32 Physical Education Matters Autumn 2015

Inclusion MattersInclusion Matters

Paul Hildreth and Helen Mackenzie

These Girls Can – and Do! VX and Gender Equality

IntroductionThe involvement of women in sport is a current hot topic as exemplifi ed by dedicated conferences such as the Women Play Sport National Conference and initiatives such as This Girl Can (Parker, 2015). The success of the England women’s football team at the World Cup this summer has brought the discussion about women in sport into even sharper focus with the debate now reaching the mainstream media (for example, Holt 2015).

Although not an initiative dedicated to increasing the participation of women in sport, VX is having great success in this area; this article explores why this might be the case and looks at specifi c examples. As a result of this success, Global VX, the sport's international administrative body, was asked to present at the recent Women Play Sport National Conference (Hildreth, 2015a, 2015b).

What is VX?VX is a young UK sport, launched at the Youth Sport Trust’s Sports Colleges Conference in February 2006. Since that time it has had an impact in schools, colleges, universities, leisure centres, the military, prisons and youth organisations in the UK and has spread to a number of different countries.

VX is played as a team game with fi ve players per team in a sports hall, or as singles (V2) (Bushell, 2013) or doubles (V4) in a squash court. No specifi c markings are required: the aim of the game is to hit opponents with the tennis ball-sized sports balls. Each player uses a VstiX to launch the balls. In VX there are fi ve balls in play, in V2 there are three balls and in V4 four balls. Although referred to as “dodgeball on steroids” in the USA, unlike dodgeball, players are not restricted to their own half, nor are they out when they are hit. The player raises a hand to indicate that she or he has been hit and the referee records the point and tells the player to play on.

VX is an inclusive sport, accessible to players of all abilities and those with a wide range of physical and cognitive impairments. The sport is also totally gender-neutral: there are no ratios. A team can be all-male, all-female or any mix. Even in singles, males and females play on an equal footing. VX is one of the few sports where males and females compete on an equal basis and one of the even fewer sports where they do so and have to really exert themselves.

Of particular interest to teachers seems to be that VX is versatile, fl exible, inclusive, mixed, a ‘no-blame game’ and has honesty, integrity, respect and sportsmanship as its four cornerstones.

VX and women in sportVX’s gender neutrality was the reason for the invitation to present at the National Women Play Sport Conference 2015 and why the presentation was so well-received by delegates. It is important to emphasise that VX is not a programme to get women involved in sport, but rather that VX simply does not discriminate. There are no dedicated female teams (this might have to change in some countries because of religious laws but, in general, there is absolutely no division of the sexes in VX).

A key point to come out of the conference was that in established sports there is an ingrained culture that needs changing. That simply does not exist in VX. As a young sport, VX does not have this culture and the VX community does not have these attitudes; a VX player is simply a VX player, irrespective of gender. In fact, it is recognised that girls are generally better than boys to start with in VX, which raises the question as to why this might be. VX is a game of fi nesse and accuracy, not power. In general, girls recognise this immediately whereas the boys immediately go for a game of power. As beginners this affects their accuracy: they try to send strong shots and long shots but miss the target, whereas the female players are quietly scoring lots of points. VX coaches work to coach power

33Physical Education Matters Autumn 2015

These Girls Can – and Do! VX and Gender Equality

out of players at all levels. This is a key point, even in introductory sessions in schools. Girls also tend to be the fi rst to grasp the idea of teamwork. One of the major benefi ts of VX is that players can be playing at a fast pace within ten minutes. At this stage it is very much an individual approach but, as players get better, structures, communication, tactics and discipline emerge and it is the girls who lead the way down this route.

Obviously, not all girls take to the sport immediately. In introductory sessions there are sometimes one or two girls who don’t get involved. However, with fi ve balls in play it is more diffi cult not to be involved and VX coaches have a number of strategies to get these girls involved in the game: it might just be getting them to keep running, but most coaches generally do better than this. Once the girls have actually thrown a ball at an opponent it often acts as the trigger for further independent involvement.

Everyone can enjoy a high degree of success in VX, even those who claim to have no hand-eye co-ordination. Once they are taught the basic pick-up and the basic throw they have enough to play.

SchoolsFeedback from schools indicates that they useVX in a variety of ways, one of which is to target specifi c student groups, for example, disenfranchised students, less sporty children, and Year 9/10 girls. This latter group comprises girls who might drift away from sport and PE teachers have to fi nd innovative ways to keep them involved. Leicester City School Sport Partnership runs a Women in Sport Day specifi cally for Year 9 girls; this year it involvedVX, with two leading female VX players taking part in a question and answer session and acting as role-models and mentors.

Ripon Grammar School (RGS) is VX England's National Centre of Excellence and uses VX right across the curriculum (Mackenzie and Hildreth, 2014). That includes the use of VX as part of RGS’s Charity Week offerings, House VX and Sixth Form Enrichment – all on a totally equal footing. For the primary schools in the area, the director of sport for Ripon schools runs approximately 30 sports festivals per year. Some of the festivals attract very few teams but for the VX festivals there are 19-23 teams, with one school sending eight teams. The VX festivals are popular with the primary teachers because the sport is accessible to all of their pupils. It is particularly attractive to the less-sporty pupils: they like the honesty aspect of VX and the girls play on a totally equal basis with the boys. Another example in North Yorkshire is Nidderdale High School which is setting up a lunchtime VX club followed by House VX – all run by the sports leaders. Of Nidderdale’s students involved in VX, the majority are girls.

To look outside the UK for a moment, at a high school in the USA two English VX coaches arrived to run an introductory session. They were warned that one particular girl simply did not do sport. After recess, one of the American teachers approached the coaches on the verge of tears: the girl who “simply did not do sport” had gone away during recess and created a poster to advertise the USA’s fi rst school VX club!

Community clubsAlthough VX found its largest user-base in schools, VX England now has exit routes through to international level and at all levels the sport is gender-neutral in all of its disciplines. It is important to explore the gender balance in independent VX clubs, too. Here are a few examples.

Easi-RockItsThe Easi-RockIts club is approximately 50:50 females to males. The youngest girl is seven years old; the oldest woman is in her 50s. In fact, at Easi there is a family where a mother and all three of her daughters play. The middle daughter was introduced to VX at Air Cadets when she was 15 (about six years ago). As a result, the youngest daughter came along to the club. When her mum came to collect her she liked what she saw and also joined the club. Because of that the eldest daughter also joined. Six years later all four of them are still playing, the eldest and middle daughters are respected referees, the middle daughter plays for England and has a World Cup Winners’ medal and Mum is the highest-ranked female player in the country and has an international ranking of fourth in the V2 Masters Category.

Some of the girls at Easi are very sporty; others do no other sport at all but have enjoyed success in their teams. One of these girls is now leaving to go to university but is keen to take the referee exam and remain involved in the sport. She already has experience of umpiring at international level. At a coaching level, there are now more female coaches than male coaches at Easi-Rockits.

HellCatsIn 2011, 16-year-old Sara Cooper was made captain of the HellCats, the rest of the team being boys. This turned out to be a great sporting decision: Sara was a superb captain, leader and organiser and the HellCats went on to win every VX club trophy in 2012, losing only one game in the process, and were made Minster FM’s Team of the Year in the Local Heroes Awards (Local Heroes, 2013).

34 Physical Education Matters Autumn 2015

Inclusion Matters

Ripon VX ClubThe successful Ripon VX Club now has more girls than boys on its books. Some of the girls do no other sport and have league winners’ medals. Two of the mums have already qualifi ed as coaches and two more of the mums are joining the club, having seen their children get involved. One of the girls left to go to university, set up a club there and is now back at the club as a coach.

Stillington VX ClubStillington VX Club was established and run by a woman. The club is constantly growing, has a wide range of ages and has a male:female ratio of approximately 50:50.

Falkirk CannonsAn England youth team travelled to Scotland to play friendly matches against the Falkirk Cannons youth teams and were delighted to see how many of the young players were girls. The England coach (male) commented to the Scottish coaches (female) how impressed he was with the young players, especially the girls, to which the Scottish coaches replied that the girls are currently outshining the boys. At that session the Cannons had fi ve awards to present to the England squad and asked the England squad to select fi ve of the Cannons for the same awards. Three of the awards went to girls (including Most Valuable Player). After the awards had been presented the Scottish coaches informed the England coaches that the recipient (female) of ‘Best Blocker’ award had only been playing three weeks!

These are just a handful of the many examples of gender-equality – and neutrality – to be found in VX clubs.

Two girls had been selected for England but neither was available so this meant Meghan was the only female in the Youth Tournament. She didn't just win her matches and the title but gave the boys a masterclass. For the V2 Youth World Championships 2015 the Cannons sent four players, three of whom were girls.

Administration and advocacy The VX administrative bodies are keen to give opportunities to a wide range of people so do not discriminate in this area either. Meghan Plummer, the 2012 Youth World Champion, is on a panel for young sportswomen in Scotland, spreading the word of VX across Scotland. VX’s Hall of Fame is the highest award that can be given in VX and is intended to honour those people who have made an ongoing, consistent and outstanding contribution to the development of VX. There are very few members, the latest of whom is Helen Mackenzie.

As the sport spreads across the world the same pattern is appearing. In the USA women and girls are getting involved both in playing and administration. In Uganda they are actively seeking to use the sport to empower women. India is still a highly sexist society so it was a delight to see a 12-year-old girl fi ghting for the ball with an adult Sikh male at a training session and to see how many girls were involved at the session. Following these training sessions VX India sent a team of fi ve males and three females to the 2015 World Cup. In such a sexist society this demonstrates the impact of gender-neutral VX. From the beginnings of VX in India, the sport has been embraced by men, women, boys and girls.

CompetitionWe can see that female participation in clubs is very strong but the next step is to see how this participation relates to competitive VX. It must be pointed out that players can play for their own age group plus one, therefore youth players play in the senior leagues at the moment so 14-year-old girls are competing against their male peers and against adults.

The 2014 Division 2 champions were a squad of fi ve females and two males. It was pointed out in one league match in the 2015 league that the ratio was 50:50 – on one side were four female players and one male and on the opposing team were four males and one female. Karen from Easi-RockIts is now the top ranked woman in the country at age 55, beating younger people, male and female, along the way. As a result of this she qualifi ed to compete in the Masters V2 World Championships, gaining a ranking of fourth. The 2012 V2 Youth World Champion was 17-year-old Meghan Plummer from Scotland.

35Physical Education Matters Autumn 2015

To end this exploration of VX and women in sport we would like to present a detailed example of a single player. The current hottest prospect in the sport is just 14 years old and a girl. She has only been playing since December 2013 and has achieved an immense amount, with people talking about her from India to Africa, from Denmark to the USA, from Scotland to Leicester!

At 12 years old, Hannah Smith was brought to a VX club by her friend, having been taught the basics by her in the garden. She had such an impact the coach thought she had played before. Her second session was on the squash court for V2 and a visiting coach also thought she was an experienced player, such was her vision for the overall game. With her coach working to nurture her exceptional talent she beat all her peers in her club, beat the boys in a neighbouring club, beat some adults in her club and then started to train with some of the higher-ranked adult players.

In July 2014, and by now accepted on to the national programme with England, her coach took her to train with some of the players who were in England for the V2 World Cup. In her fi rst game she drew with the African Nations’ Champion. In her second game she lost by a mere eight points to the reigning World Champion

and then beat her coach for the fi rst time. The next night she again drew with the African Nations’ Champion, the Royal Navy Champion was lucky to clinch a draw on the whistle, and then she beat the Danish number one by ten points. She had only been playing eight months and was still only 12!

Having turned 13, Hannah was entered into the local V2 league for her fi rst competitive matches. She won that league with a 100 per cent record and thereby qualifi ed for the National Finals, which she again won with a 100 per cent record. In August 2015, the day of her 14th birthday, she represented England Youth at the 2015 VX Games. A space also became available in the V2 Youth World Cup due to a late withdrawal and, as none of the next ranked youth players were available, as Junior National Champion, Hannah was the next ranked player. She competed as the youngest player ever to compete at this level, won all of her qualifying matches and won a place in the fi nal. Sadly, she had to withdraw on the day of the fi nal due to a recurrence of an old back injury. This was a great disappointment, not only to her, but to the reigning Youth World Champion who was bidding to win the title for the third year running; Hannah was the one he wanted to test himself against!

Dr Paul Hildreth is Director at VX International and Helen Mackenzie is a PE teacher at Ripon Grammar School.

ConclusionThis short exploration of VX indicates the opportunities for girls of all ages – as players, offi cials, coaches and administrators. From its inception VX has been totally gender-neutral, possibly because there are no ingrained cultural attitudes that need changing and because of the number of different factors that make up VX, for example the number of balls in play and the key points that the girls pick up before the boys.

VX is not only attracting girls who are active and successful in other sports: girls who do no other sport at all are also playing. Some play for recreational purposes but some of these girls also go on to compete in team VX and enjoy success there.

This success is not restricted to the UK but is having even more of an impact in some societies where the need is greater. In Uganda, for example, VX is being used to proactively empower women. In this way, VX truly is a sport that represents what gender equality in sport could be.

ReferencesBushell, Mike (2013). Bushell’s Best Bits.

London: John Blake. p.95.Hildreth (2015, April). VX, a Game of Honour,

Integrity and Sportsmanship. Presentation at the Women Play Sport Conference, Birmingham, UK.

Hildreth (2015, April). VX, Part 2! Presentation at the Women Play Sport Conference, Birmingham, UK.

Holt, O. (2015, June 14). Why are so many trying to belittle the women’s game? Mail on Sunday, Sport on Sunday p16.

Local Heroes are honoured at Minster FM Awards Ceremony (2013, Feb 18) York Press.

Mackenzie, H. and Hildreth, P. (2014). Using VX to Increase Participation and Develop Cross-Curricular Links: Ripon Grammar School’s Experience of VX Physical Education Matters 9 (3) pp.14-16.

Parker, J. (2015, January 12). This Girl Can advert: Scared of working out? Watch this. Daily Telegraph website. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11334935/This-Girl-Can-advert-Scared-of-working-out-Watch-this.html [September 9th, 2015].

An exemplary case: Hannah Smith