Formation proccess of indoor and outdoor soccer athletes: an ethnographical analysis

Abstract

People say "each Brazilian citizen is born knowing how to play soccer". However there is a long way between the detection of a talented soccer player until the development of this kind of inborn aptitude. That is the reason of children start the practice of soccer earlier and earlier in schools and soccer-specific schools with the hope of being invited or selected to play soccer in any professional club. Since there is a great amount of children and adolescents starting on this trade it is reasonable to observe and understand how the social behavior inside these soccer-specific schools occurs. The aim of the present study was to observe the relationships between parents, teachers (coaches), children and adolescents related to the planning of soccer learning process and social insertion of the children, as well as to observe the parents and coaches social behavior within the sports environment. All practices and even speeches of young players, parents and coaches were registered on a field diary along one year in a traditional soccer club of Curitiba. Considering that the inborn talent may not be more important than the systematic soccer training process to be successful, we intend to show how the directions to reach the glory in soccer are planned (or not) since early ages.