Community Spotlight: Yeovil Badminton Club
Yeovil Badminton Club are making big strides to overcome the gender disparity in age group badminton in their area with a new initiative.
The club have set up a new ‘Girls Only’ badminton session for girls under 13 to provide a more comfortable space to learn the sport.
While there had previously been a lack of girls taking up badminton in Yeovil, the club’s part-funded sessions have given them a fresh impetus to take up the sport in a safe space.
It has allowed young girls to find their own enjoyment from the sport away from the performance of gender roles that can often be the case in mixed sessions.
“We get a lot of girls coming in but they don’t feel comfortable playing with boys. They get overawed and you can see they want to do it but they don’t feel they can compete,” said head coach Jane Lipton.
“I was reading about Sport England and how girls only sessions help promote self-confidence, so I just decided that I’ll give it a go.
“Last year we put in for the funding and we’ve been running it for a year. It’s been really good. The girls enjoy it, they’ve blossomed and you can see they’re more confident in what they do.
“It’s now getting them to the point where they go out and compete if that’s what they want to do. They don’t always want to but that’s what we’re trying to get them to do, giving them skills and then trying to see if they can use them.”
While the sessions were set-up to enable participation in a less competitive atmosphere with a more co-operative ethos, as the girls’ confidence has grown their own competitive streaks have also been allowed to flourish.
The girls, along with their new found confidence, were taken to an external session in the summer where they were playing with boys aged 10 to 16.
They soon realised they were able to hit the shuttle better than some of the boys and took to the courts ready to challenge for a win.
It was here their competitiveness shone through, as while both sides were prone to errors in scoring, it was the girls who proved the biggest sticklers for correcting their opposition.
Lipton added: “The girls sessions started off as under-13s but there was a group of older children who said they wanted to have a space as well.
“The times we have when we do the junior clubs is dominated by boys so the older girls decided to come and join in and that’s made it a bit more interesting for them and a bit more competitive for them as well because the older girls can hit it a bit more.
“Girls want to learn the skills. Boys will just hit things and run around. They just want to do it and hit it but the girls actually want to know how to hit it and how to hit it better so they’re more skill-oriented.
“The girls just need that little bit more time and they don’t want to be rushed in the same way.
“When boys play games, they like competitive games and the girls like to do a bit of learning and then try to get to use it in a match or a rally because they’re more interested in developing skills than just running around.”
The sessions show that finding the right environment is the key to allowing any player to find their confidence on court, and Yeovil’s commitment to ensuring everyone can access this has allowed girls in the area to fall in love with sport.
Yeovil Badminton Club are now hoping to run a Girls’ Badminton Festival to recruit more children to their sessions and provide a chance for existing participants to show off their new found skills and confidence.
