Mention the word ?netball? and immediately the image of young schoolgirls in short PE skirts springs to mind. This is not, however, the reason for its growing popularity of late with young men across the country. Something is changing with the traditional view of the sport, interest in the game has been piqued and netball clubs have seen a noticeable surge of males wanting to join in with the mixed league sessions.
Go Mammoth organise netball leagues across London in a variety of different team sports with netball being one of them. Luke Mohr, the founder, revealed that in the past year, and especially since the Olympics, there has been an increase in the popularity of all of their sports, but particularly in netball. This has actually created a situation where the leagues for netball in London have become oversubscribed. Seven new ones have been opened with three more to commence in the coming season.
Go Mammoth run two mixed netball leagues and what has been surprising is that men too have been signing up for these sessions in abundance. Demand for the men?s game has been growing. This is all good news, as when Go Mammoth first began to run the mixed leagues, it was unsure how they would be received by the genders. However, the response has been better than anticipated with a great level of play taking place.
Recent research conducted by them with data from Facebook also revealed that over a quarter of a million people in the UK list netball as their hobby, with a substantial 13% of this number being male.
So what is the reason behind this sudden popularity? Netball actually failed to make an appearance within the 2012 Olympics, but despite this, there has still been high profile media coverage on Radio 1 and ITV?s ?The Only Way is Essex? which has obviously made a good impression upon young professionals. Clearly there has been a real shift in the change of attitude to the sport which was once only considered fit for school PE lessons.
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