Our Ladies Adult Football committee held a think in session in the Club last Saturday, 22nd October, from 10-12pm. The aim of the morning was to review Ladies football in Ballyboden St Enda’s and plan for the year ahead. Three nominated players from each of our 5 adult teams were invited to take part in addition to our team mentors and management.
The morning threw in with an introduction by Ladies Football Chairman Ger Basquel followed by three short presentations. Ladies committee member and Ladies mentor Deborah Heavey spoke about Club Values, the importance of creating a safe space for players & mentors alike, and what motivates us to play and to mentor. Senior A Ladies manager Stephen Maxwell followed with a presentation on the creation of High Performance Player Environments touching also on coach, team and personal development.
The talks ended with Timmy Hammersley, our CPDM, taking the group through the Coaching & Player Development Programmes that are currently being rolled out and an insight into the aims and ambitions of the recently formed Coaching & Games Development Committee.
A workshop followed with the gathering breaking into groups of 4-6 people with reps from the Ladies Committee on each table encouraging, guiding and facilitating constructive and inclusive discussions through a series of pre prepared questions.
Discussions were around the positives from 2022, where we can improve in 2023, assignment of players to each team, protocols around returning to play after injury & extended absence, standard of coaching, the dual player amongst other topics.
Each team brainstormed and devised answers which were then fed back to the main group with all teams encouraged to join in and discuss the answers to facilitate collaboration. A lively debate ensued where ideas were fleshed out and developed on.
In addition to the session, results from a player survey, which was conducted ahead of the forum, was presented to the group. The purpose of the survey was to see how our players are feeling about football & our club, the aim of which was to give a clear understanding of where the section is at the moment and what positive changes need to be made going forward.
The survey was well received with a high participation rate and higher than average times spent completing it.
The results of the survey and discussions of the morning will allow the Ladies Committee to be mindful of what the women themselves want rather than presumptions that the committee may make when putting plans in place for 2023.
Many thanks to all who attended the morning, to all who contributed and to the sub committee of Ger, Rachel and Anna for delivering the session