National Sport Club Survey

The National Sport Club Survey (NZCS) is an annual snapshot of New Zealand’s 7500 sport clubs.  It is run in collaboration between Auckland University of Technology’s Sport Performance Research Institute NZ (SPRINZ) and the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association (NZASA).  The NSCS focuses on clubs as organisational entities covering management, operations, finances and more. Insights are used to foster important discussions around the sector as well as to advocate on behalf of clubs.

Last week, Nuku Ora organised two workshops for AUT to present the 2022 results. Thank you to Michael Naylor, Mel Johnston, Katherine Hoskyn and Linden Moore for presenting these sessions and taking us through the detail of the results.

There is a current focus on the inclusion of women and girls in physical activity. The recent NZCS results highlighted useful insights which we will cover in the coming issues of our Regional Sector Update.

There are eight factors to consider when thinking about whether you are creating Female Friendly Environments which include changing facilities, space allocation, training times, equipment allocation, coaches, uniforms, appropriate equipment and safety.

• Changing facilities – what are the women's changing rooms and toilets like? Do you have enough toilets? Would you want to use them?!
• Allocation of spaces – are the women’s teams allocated the secondary grounds or facilities all the time? Are they being provided with enough space?
• Training times – are the women’s teams just allocated the times that men don’t want? Do the times that they’re offered work for the women?
• Allocation of equipment – is there enough quality equipment for both the men’s and women’s teams to use?
• Coaches – are there coaches for the women’s teams? Good coaches are in short supply, who gets allocated the ‘good’ ones? Do the coaches understand and allow for the differences in coaching females? Do you have female coaches?
• Appropriate equipment - are the women given less adequate gear? Are there different equipment needs for females and do you have this?
• Uniform – what do the females think of your uniform? Is it comfortable? Practical? Appropriate?
• Safety concerns – if training sessions are late at night, are there lights in the car park? Are there security or safety concerns for females at your venue or when they leave it? Have you asked your female participants if they have any safety or security concerns? It would be good to hear from their perspective what might be worrying them.

Building on work originally done by Sport Victoria, the NSCS Team has been monitoring Female Friendly Environments across eight dimensions in New Zealand’s sport clubs since 2021