"Female athletic programs need to see puberty as a power, not a weakness"

[derob]

This extract from a book has a really interesting take on young women and sports - www.facebook.com/316489315054055/posts/4999195793450027?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20220421&ts=20220421

That's a v interesting perspective that I hadn't realised.

More reason to protect girls' sports from boys too.

Had a mighty girl been pro trans before; I can't remember?

In that case why not let the trans girl embrace her male puberty? Everything gets utilised by that movement and turns into a slippery slope.

I don’t think a mighty girl has ever been TWAW - they always centre girls and female experience. Thought that was a great article.

I get emails from A Mighty Girl and I've never spotted any TWAW stuff - always seems v focused on female empowerment and confidence. I really liked the article (only just realised it's written by an Olympic athlete). This makes so much sense:
"And, Pappas hopes that as more women become coaches, people will start training, and understanding, the developing female body better. "Female bodies operate on different performance timelines than those of their male teammates and require a different type of support," she asserts. "Starting as early as middle and high school, we can educate coaches and athletes on the proper approach that young women can take to embrace their bodies and stay healthy and ultimately grow into more capable adults."

I don’t know, puberty isn’t a power and it isn’t a weakness, it is simply the natural growth that we all go through. It’s like saying menstruation is a power, not a weakness when it is simply just a fact of life. It’s not special or a burden.

I think the article is saying that intensive sports training over the time of puberty can hinder the body’s development, as the author has seen elsewhere. So if you let it happen naturally as is normal, it’s great - but intensive sports training can interfere with this natural process and cause problems.