Introduction

The aim of the study was to investigate children’s experiences of The Sport for All programme in school (SAP) (idrottsskolan). The specific purpose with this paper was to investigate if boys and girls have equality accessibility to participate in the SAP. The purpose of the SAP is to give children an opportunity to try different sports, with a focus on play and motor learning rather than organized competition.

Methods

This article is based on repeated focus group interviews with one group of 7 ten-year-old girls participating in a SAP in the western part of Sweden. The girls had no, or limited experience, of practice organized sport on their leisure time. The girl’s lived in a low socioeconomic district with a high proportion of immigrants. In the district there is few sports clubs.

Results

The result shows how the boys have the power to dominate the practice and influence the girls’ experiences of the SAP. And sometimes the boys take over and control the practice in so considerable proportions that the girls find it difficult to participate in the SAP. The study shows that the boys have a better opportunity to use their agency (Alanen, 2014), partly in cooperation with the leaders, and be a part of and influence the sport activities in the SAP.

 Conclusions

The girls in the study felt that they were disparaged and excluded cause of the boys’ behaviour. Hence, it is absolutely necessarily that organizer of the SAP pay attention to gender issues and work out guidelines and strategies so that both girls and boys feel included in the SAP:s all activities. As has been discussed before (Flintoff, 2008), and according the results in this study, it requires more than to just start up sport activities and hope that more alternatives will boost more and new participants.