Chapter 4
Findings
Introduction
When analysing my qualitative material, I used the technique of ‘thematic analysis’ (Braun and
Clarke, 2018) which required me to read and re-read my material and allowed me to split my
findings off into five categories or themes. When carrying out the focus groups, I split my
questions into sections; early involvement in netball, school, University, netball as a female sport,
and the image and future of netball. Based on the responses I got I decided on the below themes
to code my transcripts;
1) Initial playing of netball & early club involvement
2) Experiences of PE classes at school
3) Why I play netball in University – and will I play back home?
4) Gender and netball: Should men play?
5) Netball as a female sport & the future
To supplement the findings from my focus groups with quantitative date, I also conducted a
questionnaire survey which were also split into the sub-themes listed above. I got 57 survey
responses out of a possible 100 (57%). See appendix 2
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Everyone that completed the questionnaire is part of a midlands university netball club, aged
between 18- 23 years old and is female. The participants of the focus groups are club members
and are from either the Hebe team or the Bia team.
FINDINGS
1. Initial playing of netball & early club involvement
The majority of the survey respondents started playing netball when they were under 10 years
old (52.63%). Some 30% of respondents said they started playing netball between the ages of 1115 years and only 18% (just under one-in-five) respondents first played netball when they came
to University.
Netball was introduced to most in primary or secondary school through PE lessons. In the focus
groups, when asked how they got involved in netball, many answered that they first played in
primary school or were introduced by a family member, a tradition passed on usually by mothers:
Yeah, I got involved through school mainly, my mum wanted me to play as she played
when she was younger too (Clarissa)
My mum played for a club and she coached so I just joined that when I was, like, in year
3 and, yeah, I played ever since in the same club (Millicent)
The participants explained that they felt directed towards netball as it was one of the few female
team sports offered in some of their schools. Just under one-in-five (19.3%) of the survey
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respondents claimed that netball was the only choice they had in school for competitive sport,
something confirmed in the focus groups:
‘It was always netball at my school, like, we didn’t have any other girls’ teams’ (Louisa)
Yeah, I think in school the sport was quite limited options in PE and whatever, and I think
girls were always herded towards netball and, if you like it you stick with it’ (Hillary)
Here, the strong impression is given that the highly gendered experience of team sport in
schools and local settings was not that much different to those experienced by the mothers of
these respondents.
2. Views on experiences of PE classes
Most participants first played netball in school through PE lessons; I wanted to find out what their
PE experience was like and particularly their experience of PE classes in a mixed gendered school.
As netball is uniquely an all-female sport in the UK, I wanted to find out what the participants
thought of playing sport with boys to discover if playing netball was a consequence of any
negative experiences of mixed sport at school age.
All of the participants had both separate and mixed gendered PE lessons at their school,
dependent on their age. A few participants did not enjoy the girls only PE classes, they wanted
to be competitive and try hard and felt they and others were held back by being only pitted
against girls.
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‘So what are you opinions on splitting the PE lessons based on gender?’ (researcher)
‘I don’t think it’s that good as there were girls in my PE class that were so much better
than half the boys, yet they were stuck with us and I felt bad as they wanted to develop.
And they couldn’t because they were stuck with only girls and they wanted to be pushed
by better players’ (Louisa)
‘I think if you mixed it, it makes everyone work harder as you wanna, like, be better than
the boys and so you, like, work harder’ (Millicent)
Hillary thought that team sports should be mixed, but that sports such as running where the
advantages come from purely physical attributes be kept separate in order not to make girls feel
like failures:
‘Obviously, if it is something like running or whatever the girls might not be as fast and
then it might be better to split it as it’s a bit more fair and girls get self -conscious as
well, if they aren’t keeping up with the boys and are always last. Like, we used to play
mixed basketball or rounders as it doesn’t really matter if the team is mixed as it’s a
team sport’ (Hillary)
There was also a fear that playing sport with males could lead to injuries due to the weight and
height differences involved. . There is not a noticeable height or weight difference in primary
school aged girls and boys, it is only when they start puberty that most boys overtake most girls
in physicality.
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‘I personally wouldn’t [play mixed sport], but I don’t like, I’m small (Eliza)’
‘So you wouldn’t want to play with the boys because you’re small?’ (Researcher)
‘I wouldn’t wanna like play rugby, no I wouldn’t. I would be worried they would be too
strong and big’ (Eliza)
‘I think it depends on what sport it is. I did like playing with the girls but I feel like it was
okay sometimes when it was mixed but the guys can be quite aggressive when they play
sports and when you’re young it can be quite intimidating’ (Ashley)
None of the participants mentioned an actual incident of them getting hurt when playing sport
with boys. The fear of injury due to the perceived strength and aggression of the boys seemed
to be unfounded in experience, but the participants had clearly internalized beliefs that they
could not match the boys’ physicality level.
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