Youth Footballers (13-15) and the Coach:Generation Z

Youth football nurseries have historically served to expand grassroots footballwith a commitment to improving talent. Building on recent research on the DevelopmentalModel of Sport Participation and the Long-Term Athlete Development model, this studyexplored the experiences for youth footballers in the coaching setting. This study investigatedthe perceptions and beliefs of youth footballers (13-15 years) on their experiences inyouth football club nurseries in Malta. The focus was on (i) the youth footballer-coachrelationship; (ii) experiences from the coaching sessions and games; and (iii) environmentalfactors of significant others. Forty-two youth footballers from six nurseries participatedin six in-depth semi-structured focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyse thedata. The footballer-coach relationships revealed that participants desire for a coach thatdoes not yell/ shout and remains calm, is caring and encouraging. The coach impactsresilience, motivation, mental wellbeing, and decisions for dropouts. Youth footballerspreferred deliberate play rather than deliberate practice pedagogies. Interestingly, a co-operative coaching style was preferred by confident and skilful youths; while the commandcoaching style was reassuring for those who believed that they had a lot to learn. Thefindings showed that most participants preferred to play and enjoy themselves, rather thanwin every game and not play. The Gen Z characteristics of high expectations for successemerged in this study, but the focus on winning, rather than game strategy development,was important to some of the youth footballers. This study recommends that the youthfootballer-coaching relationship would benefit from the knowledge and application ofadvanced social-psychological disciplines from sports coaching sciences, and that youthfootball nursery programmes should be structured around participants and transitions ofcontinued participation at recreational and high levels of performance.