Women in sport are not a new phenomenon, but the rate at which women’s athletic performance has improved is precisely one of those phenomena.
Each and every year we now see women’s athletic records in all sports being broken and then broken again. The reasons are many, more women involved in sports from an early age, a more competitive environment in women’s sports, better training methods, and more skilled coaches.
I am the father of three daughters and a son who played sports for the past 20 years or so. If you belong to the baby boom era, you may be able to identify yourself. There always seemed to be a difference between successful male / male trainers and successful female and female trainers. Not so much in terms of what defensive or offensive system was used, but in general, the personality of the coaches, whether male or female, was different. In recent years this has changed, Pat Summit is as tough on her girls as on any other man, and she is the mentor to many successful female trainers today. The competitive nature of women’s sports has caused the competitive personalities of both coaches and players to grow to a level of some equality among the men in the sports clan.
The only area of women’s athletics that has only evolved more recently is the training specification for the female athlete. Coaches, trainers, and physicians have worked together to realize that the athletic training needs of women require a different program than men. One of the best examples is the knees, women in sports suffer a much higher amount of ACL injuries. In college basketball 4 times more than in men, in gymnastics 3 times more. The reasons are many, there is an anatomical difference in the composition of the muscular and skeletal area of the knee that some doctors consider to be the main cause, proper physical training can improve the strength of the internal and external muscles that protect the knee.
Today’s women’s sports programs, parents of today’s female athletes, they all want their teams, their daughters, to perform to their sporting potential. Take the time to find out how you, as a coach or as that athlete’s mom or dad, can ensure that you have a fitness program designed to protect and enhance the athlete’s physical attributes.
