Clubs and organisations up and down the country are offering a variety of women and girls’ only table tennis sessions.

Take a look at the map below to find your nearest session!

Have a look at our Facebook post, and if you like, share and tag a friend who you think would be interested in coming along to a Women and Girls’ table tennis session you could be in with a chance for both of you to win a £50 Amazon voucher.

Why are Women and Girls’ sessions important?

Women and girls have different motivators and barriers in sport to boys and men. These motivators and barriers will also change depending on life stages they are experiencing, meaning engaging females into table tennis is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

The top barriers generally reported by women for not wanting to take part in table tennis include:

• Being the only girl or woman in a session/division and not wanting to play with or against men all the time. Due to the low number of women present, sometimes there is no suitable female toilet or the environment is not suitable for women and girls to be in.
• Other life commitments – research has shown that girls are more likely to drop out of sport at key transition periods e.g. from school to university or from university into a first job.
• Suitable level and social sessions – feedback from the research we undertook with TASS showed women are keen to be re-engaged into the sport but there isn’t currently the right offer at clubs, leagues and at competitions.
• Coaching – not enough female coaches are active in the sport and more coaches need to be up-skilled on how to overcome barriers for women and girls at different life stages, keeping them retained in the sport.

Alongside this, some women and girls will only participate in sport if it is female-only, due to cultural or religious reasons. By only offering mixed sessions, it will never create that environment enabling more audiences to participate in sport.

Do you want to be the first to find out about women and girls information and opportunities? Register your interest here.