Sportuitval binnen het damesturnen

Abstract

This article examined the way in which 12- to 18-years old female drop-outs of ten gymnastics clubs in the Netherlands experienced their club. Last years, sport withdrawal at sport clubs - also gymnastic clubs - in the Netherlands increased due to developments like individualization and commercialization of the sport. The outcome is the rising participation of disorganized sports. In this research the problem of sport attrition by gymnastics clubs was seen as the inability of the club to connect clubs policy with the expectations and the needs of this ‘new sporter’. The first goal of this article was to understand which drop-out factors have played a role in the decision to end the club membership. The second goal was to answer the question: Which of these factors could be influenced by the clubs themselves? The last goal was to make clear what role coaches are playing in the process of leaving a gymnastic club. Questionnaires and interviews were used to find answers on the above questions. The questionnaires were sent to 110 female drop-outs of 10 gymnastics clubs. 56 Of them were completed and returned. Out of all the returned questionnaires, 17 girls were selected to participate in individual interviews. These girls were selected, because their coaches were playing a role in the decision to stop their club membership. The most important reasons for drop-out were: 1) ‘other things to do’, 2) ‘to play another sport’, 3) ‘injury’, 4) ‘not enough fun’ and 5) ‘boring’. The most important factors that could be influenced by sport clubs themselves were group composing and the fact that elder girls were missing group or competition possibility’s. Furthermore, lack of friends or sporters within the same age category leaded to lesser fun. The last important factor concerned the role of the coach. 74% Of the girls indicated the role of their coach in their sport club withdrawal. This role existed of too much repeating, little possibilities to learn, little instruction moments, moody and strict or negative coaches, anti-personal coaches or coaches with having favourite sporters. The outcomes of this research mostly corroborated findings of earlier studies. However, more research and larger populations are necessary for the generalisation of these results. Also, it would be interesting to further research the perspectives of coaches, gymnastics clubs and club participants on sport attrition.