Background/Purpose
The lack of creativity of Korean football has centered around arguments while the Korean football has been successful in the international tournaments. Despite the interest in the development of creativity of football, there have been few attempts made to investigate creativity in Korean football (Yun, 2007).
The purpose of this study is to investigate coaches' view on the development of the creativity of Korean football. Guiding questions were: 1) what were the characteristics of creativity in football, 2) how the coach taught players to develop creativity in football, 3) how coaches acquired knowledge to teach creativity, 4) what were the barriers to teach creativity.
Method
Participants of this study were 52 Korean football coaches who were participating in Korean Football Association (KFA) coach education for ‘B' or ‘C' level license programs. To collect data, open-ended questionnaires were employed. Data were analyzed inductively (Patton, 2002).
Analysis/Results
The findings of this study showed that characteristics of creativity in football were unpredictability, adaptability, improvisation, and mediating. In order to develop creativity, coaches emphasized the fundamental skills and motivated players using self-determination. However, most coaches never learned how to teach players to become more creative. They utilized personal experience as the knowledge source to teach creativity. Lastly, the barriers for coaches to develop the creativity of players were pressure on winning, autocratic coaching styles, current league systems, and lack of grass field.
Conclusions
Based on these findings it is recommended that Korean coaching education programs should provide more specific coaching knowledge to develop coaching styles and the creativity of players. The governing bodies of Korean football should improve the current league systems and environmental resources for developing creativity as well.