Creating a Positive Environment in Girls’ Football

We are heavily invested in helping girls in football to adopt a mindset that is encouraged through positive surroundings; at Alliance Football Club, Dubai, this means providing a space for girls to thrive in sports, and in their own personal growth. 

By: Shauna Duffy | Head of Girls Football

For any young footballer, taking their first steps into a football practice can be a daunting experience. A number of thoughts can cast a shadow on their first time on the pitch; there are more experienced players, there are players who have more confidence, and there are players who already have many friends in their group. 

The anxieties that come with doing things for the first time, are certainly more prominent in girls’ football, than boys. Girls are already challenging the stigma that football is just for boys. So, Alliance Football Club knows that if girls take their first steps into football where there is a welcoming, fun, challenging (to suit their needs), and open-to-mistake and development, atmosphere – then there is no excuse for why their first experience won’t be a positive one. 

At Alliance Football Club, we embed simple values and beliefs that lay the foundations to create a positive environment for all players, but especially for our Girls Football Club. Once the foundations are set, it allows for all players, parents and coaches to have a guideline to work with. These guidelines lay down a basis for how to be an Alliance football player, parent or coach. We feel that this adds value to the child’s experience, due to the consistent messages they will receive during their time at football sessions, and at home. Everyone at Alliance Football Club believes in the values we create and share, and this allows for a collective approach to creating a positive environment for our female footballers to learn, grow and develop. 

• Humility; No matter how talented you are, are you humble enough to work towards success with an unpretentious manner?

• Hard Work; You have the talent, but are you willing to give it all you’ve got and more to invest and nurture that talent?

• There is no “I” in team; can you put the interests and needs of your team above your own?

At Alliance we believe a positive environment is a ‘safe place’ for all of our players to experience individual success and team success, along with individual and team failings and challenges. Without showing both sides to football, there wouldn’t be a true representation of the game, leaving young players unsure of how to deal with the hard times if all they experience are good times. Therefore, we reinforce the positive actions our players take, and use them to encourage others to mirror their positive choices. 

Everyone that steps foot onto our Alliance Football Club pitch will see these values being practiced, and taught. There will be many moments where these values will be delivered unconsciously, however there will also be times where our girls will get challenged and tested to encourage positive responses from certain situations. In doing so, your child will be constantly learning about their team mates, but also about themselves and how they can deal with difficult situations. Without exposing young girls to challenging scenarios, they will struggle to deal with hardship and conflict later on in life. Therefore, giving them exposure to difficulties, and supporting and educating them on how to never give up, to not let their gender get in the way, and how to use their support network to develop and grow, embeds a positive approach to difficulties they may face at any point. 

We also encourage players to be intrinsically motivated, which takes away the desire for external objects to prove success. An example being, players being motivated by their own small developments, rather than only seeing success as winning trophies. In finding intrinsic motivation, this allows players to also develop their self-awareness, as they are continuously working on their own development, and have the understanding and vision of what success looks like to them. 

This is where our values come into action, and show what our players are truly capable of. Are they able to continuously work hard and invest even more time than they already do on themselves and their team mates? Are they able to present their successes in a humble way? And are they able to share their success with others, and encourage their team mate’s success too? 

Without listing these values and expectations to our players, they wouldn’t have anything to work towards and focus on, therefore at Alliance Football Club, we believe in the importance of providing expectations for our players, and using our methods on the pitch and off the pitch. More importantly, we do this with the support of parents too, to guide the way for our players to learn, grow and develop as the future decision-makers and leaders in society.