Chapter 6: How to play like a girl

In this portion, athletes, coaches discuss di erences in various aspects of sports on the basis of sex

Author: Emerson Elledge elledeme000@hsestudents.org

Chapter 6 Overview

Wellness is o en divided into four subsections: physical, mental, emotional and social. ese four components have various a ects on a player’s overall opinion of their sport.

e NCAA reports that in their program, the sexes are fairly equally distributed, with males making up 56%. Despite this relative equality, the divisions are not viewed entirely equally. According to Front O ce Sports, only 21% of sports fans actively follow a female sporting league, as well as only 9% saying that they would pay to attend a women’s sporting game. is prejudice dribbles down to the high school sporting world, and will be further discussed and elaborated on shortly.

Topic 6.1: e e ect of gender on the physical aspects of sports.

Physical components and e ects are o en the most outward expression of sports, tending to be the rst and sometimes only component a person thinks of when thinking about sports. is element is o en used as a method of discriminating against female athletes by calling them weaker and undermining their work despite the genders essentially doing the same amount of work, according to sophomore track and eld athlete, Macy Miller.

“[Athletes] bodies move in the same way [in the terms of basketball],” girls basketball coach Lauren Votaw said. “We need to be powerful. We need to be explosive.”

Strength and conditioning coach Josh Jones designs the conditioning and weight training regimen for all teams in the school, boys and girls alike. Sophomore Olivia Brookshire is the point guard on the girls JV basketball team and appreciates this focus on strength.

“ e [longer you play] in your sport, you need to begin focusing on your recovery,” Brookshire said. “Especially [since] starting up with weightli ing, recovery and managing soreness has become an important part in trying to become the best I can be [at my sport].” is method of accommodation is popular among other sports as well. According to junior

Marina Agapios, a member of the track and eld team, the approach her team takes follows this norm, with the coaches rst creating the workout for the girls team before adjusting it to t with the boys.

“Target times when running have a few seconds di erence between the boys and the girls,” Agapios said. “Performance wise, girls and boys have very di erent times. e boys are faster, jump higher or longer, while the girls are a few seconds or inches behind them.”

Topic 6.2: e personal mentality of female players based on the coaching they receive and the game they play.

Mental components refer to the internal emotions and feelings of the players, especially in regards to the game.

“ e players want to work hard because they want to work hard for their teammates and for you as their coach,” Votaw said. “So I really try to use that [passion] as our main motivation”

However, along with this passion, a common feeling among players is a feeling of lack of respect or equality that they have internalized because of their peers.

“It has all been really frustrating to not be respected for our hard work and to not feel respected as athletes,” Brookshire said. “But I think at this point all we can do is our best despite what other people think and that’s all that really matters. “

Topic 6.3: e di erence, if any, of coaching and refereeing due to gender and how that a ects a player’s emotional state.

Coaching has the utmost e ects on a players performance and attitude on playing.

“I really try to not be authoritative [with my coaching],” Votaw said. “It’s much better if you can build the relationship and then hold [the athletes] to high standards. I rmly believe that you can hold [athletes] to high standards without being demeaning or derogatory in any way.”

As with coaching, refereeing has a high e ect on players’ performances and attitudes on the sport, which can lead to either celebration or anger.

“ ere is a big discrepancy in what females are allowed to do in terms of celebrations, [like] body language in comparison to boys,” Votaw said. “Por example, let’s say a girl makes a layup, exes and maybe says ‘and one.’ at girl is probably at the very least going to be warned, if not given a technical foul, [but when] a boy does that, we move on to the other end and don’t even say anything.”

However, some players complain about inequality in terms of coaching.

“With the coaching, [the treatment] feels imbalanced,” Agapios said. “Most of the time, it feels like not all, but some of the coaches focus their time on the guys instead of both groups. Sexism however isn’t big in our culture but it’s still there.”

Topic 6.4: e perceived attitude of female athlete’s peers.

e nal element of a players’ perceived attitude and performance of their sport is their perception among peers. A common complaint among female athletes was a lack of spectators at games.

“[ ere will be] a Friday night where stands will be packed for our boys, but then Saturday night we’ll have maybe ve fans,” Votaw said. “ at’s not an exaggeration [and] that’s my biggest frustration, [but] I know this is not a Fisher’s High School thing, this is a statewide thing.” is mindset is not limited to the coaches, but additionally spreads to the player’s perceptions.

“A lot of students don’t think that girls’ teams are entertaining and that can be seen by the di erence in the student section between the two. While the two games are vastly di erent, they each have their own strengths and girls games can de nitely be just as hype as the guys. I mean I think that the mindset is everywhere. You can hear people talk about how girls’ sports suck when you walk down the hall. With that, I think that many guys don’t think that girls are athletic. I know that I personally have seen this in PE with guys excluding girls from games because ‘girls aren’t fast enough, strong enough, etc.’”

In Figure 6.1, a female athlete is displayed running. In Figure 6.2, a female athlete is displayed li ing weights for training. Graphics by Emerson Elledge