Description
This course is the very first of its kind. It arms PE teachers and sports clubs with the right information to ensure girls’ bodies (and minds) don’t hold them back.
The Puberty Edition was specifically designed so teachers and coaches can understand the physiological, anatomical and psychological changes erupting in teenage girls’ bodies.
There’s 18 girls in a Y5 sports class. Aged 10 they all love it. Aged 16 and 12 of them will abandon it. For all the good news, girls’ participation in sport is today at an all-time-low.
There is no qualification or standard for PE teachers or sports coaches to understand girls going through puberty – their bodies, minds, priorities and challenges.
Something fundamental needs to change and this course is a start. This is a journey to understanding girls, puberty and exercise so we can smash the status quo.
This course helps all those working with teenage girls to understand the changes erupting in her body, mind and social life. Puberty packs a punch for girls’ participation in sport and exercise so this is ground zero to raise awareness and seed change – in PE departments and sports clubs everywhere.
Course membership – available in autumn 2023
Do this course and you will…
- Better understand the emotional and physical impacts of puberty and how this life stage can alter a girl’s perception of her body, her sport and herself;
- Develop awareness of the barriers and challenges girls face when participating and performing in sporting environments;
- Better understand how to support girls, within your skillset, and keep them moving, training and engaged in physical activity;
- Have more focus and insight in your conversations as you encourage girls to engage in sporting environments;
- Recognise the signs of underperformance, underfueling and underconfidence;
- Know how to broach sensitive topics and when to signpost to professional help;
- Support girls as they develop good movement patterns in order to reduce injury risk;
- Help girls to understand their bodies and track their hormone health;
- Understand your scope of practice when supporting girls going through puberty;
- Recognise strategies you could implement to enhance girls’ experience of sport.
Course Modules
1. Teenage Girls in Sport
The opening module sets the ‘why’ of the course by highlighting the physical, emotional and cultural obstacles facing girls. We explain problems at the crossroads of puberty, education and exercise and explore how you, in your professional role, can engage in conversations, solutions and actions.
2. Menstrual Cycle and Performance
In this guide to the adolescent menstrual cycle, the hormone rollercoaster, we explain how it regulates, affects and impacts girls. Hugely practical, we’ll help you understand it so you can feel confident around it, and inspire girls to master their cycle – which’ll help them all through life.
3. Kit for Teenage Girls
This module highlights common pitfalls and misunderstandings around kit. Have ‘the right kit’ and you’ll remove barriers, ensure safety and improve performance for girls in sport. So let us guide you into kit knowledge and strategies – including the wonders of a sports bra – to better support her.
4. Nutrition for Young Athletes
Good fuel is essential but girls’ relationships with food can be complex. This module offers nutrition advice specific to developing girls’ bodies and needs, and offers strategies coaches can use to promote body-confidence. You can learn a new language and inspire girls in positive food choices.
5. Injury Risk and Resilience
This module lays out the injury risks facing younger girls and their developing bodies. It offers practical strategies in successful injury prevention and creating safer sporting environments. We also focus on risks to the female brain – a hugely concerning topic in emerging sports science research.
6. Pelvic Health
This module illuminates a massively underappreciate power centre in the female body. This is vital information about bladders, bowels and pelvic floors, with fantastically practical strategies you can use to engage girls in pelvic health and risks, and how to incorporate pelvic exercise into your work.
7. Environment for Teenage Girls
Harnessing all information, ideas and reflections from previous modules, number 7 brings everything together to guide coaches and teachers into braver conversations, and into action. This is a starting point so you can design new environments for girls in sport so they can thrive from this day on.
Features
One and a half days of online learning
12 months access (with the option of extending for £40 a year)
Practical / instruction videos
Downloadable infographics
Content mapped to the CIMSPA Girls and Women’s Standard
Certificate of Completion (with CPD points – currently being endorsed by CIMSPA)
Don’t miss out on a unique opportunity to grab vital knowledge, directly from the experts, and use it immediately to make gains in performance and life
Course membership – available in autumn 2023
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