Dissertationen zum Thema „The Swedish Sports Confederation“

The objectives of this study concerning Swedish players’ transition from junior to senior football were to examine: (1) transition, perceived health, and athletic identity variables, as well as the relationship between them; (2) how transition, perceived health, and athletic identity variables contribute to: (a) healthy sport participation; (b) unhealthy sport participation; (c) quality of adjustment on the senior level of football; (d) life satisfaction. The theoretical frameworks included: the developmental model on transitions faced by athletes; the career transition model; the perceived health and sport/exercise participation model; the circle of health model. The participants (n = 126) were Swedish adolescent football players at local, national or international competitive levels. Three instruments were used in regard of the quantitative approach: the Transition Monitoring Survey; the Perceived Health and Sport Participation Profile; the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. The transition variables were examined and several relationships were discovered between transition and perceived health variables, and athletic identity. Four multiple regression analyses showed that satisfaction with different spheres of life and coping strategies are significant positive predictors of healthy sport participation. Athletic identity, personal resources, and environmental pressure are significant positive predictors of unhealthy sport participation. In addition, environmental support was revealed to be a significant negative predictor of unhealthy sport participation. Importance of different aspects of sport and satisfaction with sport participation are significant positive predictors of the quality of adjustment on the senior level of sports, whereas importance of different spheres of life and athletic identity are significant negative predictors. Importance of different spheres of life and healthy sport participation are significant positive predictors of life satisfaction. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical frameworks and previous research.

Syftena med föreliggande studie angående svenska spelares övergång från junior till seniorfotboll var att undersöka: (1) övergångs-, upplevd hälsa- och idrottsidentitetsvariabler, såväl som förhållandet mellan dem; (2) hur övergångs-, upplevd hälsa- och idrottsidentitetsvariabler bidrar till: (a) ett hälsosamt idrottsdeltagande; (b) ett ohälsosamt idrottsdeltagande; (c) idrottarnas anpassning till seniornivån i fotboll; (d) livstillfredsställelse. De teoretiska referensramarna inkluderade: the developmental model on transitions faced by athletes; the career transition model; the perceived health and sport/exercise participation model; the circle of health model. Deltagarna (n = 126) bestod av svenska ungdomsfotbollsspelare på lokal, nationell och internationell tävlingsnivå. Tre mätinstrument användes med tanke på den kvantitativa utgångspunkten: Enkäten Karriärövergången från Junior till Senioridrott; Upplevd Hälsa & Idrottsdeltagande Profil; Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. Övergångsvariablerna undersöktes och flera samband upptäcktes mellan övergångs- och upplevd hälsavariabler och idrottsidentitet. Fyra multipla regressionsanalyser visade att tillfredsställelse med olika delar av livet och copingstrategier är positivt signifikanta faktorer som bidrar till ett hälsosamt idrottsdeltagande. Idrottsidentitet, personlighetsfaktorer och tidigare erfarenheter, samt press från omgivningen är positivt signifikanta faktorer som bidrar till ett ohälsosamt idrottsdeltagande. Dessutom så upptäcktes support från omgivningen att vara en negativt signifikant faktor som bidrar till ett ohälsosamt idrottsdeltagande. Hur viktiga olika delar av idrotten är och tillfredsställelsen med idrottsdeltagandet är positivt signifikanta faktorer som bidrar till idrottarens anpassning till seniornivån, då däremot hur viktiga olika delar av livet är och idrottsidentiteten är negativt signifikanta faktorer. Hur viktiga olika delar av livet är och ett hälsosamt idrottsdeltagande är positivt signifikanta faktorer som bidrar till livstillfredsställelse. Resultaten diskuteras i förhållande till de teoretiska referensramarna och tidigare forskning.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the process of overtraining syndrome as a part of development in sports and careers. It is based on theories about overtraining syndrome and athlete career transitions. The intention was to find patterns that illustrate critical factors in the athlete career for overtraining syndrome to occur, but also for preventing overtraining syndrome to emerge and for rehabilitation.

The Informant was a 19 years old man who had completed his studies at a Swedish sports-“gymnasium”. Two semi structured interviews were made, the second as a following up interview. The material was analysed by a qualitative content analysis including a constant comparing method.

The result showed that the Informant developed an overtraining syndrome during his first year as an elite junior athlete at the sports-“gymnasium”. It took one year from the occurrence of the first symptoms until initiating interventions and a second year of rehabilitation before the Informant was totally recovered. Imbalance in the stress-recovery process because physiological and psychological sports demands as well as lack of cognitive skills was possible factors for the beginning of the overtraining syndrome. Factors for preventing origination were the Informants motivation, cognitive skills along with social support.

In summary it is proposed to focus on interaction between models and theories about overtraining syndrome and athletic career transitions, in purpose to prevent overtraining syndrome to occur when young athletes transcend to high achievement junior sports, including its structure.

Sammanfattning: Syftet med studien var att studera processen för överträningssyndrom som en del i idrotts- och karriärutvecklingen utifrån teorier om överträningssyndrom och idrottskarriärövergångar. Avsikten var att finna mönster som belyste faktorer och kritiska skeden i idrottskarriären för att överträningssyndrom ska uppstå samt för att förhindra detta och underlätta rehabilitering.

Informant var en 19 årig man som avslutat tre års studier på idrottsgymnasium.

Två semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes, den senare intervjun som uppföljningsintervju. Materialet analyserades genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en konstant jämförande metod. Resultaten visade att under det första året som elitidrottande junior på idrottsgymnasium utvecklade Informanten ett överträningssyndrom. Det tog ett år från att första symtomen uppmärksammades till att intervention påbörjades och ytterligare ett års rehabilitering innan Informanten var helt återställd. Tänkbara orsaker till uppkomsten var obalans i stress-återhämtningsprocessen, framförallt beroende på idrottsliga fysiska och psykologiska krav och brist på kognitiva förmågor. Faktorer för att förhindra uppkomst och i rehabilitering antas vara Informantens motivation och kognitiva förmågor samt socialt stöd.

Sammantaget antas att interaktion mellan modeller och teorier om överträningssyndrom och idrottskarriärövergångar ska ses som en helhet i syfte att förhindra uppkomst av överträningssyndrom då unga idrottare övergår till högpresterande junioridrott och dess struktur.

Our starting point has been to use the football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic as a model person for individualism that seams to break the ordinary socialization pattern in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to examine how the team leaders handle the socialization of more individualistic focused individuals/young persons into groups, since the Swedish School Curriculum is designed to meet each individual on his or hers former experiences. Is the socialization of individuals within team sports affected by their cultural background? And, in that case, should those facts have consequences for the sport subject at school? Those are the questions we want to explore. Besides a survey of documents, we have been seeking answers to our questions through interviews with the team leaders Roland Nilsson and Peter Bergander, the pedagogues/teachers Karin Jutterström and Håkan Jensgård and the professional football player Abgar Barson.

Our study shows that the leaders and teachers of today have begun to change their view about individualists. Further, our study shows that young persons with other ethnic origin/foreign background that choose their own ways can be disqualified by a national view that is different from the perception of the ethnic Swedish, when they break the unwritten and unspoken rules and standards.

Our conclusion is that a change seems to be happening in the mentality of the mainstream Swedish society. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become an object of identification for many young people in Sweden during the last years. It´s our point of view that the concept of “being a Zlatan” stands for a person that dares to be an extreme individualist. We believe that we stand upon a change of paradigm on the notion of individualism in Sweden since the collective thinking in Swedish society seems to be developing towards a higher acceptance for an individualistic behaviour. This is, as we see it, a development within team sports as well as a development in the rest of Swedish society, for instance, within the educational system.

This is an examination report in physical education. It focuses on the relation between excercise and nutrition and how this relation works in an icehockeygymnasium in a midsized city in Sweden. The training ratio for the students are 11-12 times a week which indirectly means that the nutricion is very important to them so that they have the strength to manage both training and school. In this examination report you can read about how the food is composed and how many meals the students are offered through their education program. The persons that I´ve interviewed are the head coach, the president of the school restaurant and three students.

The students have practise in the noon two times a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These days they are offered breakfast and lunch at the team restaurant, and a snack at the school restaurant. All three meals are adapted for athletes. During the other three schooldays they are offered a lunch in the schoolrestaurant that mostly fits the students needs for nutrition and they also get to eat the “athlete snack” at the schoolrestaurant.

My own concusions in this examination report is that the nutrition needs of the students seem to be nearly fulfilled. What can be better is mainly the communication between the headcoach and the president of the schoolrestaurant. Sometimes the students rejects to eat the food in the schoolrestaurant, and the personell don´t know why. A constructive dialogue between the students and the personell in the schoolrestaurant would therefore likely make the situation better.

This study focuses on exploring Swedish journalists’ experiences and thoughts about the working conditions during the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. It is interesting because of the fact that the Olympic Games where hosted in a country with dictatorial government and this is the foundation of this study. Theories about social construction, propaganda and media events were applied to illuminate and give a broader comprehension of the influence on the journalistic work during an Olympic Game. To explore this problem and get answers to our questions we used qualitative interviews with eight Swedish journalists who were stationed in Beijing. The result of this study is based on these journalists’ experiences of their reality. We found that all the journalists experienced an almost perfect working condition in many ways. Censorship and the lack of freedom of speech were debated a lot before the games in many western media. These subjects did not affect negative on the Swedish journalists work in Beijing but the debate had anyway an unavoidable influence on them. The line between sport journalism and a social journalism was often rubbed out and it seemed hard to avoid what happened outside the Olympic area. The organization of the Beijing Games is described by many journalists as the best of all times. We found that the journalists gave a common experience which says that almost everything in Beijing was controlled and set by the organization. The majority says at the same time that they were totally aware of the ongoing propaganda. The journalists in our study describe a journalistic freedom inside the Olympic area, in the same way as in every Olympic Game. No matter if it is hosted by a democratic or a dictatorial government.

The thesis concentrates on Hofors and a local trade union environment between 1917 and 1946, where important parts of the trade union’s power were held by parties to the left of the social democrats. The overall aim is to problemize and discuss the issue of what characterised and made possible this deviation from the usual picture of a trade union movement dominated by social democracy. What characterised the conditions in such a local trade union environment and to what extent can local norms and political culture be linked to the conditions and the development in the trade union movement in Hofors?

The factors behind the radicalism in Hofors can be found in the local union and political context. The investigation points out the following main reasons: the left-wing local council of the Social Democratic Party and its successors’ organisational lead, the local labour council’s working method being close to what has been considered “social democratic”, their representatives being highly trusted in the local community, and the growth of a local radical tradition.

The political culture and the norms that gradually developed were based on a left-wing social democratic tradition. The local council of the Social Democratic Party that left the party in 1917 to join the left-wing social democratic faction was the same local council, despite their names and change of parties in the 1920s and 1930s. It became the local labour movement’s bearer of traditions and represented the continuity in the local trade union environment, which contributed to the leftwing socialist project being long-lived in Hofors. The central aspects were the trade union work and the practical-concrete tradition that developed.

Primarily through successful trade union work, the local labour council and its trade union representatives gained strong and long-term support from a large proportion of the local trade union movement’s members and the population of Hofors.

Against this background it may be stated that, even though it was often impossible for the parties to the left of social democracy to maintain a local trade union and political power position that was stronger than that of the social democrats for a lengthy period of time, it was not entirely impossible. It may also be stated that for the trade union member as such, a communist or socialist party affiliation was not a real obstacle in the election of shop stewards. Their focus was primarily put on the would-be representatives’ personal qualities and ability to live up to the demands and expectations placed on them by the members, and not so much on their ideological persuasion.