How do I keep girls in football during puberty?

Puberty is the highest risk period for girls dropping out of sport — 40% of girls drop out by age 14. Coaches can help by normalising kit adaptations without question, never publicly commenting on appearance or physicality, giving private one-to-one feedback, and making training the place she feels safest not most watched. Body image and period anxiety are leading causes of dropout during this phase and are almost entirely manageable through the environment a coach creates.

How is coaching girls football different to coaching boys?

Girls are primarily motivated by belonging — the team, friendships and feeling part of something — whereas boys are typically motivated by competition and winning. A girl who doesn't feel she belongs will find a reason not to come back long before she tells anyone she wants to quit. Coaching girls well means understanding that the environment you create matters as much as the football you coach. Private feedback, team identity, and making every girl feel valued are the key differences.

How do I build confidence in girls football players?

Confidence in girls is built through environment not pressure. Speak privately to every girl every session, praise effort and bravery rather than just outcomes, never single a girl out for criticism in front of teammates, ensure kit fits properly as bodies change, and spot the quiet girl early before she withdraws completely. A girl who feels seen by her coach builds confidence naturally. Girls internalise mistakes differently to boys — a public correction can stay with a girl for weeks.

How do I make football more fun for girls?

Girls rate enjoyment, belonging and friendships as the primary reasons they keep playing sport — above competition and improvement. Build team rituals that create identity, celebrate non-performance moments like effort and encouragement, reduce the emphasis on winning in training, and make every girl feel like a valued squad member regardless of ability or playing time. When a girl enjoys training she tells her friends and your team grows through word of mouth.

How do I communicate better with girls players and parents?

With girls: keep feedback private, specific and effort-focused. Never single a girl out publicly even constructively. With parents: use a tool like Her Voice Matters to give parents confidence their daughter is being understood as an individual. When parents feel the coach genuinely knows their daughter they become advocates not critics. Always lead with what she did well and give one thing to improve privately after training.

What do girls need from coaches most?

Research consistently shows girls need three things from a coach: to feel safe (that mistakes won't be humiliating), to feel connected (that the coach knows them as a person not just a player), and to feel valued (that their contribution matters regardless of their ability or playing time). A coach who delivers these three things retains more girls, builds stronger squad culture, and creates players who genuinely love their sport.

Why are girls dropping out of grassroots football?

40% of girls drop out of grassroots sport by age 14. The primary causes are confidence and body image concerns (43%), period anxiety (38%), feeling they don't belong to the team, and fear of public judgement. Girls rarely quit because they dislike football — they quit because the environment makes them feel watched, judged or invisible. Most of these causes are within a coach's control through the environment they create at every session.

How can coaches help girls feel they belong in sport?

Belonging is built through small consistent actions: greeting every girl by name, ensuring no girl is ever last picked, creating squad rituals and shared identity through kit and slogans, making substitutes and less frequent starters feel as valued as those who play every minute, and using tools like Her Voice Matters to privately understand every girl's individual needs. A girl who feels she belongs to something will fight to stay part of it.

Coaching Girls Football | CHG Coaches Corner

Free tools for grassroots coaches

Her Voice Matters → Coaches Kit Bag →

Already using Her Voice Matters? Your Voice Matters is your next step — hear your squad. Simple feedback received weekly, keeping you ahead of the game.

Girls training bibs — customised team and school kit

CHG Coaches Corner

Coaching a girls team is so much more than drills. It's a whole different ball game.

Without you, there is no grassroots.

Champion Her Game is as passionate about keeping good coaches in the game as we are about keeping girls in it.

Are you asking yourself any of these?

→ How do I stop my girls dropping out? → How is coaching girls different to coaching boys? → How do I build team culture and make every girl feel included?

40%

of girls drop out by age 14

1 in 3

cite confidence as a reason

You

are part of changing that

Know a coach who needs this? Send it their way. ↗

Go deeper

Support for grassroots coaches of girls teams.

Jump straight to what you need — every section has its own dedicated page, built for coaches who are short on time.

New to coaching a girls team?

You know football. This is the bit nobody told you.

Start here if you're new to coaching girls — practical, honest and everything you need before your next session.

Start here →

Stopping Dropout

Why girls leave — the 2025 data, what drives it and what you can do about it

Coaching Girls Differently

What girls told us — and what it means for how you coach

Building Team Culture

Belonging, identity and every girl in the squad — not just the starting eleven

04 — Free Tool

Her Voice Matters

Understand what every girl in your squad needs — in 2 minutes. Free.

Try it free →

Free tool — no sign up required

Her Voice Matters — understand every girl in your squad.

Most coaches spend years guessing what their players need. Most girls spend years wishing someone would just ask.

Her Voice Matters is a free tool built by CHG that fixes that. You share a link with your squad. Each girl answers 11 simple yes/no questions on her phone — privately, in 2 minutes. You get a full squad insight card showing exactly how each girl learns, what motivates her, whether she feels she belongs, and whether she wants a leadership role.

No guessing. No assumptions. Just the knowledge to coach every single girl in your squad better — starting at your next session.

The tool covers 5 areas:

Feedback — how each girl receives and processes feedback

Instructions — how she learns and takes in information

Motivation — what keeps her coming back

Belonging — whether she feels part of the squad

Leadership — whether she wants a role beyond playing

Try Her Voice Matters — free →

Free tool — for returning coaches

Your Voice Matters — hear your squad. Week by week.

Her Voice Matters tells you what your girls need. Your Voice Matters tells you how they're feeling right now — and whether that's changing.

You build a 3-question check-in from a bank of 29 questions across 6 categories. Share a link with your squad. Girls answer in under 60 seconds on their phones. You see the results on your dashboard — averages, trends and who wants to chat with you privately.

Use it:

→After training — did it land?
→Before a game — are they ready?
→Every few weeks — is confidence, belonging or enjoyment changing?

Simple feedback received weekly. Keeping you ahead of the game. #BackingHerGame

Try Your Voice Matters — free →

Free · 2 minutes · No wrong answers

#NeverLastPick

please
pick me

wasn't
picked

There are 12 girls in your squad.

The moment the sixth is picked — every remaining girl knows.

Please don't let me be last.

Why don't they want me?

It's because I'm not good enough.

I don't want to be here.

How do you coach a girl who has those thoughts in her mind? You don't. You prevent it.

Never let kids pick teams one by one.

✓You pick the teams

✓You balance them

✓You remove that moment entirely

It takes seconds — and it protects confidence for years.

Share this with every coach you know. ↗

Before your next session

Four tools. Use them this week.

Free. No sign up required. Ready to use today.

Start here

Her Voice Matters

Share a link with your squad. Every girl answers 11 questions privately in 2 minutes. You get a full squad insight before your next session — how she learns, what motivates her, whether she feels she belongs. No guesswork. No assumptions.

Set up free — takes 2 minutes → Act on it

Coaches Kit Bag

Five card sets built from your Her Voice Matters data. Each one tells you what a specific signal means — and what to do about it before Sunday. No reading required. Just open the card for your squad's signal and act.

Open the Kit Bag →

Free PDF

Coach Her Game Guide

11 real questions answered honestly. Private, practical, free.

Download → Weekly

Your Voice Matters

Hear your squad week by week. Simple feedback keeping you ahead.

Try free →

Kit that sets the tone

Before you say a word — the slogan says it for you.

Training bibs, kit bags and tops designed for girls squads. Every slogan chosen to set the tone before training starts. The brand is small. The girl is everything.

Team Bibs & Kit Bags

Bulk pricing for clubs and schools. From £3.20 per bib.

See the kit →

Club & School Order Form

Custom quantities, pack pricing and fast dispatch.

Order now →

Stopping dropout

Girls don't just leave because they lost interest.

More girls are playing sport than ever. 845,000 girls now play football formally in the UK. So why are we still losing them?

Not because they don't want to belong — they're already showing up. The question is what happens when they get there. 43% drop out due to confidence or body image. 38% are affected by period anxiety. And the coaching environment — the one entirely in your hands — is one of the biggest drivers of all.

"Understanding what actually causes dropout is one of the most powerful things a coach can do. Not every girl will stay — but you can give every girl who turns up the best possible reason to keep coming back."

Read the full dropout guide — practical actions for your next session →

Why CHG is different

The brand is small. The girl is everything.

Other brands put their name on girls. We think that's the wrong name to put there.

Every CHG slogan exists for one reason — to make sure that when your daughter steps onto that pitch, everyone in that ground knows exactly who she is and what she's capable of. A CHG bib isn't a colour. It's a coaching tool. Before you say a word, the slogan your girls are wearing has already set the tone.

And the coach has already set the tone — without using their voice.

See how CHG supports your coaching →

Frequently asked questions

Questions coaches actually ask.

Why do girls drop out of football?+

Girls drop out for a mix of reasons — some outside a coach's control like puberty, body image and social pressure, and some within it like fear of judgement, discomfort in kit and not feeling part of the squad. Research shows 40% of girls drop out by age 14, with confidence cited as a key factor. See the full dropout guide →

How is coaching girls different to coaching boys?+

Girls respond differently to feedback, process instructions differently, and are significantly more motivated by belonging than results. Coaching girls well means understanding those differences — not because girls are harder to coach, but because nobody told you what to adjust. Read the full guide →

How do I build team culture in girls football?+

Team culture is built through belonging — and belonging starts before a ball is kicked. When every girl in your squad feels safe, connected and valued, she stays longer, performs better and tells others. The most valuable asset a girls' club has isn't its pitch. It's a coach who gets it. Read the full guide →

Why do some girls lose confidence during training?+

Often it starts with a moment the coach didn't realise mattered. The way teams are picked, who goes first in a drill, who gets singled out — these micro-moments shape how safe a girl feels. A girl who has ever been last picked carries that thought into every session that follows. Small changes protect confidence before it's lost.

How do I get my club to fund girls football kit?+

Champion Her Game has built a ready-made club funding pitch you can download for free. It opens with the emotional case for why girls' kit matters, backs it with research, and closes with a clear ask for training bibs, kit bags and training tops — all priced for grassroots clubs, not elite academies. Download Take It To The Club — free →

How do I find out what each girl in my squad needs?+

Her Voice Matters is a free CHG tool that gives every girl in your squad a private way to tell you exactly how she learns, what motivates her and whether she feels she belongs. Share a link. She answers 11 yes/no questions in 2 minutes. You get a full squad insight card. Try it free →

How do I get more girls to join my grassroots team?+

Start local — contact nearby schools and ask them to include a mention in their newsletter. Use social media to show what your team looks and feels like. A new team that invests in its girls from the start builds a reputation that recruits itself. Browse CHG kit for new clubs →

Being a grassroots coach can feel isolating. The support isn't always there. The resources aren't always built for you. And yet you show up, every week, for girls who need you more than you know.

Champion Her Game is as passionate about keeping good coaches in the game as we are about keeping girls in it.

Without you, there is no grassroots.

We've built these tools to give you the support you need and deserve — and we're with you as you continue to make a difference to every girl you coach.

Welcome to the CHG Squad.

Try Her Voice Matters — free Shop The Change