The AC Regeneration Working Group was re-formed in March 2024. It aims to identify ways in which the WCF, as the Global Governing Body for croquet, can encourage and promote the regeneration of Association Croquet.
AC is in decline in all of our Member Countries. Clearly most of the effort to regenerate AC need to remain at grass-roots level, however, the Working Group will explore whether any initiatives at World level could help, for instance, changes to the rules, online resources, coaching material, or similar.
The Working Group was set up to include one person for each of the four major AC Member Countries. The current members of WG5 AC Regeneraton are:
Debbie Lines (Chair)
Jeff Soo (MC)
Graeme Roberts (MC)
Alan Sands (ACA)
Bonnie Johnstone (CNZ)
Stuart Lawrence (USCA)
Stephen Wright (England)
At the first meeting, the team drafted some Terms of Reference: AC Regeneration Terms of Reference 1.7.24
Progress Update - September 2024
The AC Regeneration Working Group has now met several times. The team initially spent some time discussing the issue, and have identified some key themes for further investigation. We intend to do some research to more fully develop these ideas.
Barriers to entry
The team are all agreed that the way AC is taught makes it seem complex and difficult to learn. The game is actually quite simple at its most basic level e.g. roquet, croquet, continuation, but teaching styles may need to change to encourage beginners. Further research is needed to understand best practice in terms of attracting players in the first place, and then keeping them.
Areas we think need emphasing to clubs, and where further research is needed, include:
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- Make it fun: don't bore the beginner with complex rules, get them playing straight away with lots of bisques.
- Make it quick: 14pt games or even less to start them off. Games for beginners should be 1.5 hours, no longer.
- Make it easy: use smaller, half size lawns and wide hoops. Use lots of bisques.
What is the AC product?
This was looked at from the perspective of understanding what attracts a person to AC. What are it's strengths and weaknesses. We've also compared these against GC to try to understand how and why the games may appeal to different types.
Clubs
We have no data (yet), but we believe that there are now very few AC only clubs, almost all now have both codes played, with GC growing.
We'd like to understand why some clubs are successful at offering their Members both codes to enjoy, whilst others have reducing numbers of AC players. Questions we'd like answered include:
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- What is best practice, and can it be shared and learnt by others?
- Does the size and type of a club matter? For instance, what is the culture of the club, is it also a social club, with a bar and other activities.
- Do different types of recruitment make a difference?
- What coaching capabilities do clubs have?
- What variants are being used e.g. one-ball, short croquet, 14 pt, Alternate Stroke Doubles
Players
We have little real solid information, other than anecdote and opinion, as to why people start playing our sport.
Is it for social reasons, to satisfy a competitive need, for health reasons, to support family etc. Are there segments of the population more likely to appreciate AC who should be targeted via club recruitment activities.
What is best practice in respect to recruitment?
When does GC to AC conversion work, and when not?
Recruitment and Coaching Materials
Do we have enough material available to clubs? e.g. beginners books, pamphlets etc
Do we have enough club volunteers who can coach AC? If not, how do we fill this gap?
Do we need better YouTube videos showing beginners how to play?
Do all of these, books, volunteers and videos focus on: 'making it fun' , 'make it quick', 'make it easy'