Anders Giske
Football Technique Coach & Founder of Giske Defending & Pragma Football-Coaching
UEFA A Licence Coach with over 20 years of experience in professional football. Anders holds 38 caps for the Norwegian national team and played for several top clubs in Germany, including Bayer 04 Leverkusen, FC Cologne, and FC Nürnberg. He is also the author of the book “A-team. Norway’s Greatest Football Players of All Time.
Giske founded Giske Defending in 2016, a digital learning centre that provides online courses and resources for football players and coaches. The centre offers a variety of courses, including defending techniques, tactical analysis, and coaching strategies.
How would you define a parent’s role within the youth sports environment?
The role of a parent(s) is dependent among several things including tradition and culture. In Norway, it`s quite common that parents are coaches due to economic challenges in the clubs, while Iceland, for example, has only professional coaches. It makes a big difference.
To put this issue in the right perspective, I think parent(s) play a much more important role in a player’s development than me as a coach, because a parent has greater influence of a player`s character and human development which is even more important than a coach`s contribution in the long run.
Furthermore, a parent(s) should support their children at home and the TEAM when they are players, because how should a player learn to be a team-player (which is crucial to succeeding) if a parent(s) don`t understand the value of it
What are the benefits of embracing parental involvement in youth sports?
Parents are a large group which has a direct and/or indirect influence on players and the team, and there are many benefits to embrace parental involvement like:
Cooperation to establish good habits (e.g. sleep, meals, schoolwork)
Communication on personal challenges (e.g. conflicts, family issues, illness)
Utilization of professional expertise (e.g. mental growth, other sports, nutrition)
How have you as a coach/club attempted to increase parental involvement?
I am working as a freelancer so this has not been an issue for me in the last decade. But if I should start such a process I would prefer to get to know (each player/family) and try to identify each other needs and expectations face to face.
What challenges have you faced by attempting to increase the level of parental involvement?
One common challenge in Norwegian football is the very high parental involvement. It is not uncommon that all people around a team are parents. This often leads to discontent, conflicts and a split parent group which is a general problem for the clubs. It is, for example, challenging when a coach (parent) is following a player from club to another and vice versa.
Have you seen a difference in players when parental involvement is embraced not neglected and/or ignored?
In the role as a parent, and just as a parent, of three children I have also experienced the advantages of full parental involvement. We had, except one big conflict, some great years with much fun and great development both for the players and teams. This was related to good coaches with a lot of life experience who understood the importance of open communication with players and parents.
What advice would you give coaches who are unsure about increasing parental involvement within youth sports?
I think each group or situation is unique and my advice would, therefore, be, as mentioned above, to start a dialogue to get know (each player/family) and try to identify each other needs and expectations in a meeting. However, it is always important to break the ice and communicate.
For those parents unaware of their influential role, what advice would you give parents?
Parents are anchored in the children’s lives and have an important task to aid their self-esteem in a good way. I think it is always important (no matter what you do) to find the RIGHT BALANCE, for example between support and challenge. That’s my experience and best advice.
Thank you to Anders for taking the time to complete the following interview questions.
LinkedIn: Anders Giske – Website: GiskeDefending
