Creative Experiences in Children's Football

Academic Contribution<br/>Research on creativity in children’s sports, and especially football, is skewed toward quantitative and experimental designs, where creativity is treated as an outcome (e.g., by measuring creativity before and after an intervention). Focusing purely on creativity as an outcome tells us little about who created what, how they did it, and what these creative experiences meant to them. There is a lack of qualitative studies on the application of creativity in sports that include the perspectives of those participating in the activities. Hence, the main academic contribution of this research is novel insights into coaches’ and children’s experiences of creativity-nurturing training activities. In this regard, the findings show that the particular types of creativity exercises employed in this project can promote qualities such as imagination, playfulness, community, involvement, habit breaking, unpredictability, and immersion in tasks. Moreover, the training reducing the focus on results (i.e., downplaying competitive elements such as scoring goals and winning). Accordingly, the project adds fresh insights into the potential of creativity training as a key to develop task-oriented climates and intrinsic motivation.<br/><br/>Practical Contribution<br/>This research explores the practical utility of creativity training in children’s football. It contributes with in-depth descriptions of coaches’ and children’s participation in and experience of a particular set of training activities that are based on creativity-nurturing coaching principles. The insights about the application and usefulness of creativity training can inform coach education programs across European football and be used to develop new coaching material for children’s football. Furthermore, the results may inspire associations, clubs, and coaches to promote coaching with and for creativity as a way to reduce result-oriented practices and enhance enjoyment, community, and development.