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<title>Bradley Busch's iStadia Articles</title>
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<title>Fear of Failure and Coping Strategies in Youth Football</title>
<description><![CDATA[ 
Fear of Failure and Coping Strategies in Youth Football


&nbsp;


&nbsp;Football academies were
introduced into English football in 1998, following Howard Wilkinson's 'Charter
for Quality'. A decade later, the Lewis Review was commissioned by the FA, Premier
League and Football league to examine the current state of youth football in England. The
review stated that youth footballers face a particularly stressful time when
challenging for a first-team place. Teams are currently spending more money
than ever before on talent from abroad, &pound;277 million in the 2006/07 season
alone. Managers are under increasing pressure to get instant as well as
long-term success (the average tenure of a dismissed manager has decreased from
3.12 years in 1992/3, to 1.89 years in 2006/7). This has resulted in fewer
opportunities for home-grown players. Middlesbrough
chairman Steve Gibson, recently stated that the chances of an academy player
breaking through into the first team were 'about one in a hundred'.&nbsp; 


&nbsp;


The Lewis Review also stated
that a climate of fear exists within youth football. Former England manager
Sven-G&ouml;ran Eriksson stated that 'an athlete often has a great
deal more potential than he manages to use, but his fear of failing locks him
into his performance cage'. &nbsp;Indeed, Newcastle and England
midfielder Joey Barton attributed his disappointing performance following his
call-up to the England
national side to being 'too scared of failing'. Despite the apparent presence
of the fear of failure phenomenon, no research to date has examined it within
football. Fear of failure has been principally studied in both academic and
business domains. It is stated that failure itself is not feared, but the
negative consequences that are perceived to follow it. Five main aversive consequences
to failure that exist are (a) experiencing shame and embarrassment, (b)
devaluing ones self-estimate, (c) having an uncertain future, (d) upsetting
important others, and (e) important others losing interest. Fear of failure has
been associated with increased stress, reduced performance, cheating, drop-out
and unstable self-esteem.


&nbsp;


This study looked to
investigate how youth footballers define success and failure, what they
perceive to be the consequences of success and failure, examine what the types
and levels of fears of failure, explore how their fear of failure affects them,
what contributes towards their fear of failure and how they cope with these
fears.


&nbsp;


In order to fully understand
why a person fears failure, it is paramount to grasp how they define both
success and failure. The footballers in this study reported that they defined
success as a desirable match outcome (i.e. winning), personal satisfaction
(i.e. playing to a high personal level) and receiving recognition and
acknowledgement (i.e. trophies and awards). Failure on the other hand, was
defined as an undesirable match-outcome, not performing well and not receiving
any recognition/acknowledgement. It serves to follow then that when trying to
motivate a large group of athletes, by focusing exclusively on one definition
of success (i.e. exclusively results-orientated), this will not strike a chord
with some of the athletes. As the emphasis on youth football should be on
player development, a healthy combination of the definitions of success should
be used in tandem with one another. Likewise, a range of consequences that were
perceived to follow success included enhanced social status, enhanced
perception of self and tangible gains amongst others. Where possible, those
working with youth footballers are encouraged to find out which consequences
individuals believe follow a success, which are most important to them, and
then use this to encourage and motivate them in future endeavours.


&nbsp;


81 male footballers aged
16-19 completed a fear of failure questionnaire. Results from this show that
shame and embarrassment was the most pronounced fear, followed by upsetting
important others, having an uncertain future, important others losing interest
and finally devaluing one's self-estimate. No significant differences in the footballers'
fears of failure were apparent based on their age, number of years experience
playing football, hours spent training per week or the position that they play.
It was present in everyone. Coaches are therefore encouraged to construct an
environment where failure is not followed by teasing or negative comments from
team-mates. By working alongside parents to ensure that they are supportive of
their children following a failure, footballers will not be as worried about
parental reaction to failure (upsetting important others).


&nbsp;


Fear of failure was found to
affect the footballers in three distinct ways. First, it had a negative affect
on their sporting performance. When fearing failure, footballers stated that
they felt they were less likely to take the sort of risks in a match that they
usually would and tended to play it safe. An example of such would be
goalkeepers being reluctant to come off their line to claim a cross or corner.
Fear of failure also had a negative affect on their social interactions,
leaving them more argumentative and shorter with other people. The final affect
that fear of failure had was on the footballers' general well-being, e.g.
becoming more moody and suffering reduced quality of sleep. Numerous factors
were found to contribute to a footballer's fear of failure. These include bad
performances, the score, time on their own, pressure to succeed (from parents
and themselves), opponent reputation and making future plans.


&nbsp;


The final part of this study
examined the coping strategies that footballers use to deal with their fears of
failure. Three distinct strategies were discovered. The first of these was
avoidance-focused which are behaviours and thoughts that try and disengage from
the source of stress. These included pushing thoughts of failure away, not
talking about their fears and trying to think about other things. All the
participants in this study detailed one of these avoidance-focused strategies.
Though this has some potential short-term advantages, as it allows performers
to block out any negative thoughts and focus on the task at hand, it has long
term negative consequences as it does not address the root of the problem, nor
the stress that follows it. Emotion- and problem-focused strategies are more
positive coping strategies. These included talking about their worries with
family members and training harder. Unfortunately, both these types of coping
strategies were less cited by footballers than avoidance-focused strategies. As
athletes use avoidance-focused coping strategies when they perceive a lack of
personal control over the situation, these results suggest that the fear of
failure is a phenomenon that they believe is out of their hands. Those working
with youth athletes are encouraged to help them adopt a more positive coping
style which incorporates both problem- and emotion-focused strategies. This
includes questioning the rationale/logic of their fears and then working on a way
to address the problem. 


&nbsp;


The fear of failure is a very
real problem within youth football. It affects athletes in a range of ways and
at this present time, athletes appear to be implementing worrying coping
strategies to deal with it. One possible explanation is that athletes may
believe that by admitting that they have these fears or worries, they are going
to appear weak and vulnerable in the eyes of their team-mates and coaches. As
such, this issue is not discussed, resulting in a lack of guidance on how to
deal with these thoughts. Through coach and parental education, positive coping
strategies can be taught to youth footballers. These will help lower their
level of fear of failure and reduce the negative affect that it may have on
their sporting performance, social interactions and general well-being. 


&nbsp;


Challenging for a first team
place can be stressful time for youth footballers, with an ever increasing
exclusive result-orientated approach resulting in a climate of fear. Alan
Hansen was correct when he stated that in the current football environment,
'the pressures are intense, because the rewards for success and the penalty for
failure are more and more'. The key is to managing that pressure and dealing in
a positive way with any failures.&nbsp;&nbsp; Miguel
Indurain, 5-time Tour de France winner, summed up the effect fear of failure
perfectly when he stated that, 'those who won't take the risk of failing and go
for it, who won't see things out, they are the ones who come home early, never
answering the challenge and never going anywhere'. Don't let the fear of
failing mean that you and your players come home early.


&nbsp;


Summary, Key Applied Suggestions:


&nbsp;


	Try to use a range of definitions for success and
	failure, i.e. avoid exclusively being results-orientated.
	
	
	Find out which consequences each player believes
	will follow success and use this information to help motivate them.
	
	
	Build an environment where failure is not met by
	laughter/ridicule by team-mates (shame and embarrassment - the highest
	fear) 
	
	
	
	Get parents on board. Players reported feeling
	most likely to talk to them about their fears of failure. Important to
	educate them on how to help their children.
	
	
	Encourage positive coping strategies for both
	failure and fear of failure. This includes both problem-focused (increased
	effort/training, learning from mistakes, seeking technical advice) and
	emotion-focused (support from family members and team-mates, turning a
	negative into a positive). This type of coping has long term player
	development benefits.

 
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<link>http://www.istadia.com/article/BradleyB/125</link>
<dc:creator>Bradley Busch</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:07:25 GMT</pubDate>
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