Practices linked to All In Plus project

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Olivia CONRAD

Modified 9 Months ago.

BoxSwitch

Organisation responsible:

Vlaamse Boksliga (Flemish Boxing Association]

Strategic field:

☒ Gender equality in coaching

☒ Gender equality in participation (grassroots or elite sport)2

Type of resource/practice:

☒ Educational tools (training activities, curricula, educational materials, etc.)

☒ Awareness-raising initiatives/materials

Target group(s):

☒ Girls/women and Boys/Men participating in boxing clubs

☒ Girls and women not enrolled in a boxing club

☒ (Aspiring) female boxing coaches

☒ Boxing Clubs who have women and girls as participants, but not as coaches

☒ Schools (schoolgirls, 12‐18yrs) and local municipalities

Brief desciption of the resource/practice:

BoxSwitch is a 2‐year project of the Vlaamse Boksliga (April 2023‐December 2024), funded by Sport Vlaanderen (the Ministry of Sport). The main objective is to bring more girls and women into boxing in a sustainable way. Based on available figures of girls and women in martial arts, both for Flanders and Europe, we can conclude that the number of girls/women in boxing is low compared to the number of boys/men. One of the biggest challenges remains the number of female coaches. With 7.7% we score well below the Flemish average here.

The project BoxSwitch consists of several sub-projects explained further below: Start2Coach Ladies Only, Box-infusion, Box-Snack, Ms Boxing.

On the one hand, the project focuses on increasing the participation of women as participants and as coaches through various positive actions and offering role models. On the other hand, we also take broad and targeted initiatives towards boxing clubs in order to reach more girls and women as participants and reduce drop‐out. The sub‐projects are done in close cooperation with different stakeholders such as, boxing clubs, martial arts federations, local governments, schools and training providers. We possible research institutions will be involved the implementation of BoxSwitch.

Belgian Olympic Boxer Oshin Derieuw was the BoxSwitch‐projectcoordinator until December 2023. Until the summer of 2024 she will focus on participating in the Olympics.

Through the combination of all these aspects, the sub-projects, the research aspect and also the efforts of our female top athlete, we will make a switch to more girls and women in boxing in all areas.

Brief description of the sub-projects:

Start2Coach Ladies Only

The Flemish Boxing Association, in collaboration with ’Vlaamse Trainersschool’ organizes yearly Sport Coaching programs for starting boxing coaches. Although over the years we have seen a small increase in the number of female participants for such sport coaching programs, the numbers are still too low.

Therefore we will organize a 15hours Start2Coach Ladies Only training course for coaches that wish to attain a coach‐certification. The incentive is that the Flemish Boxing Association will pay the fee for the course. During the project we will evaluate the need to continue (or not) offering a Start2Coach Ladies only Sport Coaching program. The Start2Coach Ladies Only will be taught by project coordinator and Olympic Boxer Oshin Derieuw.

The goal is to organize two Start2Coach Ladies Only sessions for 20 participants in 2 locations. The long-term aim is to make the coaching education program more gender inclusive and stimulate female coaches to complete the boxing education program which consists of 4 modules (of which Start2Coach is the first); contributing to more (qualified) female boxing coaches.

Box‐Infusion

The aim of Box‐Infusion is to break down the hetero‐normative idea of the (male) boxing coach and this through the “infusion” of female boxing coaches in those clubs that have women and girls as participants, but not as coaches. The underlying rationale of the project is built on theories regarding social learning and the motivational theory of role modelling. A pool of certified female boxing‐coaches will be matched with boxing clubs that wish to participate in this project. The Flemish Boxing Association will facilitate the matching and will provide the certified coaches. Box‐Infusion not only aims to inspire girls and women (to become a coach), but also stir boys and men (pre‐)conceptions about boxing coaches.

Box-Snack (Box after school, Ladies only)

The objective of the project is to offer a series of 10 free lessons in a number of schools.

In this project we develop an after‐school sports offer for girls (age group 12‐18yrs). Qualified female trainer(s) will be provided for this purpose. Where possible collaboration between local boxing clubs and schools will be facilitated to implement a sustainable box‐after‐school program.

Ms. Boxing

For the Ms. Boxing project, we are challenging boxing clubs to propose a strong project idea that aims to get and/or keep more girls and women in the club (combating drop‐out).

Communicatively, we want to frame this campaign around the recruiting theme of superheroes. So it is the clubs themselves who can shape their project. The submitted projects will be assessed by an external jury in order to ensure objectivity. The winning clubs can receive financial incentive (maximum 1000 euros) for their project. We want to promote the winning clubs as ambassadors of the Box‐Switch project, as an inspiration for other clubs (social media campaign) and use them as Good Practices on the website of the Flemish.

Boxing Association.

The long-term aim is create awareness and inspire boxing clubs to take (more) positive inclusive actions targeted at girls and women.