UoN October Review 2019

Empowering Girls at the University of Nottingham and Expanding Engage Lacrosse

Here at The University of Nottingham, we’ve experienced an overwhelmingly successful start to the season, with over 70 students coming to our first ladies beginners session of the year, as well as over 20 new students attending Engage Lacrosse training, which aims to promote student participation in sport and get people active! We have also witnessed a strong number of returners to both training hours, and the club has already reached a maximum level of new participants, which suggests a promising outlook for the year ahead! In addition, our men’s club have been successful in further expanding their teams too, with over a dozen new students getting involved in their beginners group as well.

Jasmine Waite

Our Girl’s Night In…

In the 2016 to 2017 academic year, 57.5% of students were female with the university gender gap at a reportedly all-time high, considering the acceptance of 30,000 more female students into higher education. By 2018, statistics suggest this further increased again, with almost 98,000 more female applications to UK universities by the end of June 2018, for degree courses commencing last September. This staggering disparity has led to students at the University of Nottingham developing a brand-new initiative called ‘Empower’, which aims to provide female students at our university with opportunities to get involved in various sports and exercise programmes, support them to maintain a healthy mindset and lifestyle, and involve everyone in an inclusive and dynamic community.

#ThisGirlCan

On Sunday 27th October 2019, we launched the programme at our biggest female-only event of the year, called Girl’s Night In. It’s a FREE and exclusive evening for students filled with fun, fitness and freebies- including face painting, hair braiding, a live DJ set, an interactive photo booth and a selection of different sporting activities, ran by our friendly University Engage Team! As UoN Ladies Lacrosse Engage coaches, Grace and I were really excited to offer to run an extra session w/c 21st and get involved, and were invited to hold an indoor introduction to Lacrosse from 8.45pm until 9.15pm in our £40 million sports centre, the David Ross Sports Village. Girls from any academic year were able to attend this taster class, where we introduced them to the basics of throwing, catching and shooting, through practising in pairs and small group drills. Not only Lacrosse was on offer, but the opportunity to try Salsa, Rugby, Wheelchair Basketball, Synchronized Swimming, Taekwondo, Volleyball, Gymnastics, Judo, Netball, Mixed Martial Arts and Dodgeball!

Excitingly, Lacrosse is now one of the most popular sports at university, with over 230 teams competing across the country in BUCS during the 2019/2020 season. Therefore, it was a fantastic opportunity for us to introduce even more students to the sport and widen participation to an all-new level at Nottingham. It is estimated over 300 people attended the evening, and Grace and I endeavoured to involve as many as possible in our half-an-hour long ‘Intro to Lax’. Some attendees were also already part of our Engage Lacrosse Team (which is a fun, reLAXed, social hour of training, which we provide every Thursday evening, for either complete beginners, or students who don’t have the time to dedicate themselves to more regular, intense team training sessions with a BUCS team). It was encouraging to see so many people enjoy getting to grips with the sport (and appreciate our weekly sessions!)

“Everybody looked like they were having a really fantastic time and it was great to see such a strong uptake of a novel and usually less over-subscribed sport.”

spectating Second year student

The evening also inspired several new students to register for our next Engage Lacrosse training hour, after enjoying the thirty minute taster session so much! Overall, the evening was a particularly exciting and enjoyable opportunity to expand the profile of the sport, and introduce the game to an entirely new intake of students, who all seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves just as much as we did!

“I played lacrosse in school and didn’t plan to continue at university, but after having such a good time tonight, I will have to get back into it and join the Engage Team now!”

participating FIRST year student

Closing Commments

Our first month back this term has completely exceeded expectations, so Grace and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the semester has in store for the club at Nottingham! As a much-welcomed, over-due break from chilly training evenings outside on the 3G pitches, our Social Secretaries have arranged our annual Lacrosse Family Social for the first Wednesday in November, which we hope will integrate and introduce people from every level within the club with one another. The twofold aim is to also further increase and expand player interest in not only developing friendships within our wider lacrosse community, but pique everyone’s participation in the sport in general too. We aim to utilise the opportunity to connect newbies with lifelong players, so those with experience can provide freshers with extra support, advice, and guidance to help improve their play, while also inspiring beginners to attend senior’s BUCS matches to support our teams from the sidelines!