Women in Sport

vxinternationalpmh
Jun 2, 2015
3 min read

I have just this minute listened to Jonathan Cowap's feature on BBC Radio York this morning about Women in Sport week and thought it an opportune moment tell you where VX fits in here Quite simply VX does not discriminate. It is one of the very few sports where males and females play on an equal footing, and one of the even fewer sports where you have to actually exert yourself and sweat where they compete on an equal footing. A team can be all male, all female or any mix. There are no quotas, no ratios. Because of this uniqueness in sport VX International was asked to present at the recent National Women Play Sport Conference 2015 and made the point that VX is NOT a programme to get women involved in sport, rather we just do not discriminate. We do not have women's teams (OK, when we spread to certain countries we might have to because of religious laws) but in general we do not divide the sexes. One of the things that came out of the conference is that perhaps it is difficult in established sports because there is an ingrained cultural attitude that needs changing. We simply do not have that. Because we are such a young sport we do not have those attitudes and simply treat players as players. Just one or two examples: Last year's Div 2 champions were a squad of 5 females and 2 males I noticed in one league match last year that it was 50:50 - on one side were 4 girls and 1 guy and on the opposing team were 4 guys and a girl The York club is all male BUT the club at Easingwold is about 50:50 - there is one family and Mum and all three daughters play. The only one who doesn't play is Dad Ripon VX club now has more girls than boys (and a couple of the Mums are thinking of taking it up) At Easi-RockIts there are more female coaches than male coaches we have girls playing who are very talented in other sports and on the other hand we have girls playing who do no other sport whatsoever. At Easi the youngest girl is 7, the oldest is 55. The new Worcester Club is being established by two girls.

The Stillington club was established by and is run by a woman. The player ratio is approx 50:50

The Kirkbymoorside Bullz also has a good percentage of female players Our current hottest prospect in the sport is - is just 13 and is a girl. She has only been playing about 17 months but now is training with some of the top adult players in the sport. Last year, when she was just 12 and had been playing 18 months she acted as a sparring partner for some of the players training for the V2 World Cup. She drew with the African Nations Champion. Then played the reigning World Champion and lost by 8 points. Then she beat me (her coach) for the first time. The next day she drew with the African Nations Champion again. Then the Royal Navy Champion was very lucky to clinch a draw against her, right on the whistle. Then she beat the Danish No. 1 by 10 points. VX's total gender neutrality is the reason why we were asked to present at the conference and why the presentation caused so much excitement among the delegates. Why not give VX a go - see if you can match the girls