Kick start your recruitment
Here are some ideas you can add to your recruitment for your women's team.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been chatting to people about different recruitment ideas I’ve used and had. So, I decided to share three tips and ideas on here.
Some of these are brand new ideas that I’m thinking about, others are ones I’ve used in the past.
Bootcamps
I’ve written about this in the past. Summer bootcamps are a great way to get people down to the club. In previous years, I’ve made sure to mention (in any advertising or to players) that it’s social fitness and open to all no matter their level of starting fitness. I’ve run these for a set number of weeks (usually 5).
However, if you’re in the northern hemisphere it’s currently winter. So a summer bootcamp idea doesn’t really help you out now. A New Year bootcamp could also work, and would provide a space for people to try rugby or return to rugby as a New Year’s resolution.
Language is important, especially around Christmas and New Year. I often speak to players around food being fuel. With any New Year bootcamp, I would be conscious to avoid phrases like ‘let’s burn off those mincepies’. Instead opt for an environment where women can feel free to come along with fear of judgement and they can discover or rediscover social fitness at a rugby club.
Female-friendly sessions
I know, all your women’s rugby sessions should be female-friendly. However, marketing this is key. Even if people can’t attend one taster session, they will scroll your social media to get a sense of what the team or training might be like.
Offer targeted sessions encourage women to come down to a training session, especially from an age group who might not immediatley think rugby is the sport for them.
You could, for example, run ‘Menopause-friendly sessions’. Most of the aims of these sessions are about just creating a space for women to come down, feel welcome and try a new sport.
However, you can also include menopause activities. Try familarising youself with some recommendations from the recent Menopause article from the Female Health Week. You don’t need to vary many of the main activities from a usual taster session. However, I would also (if you don’t already) include a cool down activity, as guidance says cool downs are helpful for anyone going through menopause.
As well as encouraging women to come down, publicising these types of events on social media also act as a recruitment tool. They say that your club/team is welcoming for women. Any potential players, no matter their age, pay attention to this type of message.
Focused-community sessions
Working with local community groups can be ideal for recruitment for a team. This can include the local WI groups, like the Impact 25 initiative.
You could also have sessions with local police or other emergency services. Having taster sessions that are specifically targeted towards different groups work well for building up community relationships, as well as driving initial recruitment.
If you’re running recruitment events for potential players that work shifts, state that players don’t have to attend every training session. That will ease the pressure on potential players who might be working a late shift for the emergency services one week, but then able to attend training the next.
Working with local community groups could be for a one-off session, or you could partner with an organisation for the season and run regular events with them.
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