National Girls and Women in Sports Day Clinic

Today was National Girls and Women in Sports Day and the Minneapolis YWCA held its fourth annual girls sports festival. Myself, Jemma Merrick, and Chad Perkins conducted an Australian Football mini-clinic.

Each mini-clinic had a 30 minute slot. We had 11 girls attend ours ranging in age from about 7 to 14. We first explained (briefly) about australian football and then started with some basic skills. They picked up hand passing and kicking rather quickly and then we had about 10 minutes left for an improvised game. Since we didn't have goal posts, we decided to just count a goal as any ball that crossed the back line. The girls were enthusiastic, played with great spirit, and had a great time! They seemed to prefer hand passing to kicking probably because we were in a small space and it was crowded but each team scored two goals.

Thanks to Jemma & Chad for co-hosting the clinic, to the YWCA for allowing us to participate in the sports festival, and most of all to 11 girls who allowed us the opportunity to give them a brief intro to footy.

I highly recommend that more clubs get involved with NGWSD in their communities next year!