The Dodgeball Survey 2022 Report

The Dodgeball Survey 2022 was open for responses throughout the months of February 2022. The main aims of the survey were to:

• Learn more about the current makeup of our dodgeball community
• Gather feedback on the provision of dodgeball in the UK, including details on coach education and competitions
• Educate respondents on the wide range of areas we work in and gather feedback on some of our current initiatives
• Gather feedback on the impacts of COVID-19 on the dodgeball community

We expanded the survey’s scope from previous iterations to better welcome respondents from a wider range of backgrounds (most noticeably schools, colleges and school games organisers) in addition to universities, coaching companies and community clubs to learn more about the wider landscape of the sport in the UK.

We would like to thank everyone that took time to complete the survey and help us learn more about your involvement in dodgeball and your views on the sport; this information will help us to continue to develop the sport to encourage people from all ages and backgrounds to Come Join In.

As part of a continued dialogue between British Dodgeball, our members and those involved in the playing, coaching, teaching, administering or spectating of dodgeball in the UK, we have developed a list of actions to be undertaken which should prove effective and are realistically achievable. This will help us to improve the sport we all love in line with both your feedback and our 2022-2025 4-year strategy.

You can see the full Dodgeball Survey 2022 Report here:

Some key findings:

• Combining survey results with member data, we estimate all British Dodgeball member organisations engage 41,768 participants each week (an amazing increase of 1,228% since 2019 due the recruitment of new education members).
• Combining survey results with member data, we estimate all British Dodgeball member organisations hold 2,737 sessions each week. Member organisations’ participants spend an average of 58 minutes each week playing dodgeball, meaning that a combined total of over 40,000 hours (or 4.6 years) of dodgeball is played each week by those participants.
• Respondents rate our coach education as 4.2 out of 5 in terms of quality of learning and 87.5% consider this to be good value for money.
• 80.9% of respondents consider British Dodgeball competitions to be good value for money, with every field except pre-event communications and officiating being considered as a strength rather than something to improve. We have listed actions we will take in the survey to improve these including the recruitment of a new Head of Referees, a role which will more clearly involved the training and development of dodgeball officials in the UK.
• 100% of school-based respondents consider British Dodgeball School Championships to be good value for money, but the majority of these (87.5%) do not yet hold Education Membership with British Dodgeball, showing there is still significant room for growth in this area.
• As an indoor sport, COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns had a significant effect on individuals & organisations in a myriad of ways including almost 60% of respondents’ mental health being negatively impacted. We are proud to be back running events and training for members and non-members in the UK, but effects are clearly ongoing within the British dodgeball community at both an organisational level, where over 50% are seeing less participation, & individual level with over 50% of respondents still feeling some effects of the pandemic.