The Rising Power of the Young Female Athlete
In a society so focused on boys’ sports and revering of men’s professional athletics, it is hard for a girl to get a break. I know, because I’ve been there, both as a coach and an athlete. The glass ceiling that has held back female athletes has slowly been breaking, shedding more light on the women and girls who have been there all along, playing their game, excelling in their sport.
This complete guide is all about our upcoming generation of female athletes. It is designed by a youth coach and trainer to help other coaches, trainers, and parents understand how to support young female athletes through their physical, psychological, and emotional development. From the weight room to the conditioning program, this blog covers it all.
The Science of Coaching Young Girls: More Than Just Shrinking the Game
It is often said that children are not just small adults. This also applies to pre-teens and teenagers. From the ages of 8 to 16, girls undergo many changes, physically, mentally, and emotionally, as they transition from child to teen to adult. Every girl develops differently and at different ages, but several key changes affect the way girls choose to exercise and participate in sports. These include:
- Increased height – Many girls experience a growth spurt during these years, which can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, added height may help girls look and feel more athletic, especially when participating in activities where height can be a factor, such as volleyball, basketball, and track & field. On the other hand, growing pains and the unbalanced feeling from the added height may keep girls from feeling confident in their movement. Help girls take ownership of their new stature by introducing activities that make use of their height and increase their confidence.
- Beginning of menstrual cycle – Few things knock a girl off her game as much as her period. In the first few years that a young woman begins menstruating, it can be challenging learning to deal with the symptoms that often accompany it. Cramps, discharge, and emotional fluctuations that naturally occur as a part of her menstrual cycle may cause a young athlete to be self-conscious or have a reduced desire to participate. The menstrual cycle also increases joint laxity, which can make young female athletes more flexible, but it also increases their risk of injury.
Trainers and coaches should take care to keep stretching and other activities within safe bounds. Honor your athlete’s concerns if she comes and talks to you about her period or symptoms. This can really make or break their experience. As a young athlete, I remember watching many of my teammates being: shutdown by coaches telling them to “suck it up” and that “your pain isn’t that bad.” There is a time to push and a time to give, and it’s certainly a fine line. As a coach, I’ve had to make that call, and while it’s not always a cut-and-dried answer, I would rather be the coach who respects pain than the one who demeans it, only to cause more.
- Appearance changes – Other changes that occur during puberty include the widening of hips, breast development, and increased sweating and body odor. Left unaddressed by parents and guardians, these can leave girls feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable in their changing bodies. For parents, introducing sports bras and deodorant can make this transition more comfortable.
Alongside these physical changes, mental and emotional processes begin to shift, especially as young women seek to find where they fit into society, at home, at school, and in the world.
Coaching Tip: Listen to your athlete and respect their thoughts and opinions, and encourage them to participate in activities that play to their developing strengths in a way that builds their confidence.
Mind Over Muscle: Mental Health, Body Image & Motivation
The way we coach, train, and parent can change how a young athlete sees herself and the world. The best trainer coaches mindset, not just skillset.
In their standout 2018 report, Developing Physically Active Girls, the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport highlights the importance of addressing sociological issues as a part of training young female athletes. The report states, “many gendered stereotypes persist and, perhaps more than any other factor, the social construction of gender influences the experience of , and extent to which girls participate in, or shun physical activity.” Simply stated, gender stereotypes still exist, especially in the world of athletics. It begs the question, “What are we doing as coaches, trainers, and parents to change and improve the world of exercise for our female youth?”
It starts with us. How do we treat our female athletes? Do we lift them up or tear them down? Do we encourage them to lean into their strengths and break barriers, or do we discourage activities simply because of their genetics? The Tucker Center report points out that “few programs are gender sensitive or take into account how… sexism, poverty, racism, homonegativism and experiences of abuse shape girls’ lives.”
As you work with impressionable young athletes, strive to remove your own biases and become a source of encouragement for them. Learn to keep your cool in the heat of the game and teach by example. Young athletes often look more to influential adults outside the home during their teenage years, putting coaches and trainers in the limelight. As we model resilience, show good sportsmanship, tackle challenges head-on, and show up on hard days, our girls will watch and learn. Help them develop mental toughness that they can apply on the field and off.
Coaching Tip: Model the mental skill and attitude you want your athletes to have. They will reflect it back to you. Choose an activity that builds resilience and mental toughness, and regularly incorporate it into your workouts. Examples of these activities can be found here. Encourage parents to do the same and to promote their daughter’s movement and participation, rather than just aesthetics and winning.
Strength & Conditioning Programs That Actually Work for Girls
Look around a middle or high school weight room, and it will probably be filled with young men eager to outbench each other. What you don’t see are their counterparts. Girls are often unwelcomed or purposely not included in strength and and conditioning activities, due in part to the myth that “girls shouldn’t lift.” This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Young female athletes, and women in general, have a greater percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers than males, and fewer fast-twitch fibers. This makes girls naturally more disposed to endurance-type activities and boys genetically have more explosiveness and power. This is not set in stone, however. Girls can and should train for explosiveness and power, just as boys should train for endurance. So, how do you get your female athletes into the weight room with confidence?
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- Start outside the weight room or give them their own time there. For all genders, start with bodyweight exercises until athletes have mastered good form before moving on to weighted exercises. Mix in both upper and lower body exercises, even if athletes favor one over the other. When they’re ready to step into the weight room, consider giving girls their own time to be there, at least initially. This allows them to be in the space more comfortably and learn to lift without as much social pressure. Let them learn to take ownership in the weightroom and walk in with confidence.
- Help them master key lifts. Good strength and conditioning programs that include weightbearing exercises can greatly benefit young women by improving bone density and reducing their risk of injury.
- Tailor their activity to their sport. For female athletes who are ready to take their activity to the next level, train sport-specific skills and other movements that will enhance their athletic performance.
- Normalize the weightlifting experience. Help them know that sweating, failing, and struggling are okay! Teach them that success is not in lifting the heaviest or performing the most reps. Success comes from them being there.
- Use empowering language. Your language matters and so does your athletes’. Stop tying movement and exercise to weight loss. Shift your words from phrases like “burning calories” or “slimming down” to “building strength” and “powering up.”
As important as lifting is, young female athlete’s nutrition is equally, if not more, important. As a trainer or coach, you likely don’t have as much influence here as a parent does, but all three can step up to help your athletes get the nutrition they need. Ensure they are getting enough protein, especially if they’re lifting, working hard, or burning a lot of calories through exercise. Provide them with healthy snacks, not just empty calries. In and out of the weightroom, talk about good lifelong nutrition habits, rather than just letting them hear about diets or trends on social media.
Coaching Tip: Let your young female athletes own their strength. Where appropriate, let them take charge of leading exercises and spotting each other. It teaches them leadership, resilience, and confidence. If you have mixed classes or training sessions, try breaking it up. Send your boys to a hallway or field for a rotation of drills or plyometrics and give your girls the room for a rotation, then switch. I had a coach in high school that did this, and over a decade later, it’s the training I remember and benefited most from.
Injury Prevention: Smarter Coaching for Healthier Athletes
Both anatomy and hormones affect young female athletes’ risk of injury, but there is much we can do to prevent or reduce that risk. Johns Hopkins Medicine dives into the most common anatomical features that puts female athletes at risk for injury:
- Narrow shoulders provide less upper body strength, which can cause incorrect form and strain or injury to the back.
- Wide hips, strong quadriceps, and weak hamstrings all can cause imbalances, which increases knee injuries in female athletes. Joint laxity from hormonal changes also contribute to such injuries, especially ACL injuries.
- A small head and/or neck puts girls at risk for more head injuries and increased severity of concussions because the smaller size head and neck does not absorb and distribute shock as well as a larger one.
Knowing this, you can modify your training programs to account for these and other features to keep your girls playing safely. Incorporate strength and mobility training into your daily or weekly programming to build strength and range of motion safely. As a coach, I include specific injury prevention training in my athletes’ schedule at least twice a week, sometimes more as needed. We focus on exercises and activities that work with injury prone areas to encourage effective movement patterns, appropriate joint tracking, and ranges of motion within safe limitations.
One thing I don’t hear discussed often in practice or training sessions is the importance of rest. Kids do not always rest on their own. Some teenagers may always want to rest, but are your athletes truly getting the rest they need and making the most of it?
We are often tempted as coaches and trainers to push our athletes hard during each practice, because our time with them is so limited. Yes, there is perhaps a certain level of work that needs to be accomplished during most practices, but it is often the competitive nature of athletics that encourages us to yell “one more round,” “another lap,” or “do that play again.” When the maximum effect of a workout is reached, let it be done. While some of you may not want to hear this, the primary reason youth should exercise is for their health and enjoyment, not to bring home a trophy, win a championship, or so you can rub their success in another adult’s face. Make it about the kids and keep your focus on them and their wellbeing.
Coaching Tip: Teach your athletes about rest days. Better yet, include one in your regular programming. We live in a world where hustle is the culture. Help your girls learn to care for their bodies and their minds through rest and active recovery. You could replace a post-game practice with a short yoga session, stretching and foam rolling, a guided meditation, or activities that invite free movement (dance party anyone?).
Lifelong Lessons: Using Sports to Build the Next Generation of Leaders
As you teach the power of movement and rest, you’re doing more than helping your athletes get active or win the next game. Coaches, trainers, and parents influence their girls’ long-term athletic career and character that will follow them through life. Sports and other physical activities build teamwork and leadership among their peers, teaching them to empower each other as the next generation. Your influence is powerful, so ensure you use it for good. Set boundaries with your athletes and encourage them to set their own (with the help of a parent or trusted adult as needed). Develop your coaching skills so that you can teach them more than a lay-up, swing, or pole vault.
Promote the learning of lifelong lessons for your athletes by:
- Encouraging inclusivity, visibility, and respect for all athletes – teammates and opponents. Help them find ways to see and bring out their strengths and those of others.
- Teaching young girls and teenagers that exercise is not punishment, and that they don’t need to earn rest or food. Help them develop healthy patterns of exercising and eating.
- Invite them to lead. Provide roles for them to step into and allow them to mentor each other.
- Coaching their mindset. Teach her that her body is a lifelong partner, one worthy of respect. It is not a project to perfect.
The most beneficial things we as coaches, trainers, and parents can do is to provide our young female athletes with opportunities to move, work together, and flourish in their own skin. Movement is medicine, play is power, and strength is beauty.
Final Thoughts:
Coaching young female athletes isn’t about lowering the bar; it’s about meeting them where they are and helping them rise higher than anyone might have imagined. With science-backed strategies, emotional intelligence, and a little creative programming, you’ll help them unlock more than just wins; you’ll help shape confident, resilient women ready to take on the world.
Coaching young female athletes is a powerful responsibility, one that deserves protection. If you’re training, teaching, or programming for others, it’s important to secure your professional liability insurance to protect your career and reputation.
