This online course is committed to keeping girls in sport
Did you know that by age 14, girls are dropping out of sport at twice the rate of boys? Did you know that when matched for age and maturation, they are three to six times more likely than boys to sustain non-impact ACL injuries? And did you know that the main reason most girls play sports is to experience social connection and acceptance?
These are just a few of the key facts contained in the new Keeping Girls in Sport online training program for coaches. It’s an extremely important curriculum because it teaches coaches and leaders the challenges faced by girls in sport and physical activity. It also shows them how to run quality programming that girls are sure to enjoy and return to.
If you are a sport organization delivering programming to girls, you need to look at mandating this training course for your coaches. And if you are a parent with a daughter in sport, you need to talk with her club or association to see if they are providing this training.
Knowledge and expertise
Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities developed Keeping Girls in Sport, in partnership with the Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity, specifically to address the high dropout rates for girls in sport. The program ensures that organizations, coaches, and leaders who coach or mentor girls understand the unique challenges that girls face in pursuing sport and physical activity. Then it provides practical solutions and insights for creating programs for keeping girls engaged.
Leaning heavily on the subject matter expertise of Dr. Vicki Harber, professor emeritus in the faculty of physical education and recreation at the University of Alberta, the course begins by outlining the unique motivators, barriers, and coaching needs of female athletes from the earliest years. These research-based findings address all aspects of the athlete—physical, mental, social, and cognitive—and they show why some girls quit sport and others don’t even get involved to begin with.
Girls are getting injured
One of the most important sections of the training course describes the different types of injuries that girls suffer in sport and physical activity. There’s more to this topic than most parents and coaches realize.
There are essentially three types of injuries that girls suffer in sport and activity: mechanical, energetic, and relational.
- Mechanical injuries
Mechanical injuries are the physical injuries sustained by their muscles, ligaments, and bones. These are generally the result of accidents, impacts, overuse, or poor technical execution. Most coaches understand the basic issues around physical injuries, and many coaches probably understand how to mitigate injury risk to some degree. - Energetic injuries
Energetic injuries are less familiar to coaches and parents. These are the outcome of girls not consuming enough calories to fuel the demands of training or competition and, in some cases, the basic needs of their bodies. This creates a high risk for disordered eating in the short term, and it creates a long-term risk of lowered bone density, bone fractures, and early osteoporosis due to nutritional deficiencies. There are many reasons why young female athletes might not eat enough, but one of the biggest ones relates to social pressures around body image and fears of becoming “fat.” - Relationship injuries
Relationship injuries are still less visible, but these account for many girls finally deciding to quit sports. These include girls not feeling valued or accepted into their program or club, or not being given the opportunity to acquire skills and create social connections. It also includes negative relationships with coaches and breaches of trust.
Thoughtful reflections and practical solutions
Throughout the online program, Keeping Girls in Sport asks coaches and leaders to reflect on their own attitudes and knowledge around coaching female athletes. Then it addresses the main issues by providing practical advice on how to create quality programming to keep girls engaged in sport and activity programming for the long term.
Robust interactive online learning platform
Keeping Girls in Sport does all of this using a robust interactive online learning platform created by Respect in Sport, a national leader in online training for coaches and sport parents. The program only takes 90 minutes to complete, and participants can choose to complete the four learning modules over any number of days or weeks in increments of five to 10 minutes at a time. For even the busiest person, it’s not a difficult or time-consuming undertaking.
With its rich learning content and intelligent instructional design, Keeping Girls in Sport is an important offering to the world of sport coaching and leadership. Sport organizations that run girls’ programs should consider mandating the course for their coaches, and parents with daughters should talk with their clubs and associations about adopting the training. For the health and well-being of young female athletes and participants across Canada, it’s an important undertaking.
On behalf of Play Soccer Malawi want to say thank you for this article and comments
It has helped to look sport as tool of building these gaps as well in safeguarding our female participation in sports and we have that gap…..I wish if we could have sports ambassadors and role models who could help our NGO to combat physical inactivity hence sedentary lifestyle and sport or physical activity is last item amongst our female participation ….especially between the ages of 6 to 15 years? Our Girls participation is low…..
Play Soccer Malawi acknowledges that SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH SAFE, HEALTHY, WELL-EDUCATED CHILDREN and our girl child is not encouraged to play and it is this that requires support for already advanced NGOs in sport for development and peace with female/girl participation to advocate coaching girls and PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROVIDES A LEARNING GATEWAY TO… early child development : primary and post primary that covers other outcomes such as LITERACY & COMMUNICATION; LEARNING APPROACHES & COGNITION; SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL; PHYSICAL WELL-BEING; SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL
In summary PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROVIDES A LEARNING GATEWAY TO…
1. Life skills education and lifelong participation in physical activity
2. Support young people become responsible,active citizens
3. Develop physically literate pupils with the knowledge and confidence required for academic achievement
4. Grow skills and values to solve 21st century challenges
QUALITY PHYSICAL EDUCATION DRIVES INCLUSION, AN INCLUSIVE QPE CLASS that EMPOWERS¬ GIRLS
It this that at global village that mirror THE COST OF NOT INVESTING into Girls in sport mentoring IT IS ESTIMATED THAT NCDS WILL BECOME THE MAJOR CAUSE OF DEATH IN AFRICA BY 2030; Play Soccer Malawi catchment population is at risk. Malawi stands at 42% rate of child marriages, one of the highest popularity rates; which is higher than the sub-Saharan Africa average of 37%. Globally, it is ranked 13th on the list of the countries with highest prevalence of child marriage. The rate of child marriages is seven times higher among girls than boys, with 12% of women being married before they are 15 compared only 1.2% for men (source Malawi Government National Strategy on Ending Child Marriage 2018-2023).
SUPPORT WITH YOUR QUALITY PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN OUR COUNTRY maybe via our football designed Play for Fun- Learn for Life curriculum that advocates this as after school activity-school recreation program with UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 17 themes and shared TAKE POLICY ACTION on this forum; the global debate could invest by CLOSING THE POLICY-PRACTICE GAP with THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING into girls sporting programs with SOCIO-ECONOMIC RETURNS
1. Less likely to smoke, become pregnant, engage in risky sexual behaviour or use drugs/ gender violence based
2. 10% more likely to go to college
3. Active parents associated with active children
4. Reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes
5. Up to 1/10th as likely to be obese consistently smaller gains in BMI
6. Saves up to $2,741/yr in health costs
This the platform
Dear Patricio,
Your organization is involved in serious and important social development work through community sport. Thank you for sharing the facts and numbers around social issues for girls in Malawi, as well as the facts around the benefits of investing in sporting opportunities. We applaud what you are doing in your program, and we wish you the very best as you take your project forward.
best regards,
Jim
PS — For any readers who are interested in learning more about Play Soccer Malawi, you can read about the program at their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Playsoccermalawi/
Thank you for this article!This course and information is so important; all organizations/teams should be encouraged to Incorporate these principles. The parents should also be encouraged to take these courses. If a female can negotiate the “ups and downs” of sport they will be better equipped to do the same in their relationships and work and other facets of life. They will also be more able to keep sport in their life forever. :)
I agree that it would be great to get parents to take the course as well!
I want to take this course and see if we should adopt for our Football organization.
Good to hear John!