TRAINING WOMEN/GIRLS IS DIFFERENT!
Karl Dewazien
Emeritus State Director of Coaching, California Youth Soccer Assoc., Author & Creator of the FUNdamental SOCCER Player Development Methodology.
Are you prepared to learn how women & girls see football [Soccer] and how they expect to learn, play and enjoy the game?
It is exactly the question I asked myself while I was Women Football Development Officer at FC Lyon 1893. I want to share with you some of the research I found crossing insights from Australia, England and France.
If in the future, if you want to empower and grow women and girls through soccer, your challenge will be of course to attract and retain them. You will probably be successful only if you understand them better than anyone.
In 2011, VERVE’s research for the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation gave us a deep understanding of “The ideal sports club for girls and women” (highly recommended) We crossed our study with the Australian Women football development plan and the French one.
In this research, we also understand that the perceived club ‘offer’ is at odds with what the majority of players want; which gives us an overview of the size of each segment.
So, basically, do you think our "male" competition model is suitable when a majority of them just seek fun, fitness and improvements... over competition?
IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS.
A common feature across all of our discussions with women was the importance of the people at the club.
· Sports clubs are about people rather than institutions. Women are engaged with people in the club, rather than with the club as an institution.
· The relationships and atmosphere in a club have a fundamental impact on the enjoyment women get from their favorite sport.
· One of the strongest motivations for joining a club is the opportunity to meet and socialize with like-minded women.
The key driver of loyalty among club members is their relationship with people in the club. Even where women were critical of the institutional elements of their club, they chose to remain at the club because of the group of people that made up the club.
Flexibility
Women, both club members and non-members, commonly talk about the rigidity of sports clubs. In an ideal world, women say that their sports club would be a lot more flexible and have a more ‘informal’ environment.
· Sports clubs are perceived to operate with rigid rules and structures. Women don’t feel that clubs offer them any control over their membership. Rather, clubs dictate the terms around what and how to pay, and when sessions are held. This lack of flexibility does not reflect the dynamics of women’s lives and causes a major barrier to many women joining a club. Women expect to be able to customize sport to fit their needs.
· There is a significant appetite for variety in sports clubs in terms of people, sports and fitness activities and training techniques. Both current club members and non-club members spontaneously talk about the appeal of multiple sports clubs.
· Women display a significant appetite for individual treatment and personal approach.
Conclusion
If we don't take the time to know our audience better, we won't probably be able to assess their desire.
If you want to know more and see how I transformed this research into a strategic development plan, it's here.
Nicolas Decaup, Ashburn United Soccer Club, Melbourne, Australia
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Dear Reader: Give us your personal views on this subject by commenting below! … Thank you!
Your FUNdamental, Koach Karl
Karl Dewazien, Emeritus State DoC for California Youth Soccer Association…1978 -2012
Author of the Internationally Published FUNdamental SOCCER Books Series
Producer of the highly acclaimed ‘9-Step Practice Routine’ DVD.
Internet/Clinician at www.fundamentalsoccer.com
Soccer Professional, Ex- USA National Team, Soccer Hall of Fame Member
5 年I Get so tired reading about how ‘different’ females are to train. All this does not sound like what I wanted out of my athletic endeavor and journey, and it sure does NOT relate to me in ANY sense to how I wanted to be treated as a player. Please don’t tell me that just because I’m the 1% that made it to the top, that my experiences and opinions can’t be taken into account - because i was a youth player just the same as millions now - well before i made it to the top. And was always treated as a top level athlete by all my coaches - nothing else. The conversation should be on the other things that are happening in this side of the game - lowest level of coaches, not qualified to be leading players/ human beings, have no idea what the game of soccer is and how to coach it, treating them different because of gender, clueless on how to manage people, questionable relationships with players and overall a complete lack of respect toward female athletes. great male coaches, Clive Charles to name one. He said there is no difference between male and fThe difference is the bar has already been pre-set so low and askew because they are "girls" vs the sky's the limit to the male player.