Fantastic free football sessions for girls are in full swing at Ark Boulton Academy in Sparkbrook. The weekly sessions are lead by a female football coach, and offer a safe and welcoming environment for girls with an interest in the game to come together and develop their skills.
We spoke to Tiana (a member of the M.A.D. Youth Panel) who coaches at the sessions:
I’ve been at Ark Boulton Academy for almost 6 months and I’ve had the pleasure of watching the girls on the team grow in ability, skill and especially confidence, which is vital for young girls’ mental health.
When I joined the Academy as a coach, I put an emphasis on structure and organisation by planning, adapting and creating diverse sessions. This helped with the girls’ confidence as they were able to improve on individual skills in football in order to improve at the game as a whole. I did this through session plans based on particular skills, such as dribbling and shooting, and monthly individual feedback for each player. This feedback helped the girls to know what they did well and also what they could improve on.
A lot of the girls at the after school club felt quite insecure and didn’t know how to express themselves. This is a struggle for most teenagers so by making sure my sessions were fun and open to feedback and suggestions, they now have blossomed into vocal and secure students on and off the pitch.
Aside from confidence, another barrier that our team has faced is the lack of motivation to come to the sessions. Some girls didn’t want to come because they never went to matches against other schools, there wasn’t a female coach, there weren’t many girls there and so on. When I started there were maybe 4/5 girls per session and now we have over 18 girls enrolled due to the presence of a female coach, sessions that are engaging and active and an increase in matches with other schools. While it’s still hard to get girls to come to after school clubs every week, the fact that my sessions are focused on fun, positive mental health and ideas from the participants themselves, makes it a welcoming space without stress.
In the future, I hope these sessions will be bigger and better, even more inclusive and will continue to have an impact on these girls.
For more information you can contact safeera.hickson@sportbirmingham.org