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Despite the fact that over 25 years has passed since Title IX as applied to sports was enacted, information relevant to girls and womens sports is still difficult to find. Even on the Internet, very few sites exist that focus on girl's and women's sports issues. In this month's PELINKS4U Sports and Coaching section, we will try to identify sources of useful information in this area.
Richard Stratton
Coaching & Sports Section Editor
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The January/February 1998 issue of Coaching Youth Sports was devoted to articles about coaching and parenting female athletes. The Feature article discussed Motivation for female athletes. The Parents' page took on a general discussion of parenting female athletes. The Coaches article described guidelines for a code of conduct. See the Coaching Issues section on this page.
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"Making Workouts Fit the Strengths of Girls"
By Mary Duffy
"To give girls an equal shot at sports and to lower the likelihood of their being benched by injuries, some experts suggest scrapping the hand-me-down training regimens inherited from boys and tailoring conditioning programs to girls' bodies and athletic histories. Read the rest of this article at the New York Times.
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The Melepomene Institute, based in St. Paul Montana, has a wonderful web site that is devoted to information about physical activity for girls and women. Not only does the site address sports issues, but also covers girls' and women's health and fitness issues. The Institute also conducts an active research program. Reports of their research can be found at this web site.
The Women's Sports Foundation maintains a web site that includes information about grants and scholarships, a resource center, a chat area, description of advocacy opportunities, and a gender equity hotline.
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Coaches of female athletes may find that they are expected to deal with health issues of their athletes more so than if they were coaching male athletes. While this should not be the case - we should also be concerned about the health issues of our male athletes - it does seem to be a fact of life. Paula Allen presents a primer for coaches and parents on the health concern: Amenorrhea in female athletes.
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Upcoming Conferences of Interest
Managing Concussion in Sports and Recreation: Date: Friday April 27, 2001; Location: Camden County College's Blackwood Campus, Blackwood, NJ. Presented by Bancroft NeuroHealth's Institute of Professional Development and Research; Registration Fee $95. Information: Call Helen Fiorenti at 856-429-5637 ext.149 or check the web site www.bancroft.org
Sport, Character and Culture: Promoting Social and Moral Development Through Sport, May 10-12, 2001, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN. For conference information see the Mendelson Center's web site.
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Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfful to seek other than itself.
~ Kahlil Gibran ~
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"Women in Sports is a website dedicated to providing role models of women athletes that validate women's accomplishments and perpetuate a new vision of women's abilities, autonomy and self determination. Women will find the courage and daring to follow their own goals."
Coaching Girls
Advice by Doreen Greenberg, Ph.D.,
Sports Psychologist
Q. I would like to know if girls should be coached differently than boys? Read this article to find out the answer.
Women in Coaching
"The Women in Coaching program is a national campaign to increase the number of coaching opportunities for women, at all levels of sport." Check this site out to find out more about the program.
Sports Illustrated for Women
This site contains a drop down menu that can be used to read biographies of the century's greatest sportswomen. After reading the biographies, you can tell them who you think should be No. 1. Also, be sure to check out their expanded home page and their new issue which is on newsstands now. This site offers a wealth of online information about women in sports.
Visit Women's Freestyle Wrestling at the University of Minnesota-Morris. This site provides a lot of interesting information in regard to their intense women's wrestling program. Check out the "Women's Wrestling News" menu link to read "Women's Wrestling...How to Start a Women's Collegiate Program."
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Interaction between coaches and athletes has become a troublesome issue. It is apparent that the level of professionalism expected often exceeds reality and has the potential of creating a relatively emotionally sterile environment. This article by Bill Hayes gives some guidelines for coaches to consider as they interact with female athletes. I would like to add that with slight modification, the guidelines probably also apply to interacting with male athletes, although this concern has received much less attention in the media and other sources.
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you a softball coach? Information can be found for both Fast
Pitch Softball and coaching Slow
Pitch Softball.
Attention Cheerleading and Dance Team Coaches. There are
web sites with information for you. Varsity.com,
in conjunction with Varsity Spirit, now has two web sites on line
- one for cheerleading and one for dance teams. There is information
for both coaches and participants on these sites. |
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Do you think much about the process of providing feedback to your athletes? This two part series from Coaching Youth Sports describes some guidelines you should use. In Part 1, guidelines for the amount of information to give and how often to give feedback are discussed. Part 2 discusses the issue of precision of feedback, when to give it, and what methods you might use to give feedback
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Exercise burnout
Overtraining can cause depression, injury, and other ills
By Jacqueline Stenson
People who regularly push themselves too hard at the gym can be at risk for a host of problems associated with overtraining. Read these questions & answers, and signs and symptoms of possible overtraining.
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If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Coaching & Sports Section Editors:
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Help to support quality physical education and health education by contributing to this site.
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Please let your colleagues know about PELINKS4U, and remember you can catch up on a year's worth of news in our Archives.
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