These notes come from athletic preparation and performance coach Paul Gamble and looks at how the physical development of youth/teen girls can greatly influence their continued participation in not just footy, bit any, and all sport.
It provides some excellent insight into how different influences can have life lasting effects on competitive sport in the short term, and and continuing an active lifestyle in the long term.
Here were my takeaways that can give your club a leg up on the competition in retaining current and attracting new, youth girl participants.
Youth girl's are acutely sensitive to social judgement from their peers so their biggest barrier to sport is feeling a lack of competence and confidence, which is not imaginary as things do become harder for them once puberty kicks in.
Whereas boys get a the testosterone kick and the accompanying dramatic physical improvements, for girls it brings gains in mass and body levers become longer but without the gains in strength to match, and these strength deficits/compensatory changes in movement strategies bring injuries.
The solutions to keep girls in sport through this time is via physical preparation to provide the necessary boost and coaching to help them improve.
Youth girls go through puberty earlier then boys so the social judgment/importance of peers of their lasts for longer too, and can even start at pre-teen ages.
The availability of quality coaching is critical to lending to a sense of competence so they feel confident enough to continue, even if actual performance plateaus/drops.
Even if quality coaching is not immediately available, the possibility that they could soon access it, can provide some assurance.
Having the means to improve and remain competitive will have them more inclined to remain involved in sport.
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