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With Women’s Sport Week 2017 in full swing, we wanted to share a success story from a sports club who has taken some simple steps to attract more women and seen fantastic results
Chew Valley Badminton Club recently found out that, for various reasons, it would be losing some female players. To avoid having to drop a team completely, club coaches Will Mellersh and Lynne Joyner recognised they needed to find a way to get more women along to the club!
They decided to run a short, 7 week basic coaching course to attract ladies who are complete beginners or might already play socially, to join the club for an hour a week. They sent out a series of Facebook posts through their club and personal accounts, asking friends and family to share and promote the upcoming course. As a local fitness instructor, Lynne also directly messaged a number of her clients to see if they wanted to try something new.
They had hoped to get a handful of women along to enjoy a fun session, expecting to teach the basics of how to serve and return and maybe progress on to rallies. They were thrilled when over fifteen ladies showed up, ranging in age from 18-65 years old. Some had not played since school, others played socially with each other or with their children. Many of the women were nervous at the start, worried that everyone else would be of a better standard, but Will and Lynne ensured that everyone felt welcome and recognised that all of the women had already taken a huge leap of faith in coming along in the first place.
It quickly transpired that their original session plan was too basic for many of the women, whose skill levels were much more advanced than they had anticipated and following a short coaching session, all of the ladies were enjoying rallies of 30, 40, 50+ shots. Will and Lynne discussed motivations for coming along with the women and for many, it was for fitness reasons, so they also adapted the session to include some fun drills and footwork exercises.
As Will says, these are all simple, easy steps, applicable to all sports and they did not require much effort on their behalf:
“What was remarkable, is the level of positive response in such a short timescale with very little planning required on our part.”
The sessions have taught the club exciting ways to be more welcoming to potential new players and be more aware of some of the concerns potential players need to overcome. After the success of the initial session, the club plans to incorporate the lessons they've learnt and look at its overall offering in terms of the balance between competitive and social play; to be more attractive in the long term to the community as a result.
Top-Tips from Chew Valley Badminton Club to running a successful session for women who are new to the club:
- Understand that people often enjoy sport when they are younger, or at school, and want to get back into it
- There are barriers to participation that women have to overcome, which are often different to men
- Removing as many of these barriers as possible is the key to success, for example by making sessions affordable, accessible, open to all abilities, providing equipment and being flexible with start and end times - in case people need to arrive late or leave early
- You need to create a welcoming environment to put newcomers at ease
- Facebook is a really powerful communication tool to use in your community
- Ask your current members to volunteer their time to help run sessions for newcomers
Thank-you to Chew Valley Badminton Club for letting us share their story. You can find out more about the club by clicking on the buttons below. If your club has a story they’d like to share with us, please get in touch with the team.