Women and Table Tennis
Where we are now and where we want to be……..
Liz Davidson –Sports Partnerships Manager WSFF, 28th January 2011 Our work Creating a nation of active women
Help Provide expert consultancy to Give the customer sport & fitness industry on 1 what she wants treating women as customers
Create a society Consumer campaigning & in which being promotions to make fit & Inspire healthy women into social & 2 active is attractive cultural role models
Develop policies to Influence government improve leadership, & policy-makers 3 investment & profile Persuade Session
• Using what we know to help us plan • Current participation levels in England • Where the opportunity is. • Increasing participation, progression and representation of women and girls in table tennis - Engaging new participants - The transition from casual player to formal engagement - Getting more women involved in and progressing as coaches Summary and actions There is a wealth of information and data available to us, this afternoon we’re going to have a look at how we can use this to plan for the future in combination with our existing knowledge and insight and some of what we heard this morning. Current participation levels
• Table tennis grew fast as a sport among women from 2005-06 to 2007-08, but failed to grow as significantly in 2008-09 • Only 24,100 women played table tennis at least once a week in 2008-09 • Only bowls and golf have a larger proportion of female players over the age of 55 • Table tennis is the 18th most popular participation sport for women • Table tennis is one of a handful of sports that has an age and ethnicity profile that is not too dissimilar to the female population as a whole
Table tennis is the 18th most popular participation sport for women Proportion of people who play table tennis by gender
All chart-data used in this presentation is taken from the Active People Survey 3 (2008- 09). All English adults (aged 16 and over) who have taken part in the sport at least once a week (moderate intensity), unless stated otherwise. Women Men
0.66%
0.30% 0.29% 0.11%
Played at least once a week Played at least once in the (moderate intensity) last four weeks Profile of people who play table tennis by gender and age
55+ 28% 36% 33% 45%
35-54 29% 34% 36% 26%
16-34 44% 29% 30% 32%
Table tennis All women Table tennis All men playing playing men women Profile of people who play table tennis by gender and ethnicity
10% 9% 13% 10%
BME
90% 91% 87% 91% White
Table All Table All men tennis women tennis playing playing women men Cliff Simms
BME Women’s Participation in table tennis.
Engagement and the opportunity. www.sportingequals.org.uk Profile of people who play table tennis by gender and household income
High 26% (£41,600+) 33% 33% 35%
35% Medium 38% (£20,800- 40% 37% £41,599)
39% 29% Low (under 29% £20,799) 28%
Table All women Table All men tennis tennis playing playing women men People playing as a part of a club, in competition and receiving coaching/ tuition
Table tennis is a straightforward sport that is easy enough to play for fun with no training. As such it has a low rate of formal organised participation
Just one in seven women play as a member of a sports club, and less than one in ten take part in competition
Women also have little interest in receiving tuition. The sport has the lowest proportion of women receiving tuition of all the 46 funded sports
Women*
Men 20.1% 20.1% 14.3% 9.3% 8.7% 5.2%
Club membership Competition Tuition Women as coaches of sport: % of NGB affiliated coaches who are women
One in seven affiliate coaches is a woman – which is about the average for all NGBs 99.1%
80.7%
33.1% 24.9% 16.8% 18.9% 10.9% 14.2%
ASA LTA EMDP The FA
British Cycling England Squash Badminton England English Table Tennis Ass. What women like about table tennis
On the whole, female table tennis players are more satisfied than the average with their sport. Particularly so with the social elements, value for money, ease of participating and own performance Engaging new participants
31.9%
7.1% 4.5% 4.4% 0.19% 4.1% 2.6% 0.83% 1.7% 1.5% 1.0%
Tennis (3) Cycling (2) Athletics (4) Netball (7) Football (9) Swimming (1) Badminton (5) Horse riding (8) Table tennis (22) Mountaineering (6) Squash/ racquetball (10) Sport England’s Market Segmentation tool Current participants Where the demand is…. Where the opportunity lies within the adult population
Helena Elaine Brenda Norma Phyllis Elsie Brenda
• Older working woman 46 – 65 • Typically married, with children who have left home • 10% of adult female population are “Brendas” • “Brendas” aren’t currently very active, but would like to do more. • The main motivations for Brenda playing sport are keeping fit and enjoyment • 51% of this segment say they would do more sport if they were less busy, compared to 46% of the overall adult population. • 23% said they would do more if there was cheaper admission. Both of these issues appear to be more important for Brenda than other adults and could be a barrier to her participation. • 13% would be encouraged by having people to go with and 9% would need more free time which reflects Brenda’s busy life • “Brendas” can be best reached through local papers, face to face communications and like communication to be “jargon free”
See handouts for further information Norma
• Mainly aged 56-65 • Typically single, recently retired, with a basic income to enjoy their lifestyles • 4% off adult female population are “Normas” • “Norma” has below average levels of sports participation. 79% of this segment have done no sport in the past four weeks, compared with the average of 60% of all adults. • 41% of “Normas” would like to do more sport • The main motivations for Norma are keeping fit, enjoyment and socialising • 28% of this segment say they would be encouraged to do more sport if they were less busy, compared to 46% of the overall adult population. • 19% said they would do more if there was cheaper admission and 15% would be encouraged by having people to go with • “Normas ” can be best reached through local papers, face to face communications and like communication to be “jargon free”
See handouts for further information Under 16s
Focus so far has been very much on adult women, but as part of this afternoons discussion’s we will also consider what would encourage more girls to take up the sport and remain involved in it. Compared with many other sports, table tennis is successful in engaging with those groups within society who are often low participators (e.g. older women, and BME women). This is possibly due to the fact that table tennis is a low impact sport, that is relatively easy to just pick up and play – so is accessible to all. However, table tennis is played informally by women, so the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA), needs to consider how to move these casual players into more formal engagement and how to get more women involved in coaching. Group discussion
• Three groups • Topic each - Engaging new participants - The transition from casual player to formal engagement - Getting more women involved in and progressing as coaches
30 – 40 minutes then feedback Feedback from group discussion Possible actions and next steps Many thanks
Further information www.wsff.org.uk http://www.sportingequals.org.uk
Summary and close from Judy Rogers.