Improving Coaching to Empower Young Women in India

Improving Coaching to Empower Young Women in India

By:  Linda Whitehead, Soccer Coach & Canadian SportWORKS Officer

Its 6:30 in the morning and one of the YUWA staff opens the front door of the house to a porch full of smiling female faces, eager to start football practice. First, you need to understand for these young girls merely showing up at YUWA takes enormous courage, as it flies in the face of their cultural norms. Add to that their unbridled joy and love for football, and it creates an infectious, unstoppable force that I was privileged to be invited to share.

A few weeks ago I traveled halfway around the world to Jharkand, the poorest, least literate and most lawless place, in India. When a girl is born in Jharkhand, her life has usually already been planned out for her. She is isolated— if she is not seen working, she is harassed. She is illiterate—more than six in ten women here can’t read. She is married off—Jharkhand leads Indian states in child marriages. She remains vulnerable— an estimated 30,000 girls from Jharkhand are trafficked every year. She gets pregnant. The cycle continues. YUWA use soccer (football) in Jharkand to empower young girls and combat child marriage, illiteracy and human trafficking. After existing for more than 4 years, YUWA has over 250 girls involved and have gained a grudging respect from the villagers and cooperation from the girls’ parents.  In addition to offering soccer practices in the mornings and late afternoons, YUWA also teaches the girls English, Math and Life Skills.  The team captains track school attendance and girls can only play if they regularly attend school. YUWA’s request to SportWORKS was to gain soccer coaching expertise, and that’s where I come in.

I spent my first day at YUWA House, observing their routine, watching their coaches and players in action and discussing their soccer needs with Franz Gastler, the founder of the organization. I was so impressed with the enthusiasm and desire of the young coaches to work with the players in conditions that by North American standards would be considered impossible; too many players, not enough balls, too little space and uneven dirt playing fields.  However the focus and intensity displayed by the players far outshone any inadequacies of the physical needs of the practice. The joy of “playing with skill” was so strong it completely held all my attention and pushedany other issues to the periphery.

I conducted a coaching workshop the following day with Franz, 7 YUWA teenage coaches and 36 of their senior aged players (Under 15 yrs).  YUWA hopes that many of the senior players will choose, in a year or two, to become coaches within the organization. A good friend of Franz’s and local soccer coach, Sandeep, assisted me with translating my coaching instructions from English to Hindi. Based on my observations from the previous day, the workshop focused on coaching methodology and the importance of planning a themed session. I role-modeled a practice session, then facilitated a session with the coaches in planning and executing a practice plan with the assistance of the players. The day was deemed a success when Franz, Sandeep and I witnessed the young coaches successfully coach segments of their planned practices with the players in a fun, and yet focused environment.

Between attending practices and mentoring the coaches, my time at YUWA house was spent educating the YUWA staff in technical, tactical and physiological issues when coaching female athletes. There was so much to discuss and so little time. However we managed to piece together an action plan for the next few months that will have me create coaching curriculum to further educate their coaches, which I can send electronically to YUWA. In addition I am going to assist the organization with expanding their contacts in the international football world and provide some administrative support on a couple of existing projects. I am looking forward to a continuing rewarding relationship with YUWA and I thank everyone at SportWORKs for this humbling and wonderful opportunity.