Back to basics
Women leading ourselves is always the best thing for our sport
Yes, I 100% made everyone put on their “game face” for this photo.
I met Kimberley Kan through my partner. She loves football just like I love rugby, so naturally we get on. We shared a coffee and our special interest of telling women’s sports stories last year. She told me about her fantastic, self-made series, The Journey North. It’s now firmly on my to-do list to find an excuse to work together.
When I heard she was part of a crew running taster sessions for women’s football, of course I wanted to go along and support. What I’ve experienced over the last couple of weeks is all the things I know sport is capable of. How empowering those in community to lead their community is always the best pathway forward for progress.
What is clear from this programme is that it is designed very clearly with the participant in mind. It’s not caught up in hitting metrics or fuelling club tribalism. It’s there to welcome any and everyone that may be interested, into the beautiful game. This starts on social media where pinned posts outline what to expect but also (all teams take note!) details on how to get there including POV directional videos, public transport and parking information.
When you arrive, there are QR codes which direct you to a sign up form. Filling in the form will put you on the list for updates but also immediately send you documents full of information on football pathways and how to watch women’s football for free. Are you kidding me? Never in my life have I ever received such detailed information from my chosen sport. Again, I am taking furious notes for my own sessions.
The contents of the pathways document.
Imagine recognising that your players are also going to be your fans!
Now let’s talk vibes. It’s something I’m seeing folks understand more across sports but there’s nothing wrong with your training having a backing track. Putting music on sets a tone and fills some of the quiet space that would otherwise be filled with the nerves of newbies. The coach to player ratio is something I haven’t seen at this rate before. The session is structured with a couple of leads and then a cast of supporting coaches who work around them.
These supporting coaches are basically vibe captains. There to jump in for demos, provide encouragement to participants and tautoko the coaching lead. This a great way to get your senior/experienced player group involved to help set the standard. It also ensures there is always a good number in attendance.
I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve shown up at a sports training only to discover I’m one of a couple of players in attendance. It’s immediately a downer no matter how hard the coach works to bring the energy up. When people arrive here though, they are met by a ready made group of engaged footballers.
Everyone warms up together and then we stretch and connect. This is facilitated by a round of names, pronouns and sharing q highlight of the week. It’s simple but important to hold space for that connection. Like we used to say in political organising - people come for the cause, connect with the organiser but ultimately stay for each other.
The group then splits into two, with one lead coach taking the beginners and the other, the more confident players. It’s a reminder here of the importance of setting your foundation. I played football from age 6 or 7 to 21 but I honestly feel like no one ever broke down the different TYPE of dribbling techniques and when it is you would deploy them. It made me reflect on my own coaching and the importance of always going back to the fundamentals. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the game, your development pathway could have led you into any number of bad habits or blindspots.
We finish with a game cause that’s what it’s all about and then another round of feedback from participants. Such is the culture they have created, everyone claps after a person speaks. It doesn’t matter how big or small their achievement is. That shit is GOLD.
Although I went along to support my mate, it’s actually allowed me to reconnect with my passion for playing sports. I’ve transitioned of late to coaching, mainly out of necessity than my burning desire for the role. I knew I had the aptitude and that my club had the need. I’ve always tried to be a team player so at this point in time that meant becoming my team’s coach.
But I miss running around. I miss hyping my teammates up. I miss not having an awareness or engagement in the politics. I miss having a physical outlet for my competitive nature. So while I’ve already committed to another coaching another season, I think I want to play another one too. Except I’m starting to think it might be just for fun. And right now, that fun is looking a lot like football.
That’s just my perspective as a participant but as you know, I love handing the mic over to the folks at the centre of the mahi. So here’s what Kimberley had to say, about the origin story of the Women’s Summer Skill Centre.
I am such a professional!
“It started with a (football) dream. The Women’s Summer Skill Centre was an idea which I had been considering for a few years since I started playing football in my 20s. I joined a football team with little background in football and understanding of how the local leagues worked, and it was quite daunting. I also saw other wāhine going through the same experience as they attempted to pick up football as an adult with no prior football knowledge.
As I started thinking more about the barriers women face picking up football as adults, it dawned on me that there is inequity in football backgrounds of women starting the sport as adults when compared to men in the same situation.
I wanted to tackle this inequity and barriers to women participating in a ‘male-dominated’ sport so other women wouldn’t go through the same struggles I did, and started considering a skill centre where adult women could learn the basics of football.
Society has considered football a ‘boys sport’ for quite a long time, with football being banned for women/girls in regions such as the UK, Belgium, Brazil, Germany and France as late as the 1960s. There is a gender equity issue when it comes to football, created by our past society and social norms and expectations, which has resulted in not only the low women participation rates but also developmental stagnation of the women’s game.
Even if current society is changing its perceptions of those who can and should play football, those girls who would have been affected by the societal challenges of not playing football in their youth— having never had the opportunity to take up or dabble in the sport— are now adult women with limited football backgrounds. This makes it more difficult to pick up the sport later in life for women.
Often men who begin playing later in life, as adults, have dabbled in football from either playing at school or messing around with a football alongside their friends as kids. This makes it easier to pick up the sport later in life for men.
Ultimately the difference in background means the skill level and confidence level start point of men and women beginning football as adults are not equitable. Women starting football later in life will essentially have comparatively fewer skills and understanding of playing the game, affecting not only the overall level and development of the women’s game, but the likelihood of women picking up the game as adults.
This is a problem and a barrier to women picking up the game as adults, one which is not often addressed.
With the success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 I decided it would be the perfect time to leverage off the World Cup and capture those women who had discovered a real desire to play football, I decided to turn my idea of creating a safe space for women to learn the basics of football into a reality.
There was a repeated narrative about how the World Cup would encourage young local children, especially girls into football. This narrative failed to address another audience; adult women!
For young girls there are more visible and easier pathways to join the sport, with many schools and clubs offering teams to join and New Zealand Football creating extra pathways on the back of the World Cup. For women, it’s harder to find these pathways, and can be a mental and physical challenge for these women to get involved for the first time when they have never before.
Just the previous year in 2022, I had attended adult skateboard lessons run by Waa Hine Skate’s, Bailey Te Maipi who was providing a safe and encouraging space for wāhine, queer and non-binary folk to give skateboarding (also a very male-domianted sport) a go. The positive and safe environment and culture Bailey created at her sessions, and seeing others who look like me having a go at a new sport gave me further motivation to make the skill centre happen.
Women are a large under-targeted demographic in the football space. I wanted to use football as a vehicle of positive social change and challenge current social norms. I also wanted to break down the barriers of participation for other women and create a football skill centre where women who haven’t had any football background, or have had a break from the game, can develop the skills and confidence to return to or join the beautiful game. I also believed this would be a great place for our attendees to meet others who are like them and create connections with each other.
After the World Cup, I approached the club that I play for, Island Bay United (IBU) for assistance in making these centres happen. The club executive committee supported the centre and provided us the space to hold the centre on. Capital Football has also provided us with gear and redistribution equipment from the World Cup.
To get the centre off the ground I knew I’d need some help. I reached out to other women I knew who were passionate about growing the women’s game. Jo Bower and Em Johnston came on board without hesitation. Both Jo and Em share the same vision as I, and have a real desire to grow the women’s game. We were confident that targeting grassroots was where we could make a real difference.
Jo and Em have been absolutely integral in getting the centre up and running, making it look professional on a shoestring. Jo has been handling all of our comms and working with our partners, and Em has been our head coach, tailoring the sessions each week for our attendees, ensuring the sessions are designed for beginners but most importantly coached to adults.
We anticipated we’d need more help at the sessions, and reached out to the women’s teams at IBU to see if players would be interested in assisting or coaching at the centres to encourage and support the attendees. We have been lucky enough to have players from every women’s team be a part of the centres and also promoting the centres on our behalf on social media. We have also had amazing non-club affiliated footballers come in to support the centres, including Bailey from Waa Hine Skate.
A group shot from a Waa Hine Skate session, with instructor (and my fiancee lol) Bailey front left and our hero, Kimberley, just over her shoulder.
The Women's Summer Skill Centre (WSSC) officially began on November 30th 2023 and is a safe, inclusive and encouraging space where all women (including cis women, transfeminine and trans women) 18 years+ learn the basics of football and get involved with the beautiful game. We also provide documents on how the football pathways work in the capital region as well as the different clubs, teams and leagues in the region and how to contact them. The centre will run until mid-February which will coincide with the start of many local clubs' pre-seasons. We hope that many of our attendees who are keen to continue their football journeys will feel ready to join these pre-seasons with some football knowledge and skills under their belt.
WSSC not only gives beginners the basic skills of football but also a similar simulated environment to a team training which participants can become comfortable in, and ultimately gain the confidence to join a team or be ready to tackle their next season with more confidence if that is where their football journey takes them. We also are aware this may be the only space some might play football, due to time or cost barriers and are wanting our centres to cater to these individuals too.
To further break down the barrier of participation in football, especially for those who have never played before, I wanted to ensure these skill centres would be free. A big barrier to participation is cost. By providing a free programme we hoped to make these skill centres inviting, and generate genuine interest and personal investment of newcomers.
At the centres we wanted to create a safe and welcoming community where we would share not only our knowledge but also love of football with our attendees in a positive and safe environment in the hopes they will leave our centres feeling confident with their skills in a fun and enjoyable environment.
The skill centre was created by women for all women, and it has been super empowering to see all these amazing wāhine thriving at the centres.
I’m endlessly grateful for everyone who has volunteered their time and experience to the skill centre, and essentially made the dream of a skill centre a reality, the sessions would not be as amazing as they are without everyone who is involved.”
Football is bloody lucky to have Kimberley Kan. Isn’t this all just another example of what is to gain if sports governors get over themselves and hand over the reigns to the grass top leaders of our grassroots movements.
It’s testament too of the unexpected ripples of our influence. I know Bailey with Waa Hine just wanted to create a space she wished existed when she started skateboarding. She would never have guessed that this would lead to helping to encourage Kimberley to do the same.
If you’re a wāhine who lives here in Wellington and want to give football a try, there’s still a couple of weeks of these sessions to go. Jump on over to the Women’s Football Centre and get amongst!
With you,
Alice