Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies

Published in the UK by: University of Central Lancashire, Preston. SSTO Publications: School of Sport, Tourism and The Outdoors

Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies Volume 7, Issue 1, December 2013 My life and the beautiful game

ISSN: ISBN: JQRSS Article No:

a

Ryan Louis (University of Central Lancashire)

b

Clive Palmer (University of Central Lancashire)

1754-2375 978-0-9566270-7-0 1/6-7-1-2013-UG3[17]-068

To cite this article: Louis, R. and Palmer, C. (2013) My life and the beautiful game. Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 7, 1, 1-10.

Self-archived URL link to this article: https://www.academia.edu/6322599/Louis_R._and_Palmer_C._2011_My_life_and_the_beautiful_game._Jou rnal_of_Qualitative_Research_in_Sports_Studies_7_1_1-10

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Copyright © Clive Palmer and the individual authors Notice: The discussions, statements of fact and opinions contained in the articles of The Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies are those of the respective authors and cited contributors and are set out in good faith for the general guidance of student supported research and the promotion of pedagogical discussion in teaching and learning contexts. No liability can be accepted by the Editor, Editorial Board, Advisory Board, the reviewers or the authors/submitters for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying upon particular statements made or circumstances outlined in this journal.

Online Research Profiles: academia.edu: https://uclan.academia.edu/ClivePalmer ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clive_Palmer British Conference of Undergraduate Research http://bcur.org/journals/

Louis, R. and Palmer, C. (2013) My life and the beautiful game. Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 7, 1, 1-10

My life and the beautiful game Ryan Louis and Clive Palmer (University of Central Lancashire) Abstract Ryan Louis: This article looks at my experiences of football across different cultures in the context of my education, family upbringing and the role that sport has played in this social mix. You could say it is a story of my experiences up to the point of graduation from university (at 22yrs) and how I have dealt with some of life’s challenges along the way. Writing this article has opened my eyes to some of my achievements, raising my confidence and helped me to realise how privileged I have been to experience different countries. Clive Palmer: Ryan’s story is a first-person narrative account which is honestly written, humble, and maintains a positive outlook despite some ups and downs during his journey through his formal education years. A chronologically structured and factual auto-biography, none of the text has been altered bar some phrasing and polishing for ease of reading. In this manner the primacy of Ryan’s account may be preserved and helps to bring us closer to his experiences. No text has been embellished with rich descriptive writing, it not being needed in this case, his is an engaging story, simply told which readers may relate to and learn from. In closing, this article may show how diverse informal experiences outside of the classroom can contribute directly to gains within formal education. NB: Towards finding a balance between story-telling and research, some academic references to topics that supported the original coursework remain which help to preserve the identity of the text, may add a little factual information but hopefully not detract too much from Ryan’s account of his lived experience.

Introduction This article focuses on my life-experience encountered so far with football as a common denominator, as well as looking at different social cultures and what their outlook seems to be about football as I have experienced it. It will predominately focus on England, Spain and the United States as I have been fortunate enough to live and experience all three countries and their cultures. According to Smith (1966:25) ‘culture is a learned system of knowledge, behaviours, attitudes, beliefs, values and norms that is shared by a group of people’. What is interesting for me now is realising how much I have learned by being educated in different countries, having to learn their language and trying to fit in socially – not always successfully. 1

Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies 7, 1

It will also look at some of the highs and lows I have encountered in my life and how football and my experiences within these cultures have played a big part in my personal development. The English invasion My family and I moved to Spain when I was just two years old for work purposes. As you can imagine at first I was not to know any different but as I got older that soon changed. My parents invested in property and a restaurant out in the beautiful South of Spain and wanted to start a new life with me and my sister. The first step was to enrol us into the local schooling system, where my sister and I attended a Spanish local nursery school. This was fine with me being so young, I didn’t know any different. I started to learn the Spanish language and started to become acquainted with the Spanish people and their culture. The Spanish way of life is often very different from any other. They are generally laid back, relaxed people with a sort of macho attitude. It is not uncommon to have a siesta in the afternoon and then party in the evening enjoying some of their favourite pastimes such as, bull fighting, flamenco and eating the nation’s favourite dishes; tapas and paella. The time came for me to move on to primary school and things changed pretty quickly, whereas before all the local kids were friendly and just wanted to play, that wasn’t the case anymore. I found myself being picked on and bullied and the main reason for this was because I was foreign, or a “Gringo” as they called me. I had nothing in common with the majority of the kids. Bullying is a use of force to intimidate others (Ericson 2001). It is not only a physical act but can be verbal and emotional, and was not a nice experience. My parents contacted the school to see if anything could be done about it, but in the meantime my father thought it would be a good idea to enrol me into a martial arts class. I started to feel more confident when confronted at school and managed to make a few friends of my own, who were actually in a similar situation to myself as they had also emigrated from the United Kingdom. This was all good but there was still something missing. The Spanish sporting pastime was football, everywhere you looked someone had a football at their feet. So I decided to give it a go. My parents went out and bought me a football and every day after school I would find myself playing in the garden by myself, and soon I noticed my ball-skills quickly improving. Football is by far the most popular sport played in Spain, people involved tend to start from a young age and they have a very good coaching system in place. There are more qualified coaches in Spain than any

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Ryan Louis and Clive Palmer

other country in Europe, which probably plays a big part on why they are currently the strongest national force in football. That year my parents hit rock bottom in their marriage, which shortly after led to them getting divorced. This was a very traumatic time for me and my sister as we had no family to turn to and didn’t want to be a burden on our parents, as they were finding things extremely difficult themselves. So I decided to turn to my new found love, football. I would go in to the garden before and after school and stay out until it went dark. You might say I was really hiding from reality. As Wallerstein (1989) says, divorce can affect children in many different ways and it’s impossible to predict long-term effects of divorce on children from how they react at the outset. I think I became reclusive but always chatty on the outside. This seemed to get me by on the short term without too many arguments and I always had football to turn to. A few days later in school during a Physical Education lesson, the teacher decided to play a football match. Two children got to pick teams and to no one’s surprise I along with another English kid, were picked last. This would be the day everything changed, no longer would I be pushed to the back, my team won 4-1, with me scoring three out of the four goals. I felt socially accepted as the other kids chanted ‘foreign-er, foreign-er’. I guess it was a start. After all, research does suggest that people who are well-liked by their peers tend to be characterised by relatively high achievement (Guay, Boivin, and Hodges, 1999). Things started to get a little easier at home, my parents were communicating again and mine and my sister’s time was divided between them. We would get to see my dad at the weekends, which I loved as he would spoil us rotten. Some might say out of guilt, others that he’s trying to buy our love. I didn’t really care, I just loved the gifts and spending time with him, as he loved to watch me play football. My football really started to come on strong. I joined a local Spanish football team and really started to feel good about being part of a team. This was something I had not felt so far in Spain. I was part of a team where players really did work together, make decisions, communicate, manage conflict and solve problems (William, 2007). I loved playing football in Spain. I felt ‘at home’ in a footy team, valued and contributing. Shortly after I was attending practice at Malaga’s youth academy, where only the very best young players around would be invited. This allowed me and my dad to spend more quality time together, as he insisted on taking me to every practice. I was now one of the most popular kids in school, everyone new I played for Malaga’s academy and wanted to associate with me. I was now part of a great circle of friends and through my involvement with football I think I was accepted but also 3


represented something good about being British in another culture. It wasn’t such a bad thing now being from another country, if people started accepting each other for who they were. A few years had passed and I was fully settled in Spain, feeling like a native with Spanish now being my first language. We were however enrolled into an English after school club, but I still found it extremely difficult to read and write in the English language and that is when my Mother hit me with a bomb shell. She decided it was time for us to move back to England, so that we could go through the proper English education system. Things were not as good in Spain for my parents financially and they decided to sell up and move on. This felt like another setback, just when I felt on top of the world, I had to start fresh and do it all over again. Reunited back with the Motherland The time had come, my sister, Mum and I moved back to England to a small town called Southport were my family are originally from. My dad however decided to stay out in Spain, as work picked up and he liked the life-style over there. At first I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t come with us and again I found myself, asking questions. I was enrolled into one of the local high schools where older family members had attended before. The good news was I was starting afresh with all the other children who were also taking the big step from junior school, to high school. Automatically I was a big hit with all the other kids, whereas in Spain it was unpopular to be from another country, i.e. a foreigner. Here my piers thought it was really cool that I had lived in Spain for over 10 years, but that may have been because I was not actually a foreigner to them, I was just ‘returning’, although it felt pretty foreign to me. One of the benefits to my dad staying out in Spain was that it meant me and my sister got spend our summer holidays over there. We loved it. I used to go and see all my friends and get to hang out at the beach and swimming pool all day. My English friends were so envious; they didn’t understand however, that I would have given all that up to have my dad back home in England. England now seemed like the perfect move, but there were two things missing, my dad obviously and football. I quickly got to show my footballing talent of in the playground, were the children I played with had never seen such advanced ball skills from someone their own age. I was soon asked to play for the school team, which I went on to captain. Shortly after I was selected to play for the local county, where only the best school kids in the district are chosen to represent. Football had come to the fore again as a means of social acceptance and promotion. As Hogan (1983:55) 4


suggests, ‘people have powerful needs for social approval; consequently, the struggle to avoid social failure is prevalent throughout life, not merely during the school-age years’. Whilst the domestic aspects of my life were divided and confusing to me emotionally, in football I had stability and was instantly well liked. My football career was becoming promising. I had a number of trials at professional clubs including Everton FC and Preston North End but I just fell short of the mark. But as Maslow (1954) pointed out, many times in life people will face setbacks and rejection in certain situations. The task is not to dwell, but to continue to strive to reach that goal. One morning I was woken early by my mum. It was my dad on the phone, he had good news, he was moving back to England as he couldn’t stand being away from us any longer. This was the best news I had heard in ages, it felt like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped in one. I was ecstatic my dad was back in our lives, however I had another task to overcome. School now started to become a lot more challenging, I found myself falling behind due to my English not being up to the standards required. My mother sent me to private tuition to ensure I was getting that extra help required. This paid off, as I completed high school and now had the big decision of where to go next. Sport it was, I enrolled into a local college and started taking a BTEC in Sports Studies. Whilst at college I continued to pursue football, playing for Southport’s reserve team and hoping to break into the first team. That break never came for me unfortunately. I still however had a strong passion towards football and decided to try the next best thing (in my opinion at the time) which was coaching. I went to Myerscough College to do a Foundation Degree in Football Coaching. As with my early football career I started to quickly excel in coaching and found it really rewarding. As well as studying for this degree, I wanted to learn more so I enrolled onto some Football Association (FA) courses. I am now a UEFA B qualified coach and from this I have been privileged enough to work for a number of coaching companies and Academies across England, including Liverpool FC and Preston North End. I am now coming to the end of my degree in Sports Coaching at the University of Central Lancashire. This is a huge achievement for me, from the boy who could barely read and write – or he could but in the wrong language for the country he found himself in, to getting a BA Honours degree. The American dream As the side heading says, the American Dream, and that’s exactly what it was for me. I have been fortunate, through studies and qualifications I have obtained, to 5


be offered coaching jobs in America. I have visited on three occasions working all over America, each time enjoying it more and more. I have experienced living alone with a group of work colleagues and living with different families, where one week the parents may be doctors and the other they could be farmers. This was a fantastic way for me to experience and appreciate the way others live. I really liked the thinking behind a lot of the American people I met. Their motto was work hard play hard, and what they meant by that is if you work hard you need to reap the benefits and enjoy them! This was great for me as every week there was a new adventure, from going to the lake on speed boats, to attending sporting events. Every family was very kind, accommodating and took interest in me for whatever I brought to them and their children. I am currently in talks with a coaching company in New York, who have offered me a fantastic full-time contract which I am looking to take up once I finish my UCLan degree. One of my reasons for this, is I believe there is more opportunity for me to make a living doing something I enjoy in USA than there is in England. It is also a different way of life. When coaching American children they look at you as a role model and seem to appreciate the hard work you put into educating them even more. One of my goals is to continue the development and promotion of soccer in the US. With the large amount of money that is invested into sport in America, I am sure that one day the American National team will be a force to be reckoned with. One thing that is lacking in the US though, is the interests in soccer/football come a certain age. American kids play a number of sports, football being only their second or third choice which eventually leads to them dropping out of the game. This may be for a number of reasons; scholarships offered for schools, money, sponsorships, popularity, influence of friends, family, traditional sports culture etc. Soccer is not classed as one of the big 4 sports in America. This however is slowly changing with the influx of foreign talent coming over to play in the MLS (Major League Soccer), making more people tune in and take notice. It is also the most popular sport played at youth level and schemes are being put in place to ensure participation continues after a certain age, such as creating more University Scholarships, and Academies being linked in with professional clubs in the MLS (Kaminski, 2010). The future is bright My future is now looking bright, I am coming to the end of completing my degree and already have a fantastic job opportunity lined up for when I finish. This wasn’t always the case. Two years ago I lost my mother to cancer. She was my rock, always guiding me in the right direction and supporting me with my goals. I found myself going backwards again from being an active, socially outgoing person, to hiding away, not wanting to face the world. It felt like the time I was a young boy 6


again, where I was lost and needed guiding. I found myself sinking into a depression, stopping doing what I loved; playing football. This led to me putting weight on and giving up on my so called dreams. I was losing focus. Emotionally distracted, I became less interested in my studies at UCLan and started to fall behind, as well as at my part-time job. I started slacking off which led to me worrying about were my future lied. I also had the growing concern about making bill payments on time, cooking for myself, cleaning up and everything else self-dependent people have to do. I had to grow up faster than I was ready to. Thankfully my sister took charge and became the new motherly figure, always making sure I was OK before seeing to her own needs. My dad also was very supportive guiding me back on track. It may sound dramatic but if it wasn’t for the two of them, I really don’t know what my life would look like now. They say time is a healer and as time went on I started to refocus and thought how would my mother feel if she had seen me like this. With the help of my dad who is a fitness freak, I joined the gym and decided to do what I enjoy more than anything in the world, play football. I am on the road to getting healthy again both physically and mentally, working hard on my studies and in my work place. I am now excited about my future and am delighted I have nearly completed my degree, which was something my mother always wanted me to do. I am extremely blessed to have such backing from my family, who have always encouraged me to ‘do what makes you happy’. I am looking forward to following my dreams wherever they may take me, sharing my life experiences with others along the way. Conclusion To bring this tale of football, education and culture to a close, you can see from my story that there have been highs and lows, which in essence may be no different to challenges faced by anyone else. I have been privileged to experience these cultures in my life and it is something I get great pleasure from. Even, in retrospect I feel equipped or strengthened by. Consequently, I am pursuing a career in football coaching as you get to meet people from all walks of life, all with their own stories which I love listening to. From a footballing sense each country is slightly different, but one thing that remains the same is the social pleasure people get from playing the sport. That has been my experience, and my story… to date (22yrs at 2012).

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References Ericson, N. (2001) Addressing the problem of juvenile bullying. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, fact sheet June #200127. Washington, D.C. Guay, F., Boivin, M. and Hodges, E. (1999) Predicting change in academic achievement: a model of peer experiences and self-system processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 105-115. Hogan, R. (1983) A socio-analytic theory of personality (pp. 55-89). In, Page, M. (Ed.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln, USA. Kaminski, M. (2010) Can the U.S. Be a Soccer Nation? The Wall Street Journal, June 12th [online]. Available at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703509404575300794290598112 (Accessed 18th December, 2013). Maslow, A.H. (1954) Motivation and personality. Harper, New York. Smith, G. (1966) Communication and culture. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. Wallerstein, J. and Blakeslee, S. (1989) Second chances: men, women, and children a decade after divorce. Ticknor and Fields, New York.

JQRSS: Acknowledgement Footnote 1.

Author’s reflective comment: At the time of writing this essay I was in the final year of my degree. Looking back over the roller coaster of educational experiences I can say this may be my best work ever. The opportunity to write in this way has been so worthwhile. Support from Dr. Palmer, gave me confidence to express my thoughts and gave me the sense that my story in this format might be of some value.

2.

Author profile: Ryan Louis came to the University of Central Lancashire on a BA Sports Coaching Top-Up year from his Foundation Degree at Myerscough College. He is a passionate football coach and is now employed in the USA with various soccer coaching companies.

3.

Dear reader, if this article has stimulated your thoughts and you wish to find out more about this topic the authors can be contacted on: Ryan Louis [email protected] and Clive Palmer [email protected].

Reviewer (1) comments: This is a highly individual and courageous account showing how sport can function as a stable counterpoint to the vicissitudes of life. In doing so the author uses the central theme of football to illustrate how sport can provide a secure location at times of uncertainty and personal vulnerability. It is written in a highly accessible and yet simple style, the honesty of which brings to life the magnitude of the experiences being described. Sport is portrayed as a mechanism of stability, and reflects how what is perceived by some as a transient activity can stop life unravelling when it proves most challenging. 8


Reviewer (2) comments: I feel that this person’s story echoes some of my own experiences in that I too have lived in 3 different countries so immediately understood some of his problems. I also found accordance with his early struggles within education. The lesson for me here is that perseverance can bring rewards through studying, reflection and intrinsically following one’s passions. From a personal perspective, as a former Top-Up student, University (UCLan) can seem like a daunting place to arrive at for the final year. However, the smaller groups and greater amount of practical activities at a Partner College prepares you well to study the more theoretical side of subjects in that 3rd year. This article could be really useful to Foundation Degree students helping them to make the transition between Colleges and the University to complete their education. Consequently, his article provides a useful first-hand narrative insight into other cultures and a journey through education. The fluctuations of life immersed amongst environments unfamiliar to an individual can provide a far richer, deeper type of learning and a strengthening of character. Elements of this article highlight these points further. For people reading this journey, there is an undercurrent that points to education being omnipresent and accessible at any point, provided that honest motivations and support are in place. Another lesson to be learned from reading this frank account is that exposure to a diverse and eclectic range of cultures can provide unique perspectives that enhance life-experiences. For Ryan, experiencing a wide range of social settings seems to have given him a greater sense of understanding or even confidence to deal with new situations. In short, his story shows he has the tenacity, knowledge and skills to overcome problems. From this perspective he is a well-educated man.

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