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Getting into Sport

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Book cover Negotiating Fatherhood

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life ((PSFL))

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Abstract

Having now set out the context and theoretical underpinning for the study, this is the first of six empirical chapters. The aim of this chapter is examine the key influencers on how my participants got involved in sport. It begins by discussing the value placed upon sport in different family contexts. Following this, it explores three dominant routes, which participants took to get into sport, namely: family, school and the community. Previous literature has focused on participation motivation in a variety of sports and this tends to address ‘why’ people get into sport. Motivations are frequently associated with the physiological and psychological benefits of playing sport and being physically active. Less literature has examined ‘how’ people get into sport and almost no research focuses on the key influencers; the ‘who’ behind our decisions to take up sport in the first place.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All participants have been provided with pseudonyms. I encouraged all participants involved to choose the name by which they wished to be recognised in the book. I did this because I wanted them to feel a sense of ownership over their voices and their part in the research (should they choose to read it) and also to recognise their role in the creation of this book. Allowing participants to select their own name also acknowledges the interactive processes of the research and its transformation from real life testimony into ‘fiction’. In addition, applying pseudonyms randomly or comically—as is common where writers may impose ironic names to describe certain participants—is not necessarily appropriate for all cultural groups.

  2. 2.

    Sadly, during the course of writing up this project, Shawn and Stacey’s daughter died of a terminal illness.

  3. 3.

    See Hylton et al. (2015) and Long et al. (2015) respectively for a discussion of the benefits of diversifying the formal sport ‘offer’ to Black and minoritised ethnic communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Thomas Fletcher

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  1. Thomas Fletcher
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Correspondence to Thomas Fletcher .

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Fletcher, T. (2020). Getting into Sport. In: Negotiating Fatherhood. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19784-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19784-1_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19783-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19784-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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