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Data from sports researchers in recent decades reveals an encouraging trend: More and more young girls are participating in sports. But the study also uncovered a major missed opportunity. Girls drop out of sport at an “astonishing rate”, especially as they hit puberty.
The sports retail giant has an obvious solution nike Chief executive John Donahoe and many others believe that a big difference could be made: more female coaches.
In the historically male-dominated world of sports, girls and women have always had to fight for their right to compete and be considered competitive athletes. The same sexism that prevents girls from competing in sports also prevents women from becoming youth coaches.
“I think league executives are trained to look for dads to coach and more often than not think dads will step up and do it. I think sometimes they might not even be trying to recruit women,” Mary said. Fry, University of Kansas Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Exercise and Exercise Psychology.
According to the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, nearly 75 percent of youth team head coaches are men. Even when women have the opportunity to coach, they worry that they are not good enough for such a position because society often promotes sexist stereotypes.
When Jen Welter, the first-ever female NFL coach and two-time Olympic soccer gold medalist, got her first chance to coach football, she recalls instinctively thinking “girls don’t do that.”
“When you can’t see it, it’s really hard to say, ‘You know what, I can do this,'” Welter said.
“Most young people have little, if any, access to female coaches,” said Vanessa Garcia-Brito, Nike vice president and chief social and community impact officer. A miss for all.” “For girls to be active and invited to play sports for life, they have to see it for themselves – and that starts with more female coaches.”
In March, Nike launched coach her Partnering with the University of Minnesota Tucker Center for the Study of Girls and Women in Motion. Digital coaching resource designed to help coaches of all genders improve their understanding of gender bias and discrimination in sport.
Puberty changes girl’s relationship with sport
Girl coaches are not only important in setting positive role models for young girls – they also provide a safe space to discuss and deal with the difficulties that come with young women’s changing bodies and minds. Even for girls who grew up loving sports, puberty can change girls’ relationship with sports and often cause them to disengage from physical activity.
The data relating to this critical period in girls’ lives is clear. According to the Aspen Institute, one in three girls plays a sport between the ages of 6 and 12. But according to menstrual product maker Always, nearly one in two girls quits sports during puberty.
Research from 2018 report The Tucker Center, a Nike partner, collected data around the world and found that in sport, the age group with the highest attrition rates for girls typically occurs between the ages of 11 and 17, “the age group where girls experience the most stress. It is about conforming to the identities they shape with peers and adults — including coaches,” the report states, concluding that girls’ perceptions of their coaches are a determining factor in their continued participation in organized sport.
The Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King, found that, 40% of girls Not actively participating in a sport.
“For boys, Going through puberty can be a plus, you gain more muscle mass and you get taller and stronger. It’s not always the same for girls,” Fry said. “They’re in a sort of survival mode in middle school.
According to Alison Oliver, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, the issue is both physical and psychological, with periods and low body confidence being barriers preventing girls from continuing to play sports. As girls’ bodies change throughout adolescence, they become increasingly insecure and physical activity starts to feel different.Charity Women in Sport found 65% of girls don’t like being watched while exercising because it makes them feel embarrassed and vulnerable, and objectify. What’s more, seven in 10 girls avoided exercise during menstruation.
According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, coaches are a key factor in a girl’s sporting experience, and if girls do not receive proper support or understanding from their coaches during such a daunting time as adolescence, they will be reluctant to compete. For example, most of the time , girls are not properly educated about sports bras or don’t wear the right sports bra, which makes participating in sports painful.
“If you start to feel uncomfortable as a female athlete … it’s very difficult to go to a male coach about some of these things,” Welter said.
At an event in London in June 2019, Nike took over the iconic leisure sports park Hackney Moors to host a football festival celebrating the women’s game, hosting more than 1,000 women and girls, 79 teams Teams participated and they came from different age groups.
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“These bonds that a coach or mentor creates with the kids go way beyond physical activity,” Frye said. “They have women in their lives who they can pull out of, who they can trust.”
Fry co-founded the Strong Girls program at the University of Kansas, which assigns young girls a female college student as their mentor. Half of the program focuses on co-participation in sports, while the other half focuses on positive youth development. The program often attracts girls with less athletic ability and creates a safe environment where they feel encouraged by female mentors to play sports they would not normally play.
“Girls and women can’t have enough strong women in their lives. We just benefit from it,” said Fry, who leads the project.
Female coaching is the foundation of athletic success and enjoyment for Christina Collins, a former youth athlete turned coach. “I’ve had female coaches and of course male coaches and it’s had such an impact on me to realize it’s a choice for me to grow and do it. I feel like I’m going deeper than I could have had a male coach levels,” said Collins, now a physical education and wellness teacher for Westchester County and a professor in the physical education master’s program at Manhattanville College.
Women coaches can offer unique insights based on their own personal experiences as women, she said. “[Who I am]has influenced the way I provide all the instruction. It’s about building a child’s confidence first, and then their ability to perform,” says Collins, who is also the founder and owner of the company NeverStopMoving365a company that seeks to use exercise and physical activity to boost confidence and teach life lessons.
She says the approach is not only beneficial for girls, but also for youth athletes and female coaches of all genders.
Nike’s goal of 20,000 female coaches
Nike is one of the few major companies addressing this issue directly. Companies from Target to Disney and Bank of America have all been targeted for taking positions on social issues in the current divisive political climate. Donahoe, who recently commented on girls’ sports participation at the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif., said he believed Disney CEO Bob Iger was handling his relationship with Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pointed to Nike’s efforts in women’s youth sports as another example of how the company is paying attention to social issues that are core to its values and integral to its brand.
“We’re trying to train 20,000 women coaches, moms and other ex-athletes to be coaches for youth development,” Donahoe said. “So it’s not a moot point, but it’s a value we care about,” he said .
Nike also aims to have 50 percent of girls participating in the sport-based community programs it supports by 2025.
As a former athlete, Collins said there are lifelong benefits when young women and girls remain involved in sport and feel supported.
“I didn’t use actual movement as my primary form of fitness, or just general athletic skills at all. But I took what athletics taught me from my toolbox of life lessons,” she said.
Coaching HER encourages all coaches, regardless of gender, to give girls the opportunity to continue to develop their character and learn life lessons from sport, and provides coaches with detailed training on how to lead girls and young women in sport.
“It’s not just for women, for women. Women and men working together to uplift girls. That’s one of the key components. How do we work better together?” Welt said.
