Developing an U12 girls
team within your club
Background
We are passionate about ensuring there are the right opportunities for a
girl of any age to enjoy rugby in her local area, and we feel that U12
girls’ teams are key for girls aged 10-12. As a result Scottish Rugby’s
domestic rugby department have created this resource to help clubs
develop U12 girls’ teams.
Contents
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Background
Maximising potential
Key themes PCS
How to start
Contact
Club buy in
What girls’ want
Promotion
Girls’ open day
Train
Play
Events
Case study
Maximising Potential
Women and girls’ rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the world
with over 1.5 million females participating, which is over 20% of the
overall playing population. Scottish Rugby have made Women and
Girls’ Rugby a priority and appointed Sheila Begbie MBE, as the Head
of Women and Girl’s Rugby and have started to implement a 10 year
national strategy.
"Every women and girl to take part and benefit from rugby at a
level and role which they aspire to - from the pitch to the board
room -their early years throughout their life"
Vision of National strategy for women & girls’ rugby
2015 -2025
U12 girls’ rugby is one of the biggest potential growth areas in clubs
across Scotland. As shown in the table below, the current opportunity to
play mixed rugby up until the age of 12 is minimal compared to capacity,
which suggests the mixed opportunity is not what the majority of young
girls would like.
Number of girls in mini clubs across Scotland
120 Clubs
U8
U9
U10
U11
U12
Total
Total Players
166
77
104
71
95
513
1.4
0.6
0.9
0.6
0.8
4.3
Average Players
Scottish Rugby player registration figures 2014/15
On average we only had one girl per each age group within mini
sections across Scotland! Lets turn that one girl into ten!
Positive Coaching Scotland
Key themes from girls’ rugby workshop
Think like a girl… What challenges does an 11 year
old girl face?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Perception and image of rugby – being told it’s a boys sport
Girls that are new to the sport can be intimidated about the
physicality of contact with the boys
Pathway – where can she play once she turns 12? Have to leave
friend group
Facilities – are there enough changing rooms for separate
changing?
Example of a mixed team,
with only one girl!
Now think like her coach/club... How do we overcome challenges?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Promote club with inclusive language and images
Start a girls only U12 team – with big emphasis on “social” and
“fun”
Educate parents that rugby is a sport for all – change perceptions
Create female role models within club – players, coaches and
volunteers
How to start
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Contact the Women and Girls’ Development Team
Get club buy in
What do girls want?
Promotion
Girls open day
Train
Play
1. Contact W&G Development
North
Kimberley
Jamieson
07580 463 857
kimberley.jamieson@
sru.org.uk
West
Jennifer Miller
07580 904 891
[email protected]
East
Sarah Quick
07815 490 311
[email protected]
2. Get club buy in
It is incredibly important the U12 girls team is welcomed as part of the
club and mini section and is treated equally as any other team would.
Arrange a meeting with the club committee to propose plans for the girls
team and get them on board. Once the committee is on board you can
then start to think about the following areas:
• Are we part of the constitution?
• Can we get a representative on the mini section committee?
• Facilities and equipment
• What volunteers do we need? At least three to make it happen!
• What is the process for the girls becoming club members?
• Who updates the player registration for the club?
• Do we have a club development officer to support links with local
primary schools? Who is the Active Schools Coordinator? Contact
head teacher or school teachers?
3. What girls want?
Research shows three of the key drivers for girls in sport is fun, friends
and fitness.
•
•
•
•
•
Girls want to be consulted and offered a choice
Enjoyment – they want to have fun
Peer group/social – they want to stay with their friend group
Role models – “you can’t be what you cant see”
Clean facilities/changing rooms
Where can you find more information?
www.womeninsport.org/
www.scottishwomeninsport.co.uk/
www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/
www.sportscotland.org.uk/schools/active-girls/
young.scot/ypsp/articles/motivation-rachels-story/
3. What girls want?
The following is an example of impacting behaviours in schools, think
how you could adapt this for your team. Women In Sport’s Report: What
sways women to play sport?
School: Ideas to impact behaviour
Possibilities
Togetherness
Assemblies about
stories of inspirational
sports women.
Especially early stages,
small triumphs and
resilience.
More ‘just for fun’
sessions for older year
groups – build in
socialising/making
friends.
Greater visibility of girls
‘like her’ participating in
schools, community and
the media – e.g.
different shapes/sizes.
Building in ‘socialising
time’ into training
sessions.
Older girls helping with
training and taster
sessions for new sports.
School guiding and
facilitating opportunities
for girls to participate in
local community sports
opportunities.
Teachers stimulate
conversations that
challenge the idea of
sporty vs non-sporty
people and skewed
media representations
of women and their
bodies.
PE teachers encourage
girls who are on the
school squad to bring
friends to training who
aren’t.
Belonging
Round-robin feedback
after sessions, for the
girls to share what they
are proud of/have
appreciated from others
in the team.
Awards and recognition
– gold stars need to
stop after primary!
Parent-child and family
based activities,
especially at entry level.
Informal ‘Commitment
Contracts’ between
friends and team mates.
Framing the value that
variety of girls will keep
the focus off
skills/ability – e.g.
appointing a social
secretary.
3. What girls want?
Women In Sport’s Report: What sways women to play sport?
Support
Buddy system for older
girls to share experience
and support younger
girls.
Encourage girls to
share their stories with
one another – to
normalise talking about
being active with peers.
Nudge friends to
support girls playing in
fixtures (and prime them
to participate).
Get parents on board
with regular
communication – e.g.
social media site
celebrating all types of
success, update on new
opportunities.
Share girl’s stories
about vital role
family/parents play
supporting practically
and emotionally – e.g.
for continued
encouragement.
Progression
Internalise
PE teacher/coach
personalising feedback,
praise and tips.
Framing participation
around ‘feel good’
benefits and positive
impact on
confidence/studies – e.g.
recharge brain.
Setting mini-goals each
month/session to help
girls feel a sense of
progression.
PE teachers/coaches
guiding reflection on
small personal
achievements/ how they
are feeling after session,
e.g. energised etc.
Top Tip – reducing drop out
The transition between playing mixed rugby into
girls only rugby at the age of 12 is causing girls
to drop out of the sport, due to lack of
opportunity in her club or local area. Introduce
girls only at U12 so they go through the
transition as a team. Evidence shows that girls
want to stay with their friend group!
4. Promotion
Getting the word out there is a vital step and there are many ways in
which you can promote your new team:
• Local press
• Newspapers
• Social media – Facebook, Twitter
• Current girls in club promote through friends
• Recruit through families within the club
• Invite local schools and Brownies/Guides groups
• Scottish Rugby media
• Use Scottish Rugby promotional material
5. Girls’ open day
Hosting a girls’ open day is a great way to kick start your girls U12 team.
Have an interactive day where you get as many girls down as possible
to have fun and try rugby. This event can also be used to engage the
parents and hopefully gain potential volunteers to help run the team.
1.
Set date
2.
Club coaches plan what they are going to deliver on the day
3.
Promote: current family's within club, local schools,
Brownies/Guides, multi sport groups and sponsors
4.
Arrange female role models to be there on the day: Female club
members, local senior team players and national team players
5.
Provide information on future sessions and how to join the club
6.
Have fun!
6. Train
For a high level of player retention it is really important you deliver an
organised and engaging session. See links below to ensure your
coaches have the right qualifications and advice on what content your
sessions should have, for the age and stage of the participants.
Get qualified coaches…
www.scottishrugby.org/getinvolved/coach/getting-started
http://www.scottishrugby.org/getinvolved/coach-game/coaching-children-ukcclevel-1
Deliver the right sessions…
www.scottishrugby.org/sites/default/files/editor/i
mages/mini_rugby_coaching_planner.pdf
Long term Player Development Pathway
It is key to train at the right stage - ‘Learn to Play’
www.scottishrugby.org/sites/default/files/editor/docs/sru_ltpd_brochure_sml.
pdf
7. Play
U12 girls only teams are a way to attract significantly more girls into
your mini sections, all girls who wish to play for their mixed team can
still do so.
Where do the girls only teams play?
1. Add a girls U12 section to current club
festivals/tournaments/fixtures
2. Girls tournaments organised locally
3. National girls tournaments from Scottish Rugby
What variation of the game?
To play U12 girls’ rugby you must be 10 or 11 years old on the 1st of
September at the start of the current season. They will play in
accordance with the age grade law variations for P7/U12 girls, found on
Scottish Rugby’s website.
www.scottishrugby.org/get-involved/coach/resources
Scottish Rugby events
Scottish Rugby are running three national girls U12 tournaments linked
to the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. The tournaments will cater for
all levels of experience, you can enter one of the following categories:
• Experienced
• Emerging
• Touch
26th
Sep
March
2016
2017
North
25th
West
East
Enter the national U12 launch event on Sunday 25 September by
emailing [email protected]
7th
May
2017
Case Study – Huntly RFC
Huntly U12 girls started with a father, who’s
daughter had started playing rugby in a mixed
environment in Huntly’s mini section – up until
P4. Steven was saddened when his daughter
decided to stop playing for two and a half years
because she did not like contact with the boys.
With her brother still playing and Steven still
coaching, he looked at options to get his
daughter back playing.
How do I get my daughter back into playing?
Steven looked into launching a girls’ only section at the club, that ran on the same days as their
mixed minis sessions so there was no change to their routine, only who they trained with. An
environment where his daughter could invite all her friends to enjoy rugby!
How Huntly got results
• Steven saw the numbers increase each Saturday, as he had identified
that there are different drivers for girls to play rugby, such as the social
and friendship aspect of the game.
• Steven grew to understand the girls learned in a different way as they
increasingly asked ‘how’ and ‘why’, yet tended to pick up new skills
quickly. He realised that in order to grow and develop, his coaching
needed to adapt.
• A key role in their success was, in no doubt, the backing from his club.
This ensured that the girls were welcomed as an integral section within
the minis, and allowed them to be included in future festivals to keep the
girls competitive.
“The girls are
interested in
coming back every
week to be with
their friends – It
has to be fun!”
Steven Hutcheson
Huntly Coach
Huntly’s first success in girls rugby was building their U12 squad to 16 players in the 2014/15
season. The greatest achievement of this programme was the player retention through the
transition age at 12 and the club now have 20 girls competing as an U15 squad this season, as
well as nine girls in the new U12 squad!
Huntly RFC
2014/2015
Current
U12
16
9
U15
2
20
Total
18
29
Coaches
1
3
Huntly RFC have discovered that developing girls rugby can provide many benefits to the club.
Not only are the new players increasing the membership and diversity within the club, there are
now three new coaches and a referee involved.
visit scottishrugby.org for more information
@scotlandteam