The following are excerpts from the book
Sports Her Way by Susan Wilson.
Helping Your Daughter Stay With Sports - Chapter 11
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Girls play and learn sports their way.
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For a variety of reasons, little girls play and approach physical activity differently from little boys.
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Our society encourages boys and girls to play differently.
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Boys are encouraged to be aggressive, comabative, and daring with their toys.
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Girls are not usually playfully aggressive or competitive.
7 Reasons Why Girls Stay with Sports
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To Have
Fun
: Girls go into sports because it's fun for them to be physically active and to be with some friends. Sports is a total shift away from academics, where kids may feel confined to a chair in a classroom where it is required to succeed. Frequently, enjoyment comes from mastering a new skill.
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To Stay in Shape and Get
Exercise
: Particularly during the teen years. Being in shape enhances self-confidence.
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To Learn and Improve Skills: Once girls get a taste of the idea that they can improve, it feeds on itself.
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To Do Something They're Good At: School sports, for some high school girls, is the one place where they can shine.
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To Enjoy the Excitement and Challenge of Competition: Competition can be exciting when enough skills are mastered to be a challenger. As the skill base grows, the excitement grows.
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To Be Part of a Team: For many girls, being on a team creates a feeling of camaraderie that is exceptionally fulfilling. Girls delight in the kind of shared experiences sports teams provide, where making new friends and relationships are valued.
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To Make New Friends: Sports is a stimulating way to make new friends. Sports can give girls a chance to meet people they wouldn't otherwise come into contact with.
Reasons Why Girls Don't Stay with Sports
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Too Much Emphasis on Winning: "Relax, it's just a game."
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Always on a Losing Team: Every bit of phychological research finds that people will cease doing the thing for which there is no reward Somewhere along the way, girls will need to enjoy the good feeling of winning.
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Too Much Physical Stress: One of the newest problems in youth sports is overuse injuries. A sound conditioning program and a coach who's not in a hurry to produce star athletes will go a long way toward reducing injuries. One of the greatest producers of stress is a dramatic increase in hip and or breast size, which makes girls become very self-conscious.
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Players are Too Rough: There seems to be a general trend over the past few years toward players becoming more competitive, being more physical and, in turn, more dangerous.
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Inconvenient Game and Practice Times: For many girls whose parents both work, elaborate carpool schedules must be worked out whenever they need a ride to or from practice. It can be an embarrassement to always depend on someone else for transportation.
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They Want or Need to Get a Job: Girls whose financial needs outweight their desire to play sports are in a tough spot when it comers to "sticking to it."
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Parents Don't Want Them to Play: Be careful not to discourage your daughter. Whether or not she shows it, she takes what you say about her skill and her efforts very seriously. Remember that although it may not result in a marketable skill or a college scholarship, involvement in sports helps your daughter develop social awareness and self-esteem as well as physical competence.
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Need More Time to Study: Consider taking away television time, CDs, the computer, going out with friends, anything but the sports environment, which contributes mightily to a girls' growth and personal balance.
