Bowls in Schools

Bowls New Zealand’s youth bowls development programme began with the introduction of the National Secondary Schools Tournament in December 2000. It has quickly grown from a “have a go” event to a prestigious competition with an increasingly high standard of bowls from enthusiastic young players. This event and the success of young players in both national and international events in the last couple of years has raised public awareness that bowls is not a game exclusively for older people and increasing numbers of school students are interested in trying the game.

To be successful our youth bowls programme needs to focus on engaging students in clubs rather than “getting bowls into schools”. To do this we need to provide the sort of opportunities to play that the students (customers) want rather than just expecting them to simply join existing programmes. Regular involvement with a club can be on a casual pay to play basis or membership. Bowls NZ offers a reduced capitation fee of $5, with no playing restrictions, for Student Members and most centres have special student capitation fees of $0-5, enabling clubs to offer reduced subscriptions, generally in the range of $20-$30.

Certainly retention of school aged players when they leave school is an issue for all sports, but as clubs and centres grow their youth development programmes and offer more opportunities for young players to play with and against their peers, more players will stay with the game. However, we shouldn’t see those that do not either stay with the game or immediately take up the game as lost forever because if we offer a fun experience with quality coaches, they are more likely to return to the game when their circumstances change.

For those young players that do choose to continue with bowls there are already some great opportunities, including the international representation at age group level.