosophy was inspired by my own experiences as an athlete.

BB: So, to an extend you are now transferring the hard work ethic and respect your coaches taught you into your
own coaching methods. Is that correct?

DT: Absolutely.

BB: Did hat coaching philosophy changed over time?

DT: In general, I think that the most time doges the more experience I gain, so my main values doesn’t change but the
way I am able to use them in the environment I believe improves with time.

BB: So, are you saying with the experience your way of delivering these values becomes more efficient?

DT: Yes, I believe so.

BB: When you are working with young players are you focusing on results or development and why?
DT: I would give an example: before the start of this season I had a meeting with the parents of my players and I told
them that I do not care about the results on pitch in terms of a score from a game. I care about different results,
these are development focused and in general I am trying to develop people as much as players. Simply because
when I studied, I did a research on football academies, and I realised how few of the players actually stand a chance
of becoming professional football players. That for me was a light bulb moment that it’s important for us, as youth
coaches, to teach life skills as well as football skills.

BB: How do you deal with a potential conflict between highly competitive and results driven players and players who
participate just for fun or social development?

DT: That’s a good question. Boys want to win, so you can explain to them how much you care about development but
boys want to win. They don’t like losing games, especially the more competitive ones. The way I am dealing with such
situations is firstly, in regards to the individual – people are different and everyone needs a certain approach. With
some I emphasise on how much they have developed before the result they are unhappy about or for others it will be
how much more they can develop if they work harder and their work ethic is better, and by giving them examples of
good moments they had in the last few weeks or the last few months. In the beginning players take it difficult simply
because they want to finish the game winning. But with time that changes, especially after focusing in training
sessions on targets rather than results. At the end of the season one of my players came to me and said: “you know
what? We’ve lost a lot of games this year, but I feel I am a lot better than the same time last year”. And this is a kid
with a very good reflection of himself, so at some point they do realise what’s important. There has to be a balance
because if you lose all of your games just because you are focusing on development, then you are stopping the
process of development , because one of the main thing you want to develop in team sports in the winning mentality,
right, if they keep losing this sometimes could mean that they have lost their ability or not gain the ability to win at
all cost. But the easiest way of dealing with players who are ambitious and who want to win games is to set up
individual players targets which can be directly linked with team targets, unit targets and usually I link them with the
player profiles I made for each one of them as well.

Coaching Style

BB: When working with your team of under 14’s, what coaching style or styles have you adopted in your coaching?
Why?

DT: It depends. My coaching styles depend on the day list, so if it’s the day after the game I might have a very sat
back and very calm coaching style where I want them to explore, whereas the closer we get to the game the more I
…in general I use guided discovery and q&a as coaching styles or way of approaching players, but sometimes when I
coach for example defending , because in my opinion defending is a place where when you make a mistake usually
it’s detrimental to the team. So, I believe defending has to be quite structured and there are simple rules that have to
be followed. That’s why, usually when I coach defending it’s the only time I only use a whistle to be able to freeze at
the exact moment and I use command style.

BB: Usually, how do you react to any unfavourable events during practice or game (player misbehaviour, player
injury, loss etc.)?

DT: I am trying to be encouraging, I try to not let myself be involved in any kind of negative feelings, because I know
that me as a coach I am their role model what they look at, my body language, the things that I say, so I can not
afford for them to see myself in a negative way. And from then on, if there is something huge that keeps happening
on the pitch and it’s a huge problem than I try to fix it in this particular moment. Other than that, I just in general
praise the good things that they are doing and talk about how we can improve for the rest of out game.

BB: Do you think players could copy your behaviour in such moments?
DT: I believe so. Sometimes I have heard them say things they couldn’t hear from anyone else. Which made me
believe they …erm… we as coaches are very lucky because if we can compare ourselves to teachers, kids come to us
because they want to play football, whereas kids go to school because they have to. So, coaches are I think, a lot
more influential and players can copy their behaviour a lot more than they would teachers’ .

BB: Do you think your reactions and behaviours, as a coach can influence the players’ learning process and personal
development?

DT: I think so, because when you are learning a skill or improving an attribute, negative behaviour towards failure is
not going to bring you success easier. Only positive approach is going to enable to make the next step and overcome
the challenges that you face and I believe because I am very strict with behaviour on the pitch and language used,
especially towards the referee. I had times when opposition’s coaches coming to me during the game shaking my
hand saying “we have never seen anything like this before”, because sometimes in front of all of us a foul is made,
the referee gives it to the other team and my players admits “no, no it’s my fault”, foul should be going oppositions’
way.

Character and Life skill development

BB: Which life skills do you consider to be the most important to teach to your players? Start with the one you value
the most?

DT: Self- respect is the one thing I can say I value the most. Because if a person has self-respect then they want to
improve, it’s most likely they will respect people around them. I see respect towards other people without self-respect
is respect out of fear. This is one of my main priorities, if you have self-respect you would never allow yourself to go to
a meeting unprepared, and these very simple life skills are actually the ones that I have seen so many people around
me and myself including.

BB: Why do you think these life skills are important for your players?

DT: Because they are not only my players, but they are human beings, because they are growing boys who will be
men soon and respectively they will have responsibilities for their work, their life, their family, their future. So, life
skills each one of them will need on order to be successful and happy

BB: Apart from the self-respect and good preparation, is there any other life skill you consider important and how do
you integrate teaching these into your coaching curriculum?

DT: Well, I try to teach them to be able to experience empathy, to be able to help others, their team mates for
example if they are struggling, to understand that sometimes lets say in a game you don’t have the ball and have to
work hard to get it back, to help your team mates, not to let them down, so I would say team work is also important
for my coaching. Whatever you do in life, do it with full-heartedly.

BB: When coaching, how do you develop the life skills you value the most in the players you work with? Do you use a
strategy to deliver these as part of your coaching?

DT: In general, I read their body language and their behaviour and I try to deny them the opportunity to do certain
things in training sessions. When you do it from the very beginning you set rules and boundaries. Collectively, when
they start feeling as a group and when another player joins in and even tries to do some of the things, I don’t need to
do anything because they control themselves and it’s the group that takes care of those kind of behaviours. Which
leads me to believe that they don’t do this only in training. As an example, I had one boy that had problems in school,
he was violent and ended up in a lot of fights with his peers, I talked to him individually for about 15-20 minutes and I
shared my life experience and explained to him how stupid you are when you try to resolve this things with physical
interactions. Four or five weeks later he comes back to me and says: “coach, coach, do you know… I haven’t been
fighting for 6 weeks now”. So, I do think they take things they learn on the football ground in their outside life.

BB: Do you use only individual approach in such situations?

DT: In general, I do everything in front of the team and with the team. Why? Because the lessons we are trying to
learn, and when I see “we” I mean the whole group, are valuable in my opinion for everyone and not just for this one
individual. Sometimes when it’s very personal matter, when it’s something that can be improved by individual talks,
these are the situations that I use individual approach. In general, I use team approach more often.

BB: What factors do you think influence the development of life skills through football?

DT: The major factor has to be family, then probably the extra activities the player chose to do, where football comes
in too, also school, and when I say school I mean mostly the peers that you go with.

BB: So, baisically your environment, right?

DT: Yeah, yeah.

BB: What barriers for life skills developing you face?

DT: I can go for an hour on that. The main barrier usually is players’ ego, and sometimes it could also be parents

BB: How do you overcome these barriers?

DT: The ego one takes time because if a person is very egoistic it’s not as simple as explaining them how incorrect
they are in their behaviour. You have to show them in time. The parents factor I have always fixed it with face to face
chat with the parents and player together, because we all are working towards a common target, me, the player, the
parents. So, we need to have a common ground to work on. We need to work as a unit, as a team as well, not only
the players on the pitch.

BB: Can you give an example of how successfully and unsuccessfully you dealt with any such barriers?

DT: That’s a difficult one. Erm… Ok… So, let’s start with the unsuccessful, I had a player last year who had a lot of
problems in school and who was one of the main reasons the rest of the players struggled a lot. He was on the top of
the social hierarchy, kind of a leader and his behaviour and approach to training affected the whole team in a
negative way. So, I met with his father three times throughout the year, and the last time I told him that he needs do
find another sport. Individual sport, because simply the way that he did not want to change any of his behaviours just
showed that he is an individuality and the way I have explained it to his father was that there a lot of different
individual sports his son can do in this age. We reached a common agreement that just because he is not really good
in football and he takes it out misbehaving, it’s not the end of the world because he can go and play a piano, learn to
dance and he can do anything that he wants individually. So, I consider this one unsuccessful. A successful one is an
example from yesterday , I have one of my players approached by one of the big clubs in the city, so him and his
father wanted to meet with me because they wanted my advise, and I told them that whatever happens I will support
them and I could even go with him to his first few sessions if he decides to move on. Then I explained the pros and
cons of staying or leaving and this morning I received message that he is staying for another year. And he wants to
stay because he wants to work with me
 Evaluation of Players’ life skills

BB :What is your overall evaluation of the life skills you have developed in your players? Do you have any examples
that shows players’ effective use of such life skill learned through football in other life domains?

DT: The main issue with me answering this question is that I don’t really see them a lot outside football. But what I
can see is the one which is my major – respect and what I see now is that other players demand respect towards
them and towards everything and everyone, so there is no need for me to say “guys, I am talking and you don’t need
to talk right now”, because there are always 4 or 5 players who say “shut up guys”. Because they know that they
won’t be listened to when they speak. On the other hand, I have also seen on the pitch developing empathy when
they commit a foul which leads to an injury I have seen them taking care of opposition players to be able to walk off
the pitch.

BB: What else could you do to improve and further develop these life skills?

DT: I could be a bit stricter with them.

BB: Is it discipline we are talking about here?

DT: My coach-athlete relationship is on the border with friendship, it’s not exactly friendship though as they see me
as a role model and the person who teach them, but this is the way I treat them. I can improve myself, because by
improving my life skills I will improve their life skills too, because I am their role model

BB: So, do you think you learn from each other?

DT: Yeah, there is definitely some learning experience going both ways. I have seen so many times, regardless of the
age group, that you as a coach plan and deliver a session and you have it in head how it’s going to look like and
sometimes they do things that surprise you. And it’s beautiful sometimes and I love it, because they do something
that I did not even expected to see, so I also learned something from them as well.

BB: What practical advise, in terms of life skills development, can you give to other coaches working with players in
the same age group?

DT: Always be prepared, when you are not prepared your players recognise it. So, you can’t teach them to be
prepared if you are not. Always be respectful towards everyone and always demand a lot from yourself and from
your players, so they can learn to demand more from themselves as well.
Appendix F - Participant information sheet

Participant Information Sheet

Study Title: Coaching life skills through football. Coaches’ perceived importance of teaching life skills within
youth grassroots football

Invitation to participate
I would like to invite you to take part in my research study. Before you decide I would like you to understand why
the research is being done and what it would involve for you. Please refer to this informational sheet and do not
hesitate to ask any questions if there is anything unclear. The study aims at investigating the coaches’ perception
of the importance of teaching life skills through football, the practical incorporation of such practices and coaches’
strategies in delivering these. The interview questions will be divided in 5 themes – coach background, coaching
philosophy, coaching style, skill development strategies, evaluation and future recommendations. Each theme will
have 4-6 questions. The estimate time of the interview will be 30-45 minutes and it will be voice recorded.

Do I have to take part?

If you do decide to take part you will be given this information sheet to keep and be asked to sign a consent form.
You are also free not to answer any questions if you don’t want to. If you decide to take part you are free to
withdraw at any time and without giving a reason.

What are the aims of the project?

The aim of the current study is to investigate how coaches perceive teaching life skills through football. That will
be done by comparing the results of the present research with existing academic literature on the topic. Conclusion
and future recommendation for development of life skills through football practice will be advised.

Why have I been invited to participate?

You have been invited to participate in the current study because you fit the researchers’ criteria of holding UEFA
B coaching licence, actively coaching grassroots football teams for at least 3 consecutive years, are a part of FA’s
coach mentor programme, hence have access to and influence of other coaches

How many times will I have to visit the laboratory/testing location?

You need to visit the testing location only once, the day of the interview.

What will be required from you?

You will be required to attend only one interview with the researcher. The interview will be voice recorded and it
will take approximately 30-45 minutes. The information provided will be transcribed verbatim and will be used for
the purposes of the current study only. All the data will be store in a password locked computer, that only the
researcher has access to.

What will happen if I don’t want to carry on with the study?

If you withdraw from the study, we will destroy all your identifiable data, but I will need to use the data collected
up to your withdrawal.

What are the advantages of taking part?

I cannot promise the study will help you but the information I get from this study will help improve future practices
in coaching life skills through football.

What are the potential disadvantages of taking part?

Potential disadvantage of taking part will be the time spent with the researcher.

Expenses and Payments

No payments or expenses cover will be provided for the current study

What happens when the research study stops?

When the researcher collect the needed information, the later will be summarised and presented in written project
work.
What will happen to any samples I give?

1) Interview will be audio recorded

2) Data will be saved in a password locked computer

3) Only the researcher will have access to the data

4) The level of identifiability will be restricted to minimum

5) Data will be used for the current study only

6) Data will not be transferred outside of the UK

What will happen to the results of the research study?

The participant will be made aware of any findings of the current research and a copy of the project will be provided.
The participants will not be identified in any reports or publications.

Who is organising and funding the research?

Southampton Solent University. The researcher and the participant will not be payed for this project

Confidentiality
All information which is collected about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. Any
information which leaves the university will have your name removed so that you cannot be recognised. It will not
be possible to identify you in any publication of the study.

Who has reviewed the study?

Prior to any data being collected the study has been reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of the Centre
of Health, Exercise and Sport Science at Solent University.

What if there is a problem?

Complaints -
If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you should ask to speak to the researchers who will do their
best to answer your questions- 2boneb91@solent.ac.uk. If you remain unhappy and wish to complain formally, you
can do this via Scott Burnet, Chair of the HESS Ethics Committee, School of Sport, Health and Social Science at Solent
University scott.burnet@solent.ac.uk or 023 8201 3692.

Harm
In the event that something does go wrong and you are harmed during the research and this is due to someone‘s
negligence then you may have grounds for a legal action for compensation against Solent University but you may
have to pay your legal costs.

Any test or procedure you received as part of the trial, any payment would be without legal commitment. (Please
ask if you wish more information on this) We would not be bound by these guidelines to pay compensation where:
The protocol was not followed. Solent University has vicarious liability for their actions and insure against risk of
claims relating to trials that their staff design and undertake.

Please contact us if you have any questions

Researcher - 2boneb91@solent.ac.uk
Supervisor - scott.burnet@solent.ac.uk