Applied Coaching Research Journal Research Journal Volume 3 | Page 36

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2019, Vol. 3
On the paying front, Gledhill and Harwood (2015)
report that opportunities for careers in women’s
football are improving, but remain unstable and
scarce because those players that are deemed
talented are continuously recruited and in turn
are liable to be replaced. The same researchers
have also reported that for those within the game,
communication between coaches and players are
perceived negatively on topics such as dual careers,
player’s strengths and weaknesses, and challenges
that players may face (Gledhill and Harwood,
2018). Such findings mirror the experiences of
male players who have reported that a footballer’s
workplace is a ‘cut throat’ environment (Roderick,
2006). The ‘cut throat’ environment stems from the
uncertainty that somebody could come along who
is better than you at any time. Players argued that
this results in a ‘macho’ context because individuals
in this context put on a “hard front” and therefore
an uncaring context is created (Roderick, 2006,
p.92). Thus, as women’s football begins to develop
professional opportunities and mirror the structure
of professional men’s sport, it is important that
any uncaring aspects of men’s football are not
transported into the women’s game. Therefore,
this study, which seeks to understand the care
experiences of women players, is not only valuable
but timely.
Method
Consistent with the aim of this study, the researcher
chose to take a qualitative and purposive approach
to gather an in-depth understanding of players’
perceptions of care. Four women footballers were
sampled to explore their particular experiences of
care. At the time of the interviews, all participants
were playing in the Football Association Women’s
Super League (FAWSL).
Table 1. Participants sampled
Participant Gender Age Number of
playing years Participation level
1 Female 20 14 FAWSL 2
2 Female 21 10 FAWSL 2
3 Female 22 16 FAWSL 1 and senior international
4 Female 21 14 FAWSL 2
To collect data, each participant was interviewed
and these ranged from 27 minutes to 48
minutes. The interview schedule was informed
by theory from Noddings’ (2013) work, including
engrossment and motivational displacement.
Once complete, interviews were analysed using
Braun and Clarke’s (2013) thematic analysis. These
themes were then discussed with participants to
ensure the following findings were a trustworthy
representation of participants’ experiences (Smith
and McGannon, 2017).
36
Findings
Three themes were identified across all four
participants: 1) club culture influenced the care
that participants received; 2) dialogue was both
an enabler of good care, but also a means of
disseminating uncaring attitudes; 3) a ‘web of care’
was provided by individuals other than the coach.
Each of these themes is discussed on the
following page.