'Netball with attitude!'

I structured our free, two-hour sessions around 30-minute blocks to deal with these fears. I included:

• A long warm-up, to help with injury prevention, introduce rugby-specific training and allow for late joiners.
• A high-intensity training session, based around core rugby skills, to build fitness and get quick rugby skills results.
• A long mid-session stretch, as a drop-off point or so women can just join in for this section, as an opportunity to change tempo and allow the introduction of familiar exercise (yoga/Pilates) to encourage competency.

The stretch was followed by touch rugby games known as ‘the World Cup final’, an opportunity to put rugby skills into a game. I encouraged the women to note when "it looks like we are playing proper rugby". 
I still follow the same format. It works.

Being a mum

The Asics research referred to above reported that becoming a mum is the biggest reason behind women stopping exercising, largely because of time, confidence, cost and not being sporty enough. The same goes for the women at Southwark Tigers RFC.

One of the authors of the research, Dr Dee Dlugonski, said: "Making movement more accessible [might include] providing childcare and catering for all activity levels...[and] being fun, affordable, safe, welcoming and judgement-free". These elements all help to close the gender-exercise gap.

Sport England has also produced a resource pack called ’Go Where Women Are’, to help women to get back into, and then stay in, exercise.

That phrase is key, I think – go where women are. Don’t expect they will come to you – more often that not, they won’t.

What has this got to do with rugby? 

Well, being a mum at our rugby clubs could be an opportunity. After all, as mentioned earlier, more than 13 million women said they wanted to do more exercise.

Many women watch their children play rugby and some give their precious time for free, as welfare officers, doing the catering or selling kit, which are traditional gendered activities for women.

"Becoming a mum is the biggest reason behind women stopping exercising..."

But maybe rugby clubs could do better? Perhaps men could make the tea or manage the kit, and clubs could offer women a chance to play our sport on their terms.

Maybe we could help women get back into exercise within our rugby communities? Maybe we should encourage them to spend their exercise pounds in our rugby venues and keep their children involved in our sport?  

It makes commercial sense as well as making happier and healthier communities. Rugby is an answer – if we change things up, maybe.

The Lillies’ experience 

Some more formal research backs up our experience of the Lillies at Southwark Tigers RFC.

For example, one of our players said, before joining us, that she was worried the "level would be really high and people would be annoyed at me for messing up". But she said the group is "way more fun than she expected."

She described herself as being relatively fit, but, despite this, was worried about "dying on the pitch". What she got from being in the team was, instead, "meeting like-minded local people that I look forward to chatting to every week”. It was, in fact, fun, she was capable and she found community.

Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (1977) developed a theory around intrinsic motivation (as opposed to extrinsic motivation, which are external factors, like money or praise).

The elements that promote an intrinsic motivation to get into, and stay in, sport are: 

• Autonomy: Some choice and the fun element
• Competence: You can do it and you will improve
• Relatedness: Being part of something and having social capital

These are the combined elements that will help women – and, indeed, anyone else – get into and stay in our sport.

We can see that these elements worked for our women in Southwark — netball with attitude, and a bit of sports psychology.