If you are thinking of starting up a session, it’s not easy to know where to start!
The first port of call would be your local EFL (English Football League) Club or EPL (English Premier League) Club to contact their Community Trust or Foundation to see if they run any sessions already. If you’re not sure where or who is nearest, there is a really good set of maps on the EFL Trust’s website here: http://www.efltrust.com/about/map/ This will give you details of all the Championship, League 1 and League 2 Clubs and will take you to their websites. The EFL Trust unites the network of community trusts associated to the 72 EFL clubs and the Premier League Communities cover the 20 Premier League Clubs. Details of the EPL Communities can be found here: https://www.premierleague.com/communities
If they’re not running any sessions, you could always speak to them about getting a new session up and running, as they are more likely to have facilities or coaches already in place. Perseverance is the key! Setting up new sessions can only benefit the Club’s Community Trust and the women in the local community.
You can also speak to your local County FA who may be able to help you or advise you.
We started off with very basic coaching (as in coaching U7s or U8s), beginning with plenty of warm ups (jogging and lots of stretching – laughing is always good too!) and then basic ball skills, controlling the ball, dribbling etc. Try and find a coach who has a minimum of the FA Level 1 Certificate.
Hopefully, with persistence and rallying round friends etc. you will be able to start the ball rolling (no pun intended) and if only a few of you join in the first few sessions, we guarantee once the word gets out, you will have more women joining you. There are so many women out there who would love to be able to do this. The health benefits and wellbeing for women, who maybe haven’t exercised for a long time, are amazing and it doesn’t even feel like exercise, especially when you’re also having fun! The key is to have fun and emphasise that no experience is required. Age is no barrier and nor is ability. This is so important to get the women involved, as it doesn’t matter if you’ve kicked a ball before or not, it’s about enjoyment and learning.
The best place to get women interested, we have found, is to post on your Facebook page or local area Facebook group. Twitter is also a good place to get people involved. In fact, social media is a great place to spread the word, full stop!
If you need any help or want to ask us anything, just email cogscrawley@gmail.com and we will try and help you.
One thing is for sure, once you’ve found a group or set one up, it won’t take long for other women to hear about it and join you! Keep spreading the word!
Once you’ve started up a group, let us know and we’ll add it to our list of teams. Good luck!