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Autoethnography

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At the initial stages of my participation, I was overwhelmed both by the fact that I was new to the team and also that, it had been years since I played volleyball. I was in a pretty bad shape. From relevant previous experience, I knew I had to be very careful and tactical in play to avoid injuries and complete breakdown. I played it safe and cautiously because I did not want to truncate or miss any minute of the fieldwork. With time, I got better conditioned, and now advanced to become an active participant.

Active Participation

Being an active player enabled me to be totally immersed in the volleyball team, have a better understanding of the observations made and why participants behaved the way they did and how these factors influenced …show more content…
Experience acquired during data collection through participant observation and interviews, assisted me to gain a better understanding of what influenced participant’s decision to play sports. Autoethnography creates a better understanding of participants (Ngunjiri 2010). For example, through autoethnography, I confirmed what the participants said about socialisation aspect of participation in sports, being an integral reason for their participation. Additionally, I got to understand why participants grumbled and complained the time was inadequate for them to have enough play. Like the other participants, when I started to play, I barely had enough play time. This helped me have a better understanding of why participants constantly complained that time was woefully inadequate. Bain (1995) advocated autoethnography as an excellent means of enquiry into sports, physical activity and health. This approach to data collection gave me a better awareness and better understanding of the participants providing me a more subjective knowledge thus personal knowledge gained through experience (Bain 1995) of sporting activity. To gain an overall understanding of what influences women to participate in

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