New report is key for women's health

If you’ve ever been involved in women’s sport, you will know it’s a bit different to men’s. Not better or worse, just different.

Certain allowances sometimes should be made. When I was coaching a women’s team many years ago, I was told that chats at the start of training were not to be messed with and training proper would not get going immediately as a result!

With men, of course there’s some chatting too, but training proper starts when it’s supposed to start. These things should be respected as people play sport for different reasons.

A new report looks at some of the reasons why women play sport and why they stop playing sport.

While sport is not always an entirely positive thing in peoples’ lives, overwhelmingly it is.

Being involved in sport provides myriad benefits from improved physical and mental health, boosts to self-esteem to teaching problem-solving skills.

Many athletes also do better academically while exercising is a natural way to reduce stress. It’s also a great way to meet people and make new friends.

All of this is why it is so important that adolescent girls are involved in sport, and remain involved for as long as possible. At the moment just seven per cent of girls aged 14-15 meet the recommended physical activity levels. Seven per cent!

On Tuesday, Sport Ireland released the Adolescent Girls Get Active Research Report. This report aims to discover how to encourage teenage girls to take part in regular physical activity. The report found that the most powerful barrier that prevents inactive girls from taking part in sport and physical activity is not feeling good enough to join in. It also showed there aren’t enough opportunities for girls to take part and have carefree fun with friends while being active.

Sadly, by the age of 13-15 many girls have labelled themselves “not sporty” and are living by this label, with few attempts to counter it.

The project focused on teenage girls in Ireland with the aim of identifying their attitudes, needs and desires in relation to sport and physical activity; identify challenges and barriers to accessing sport and physical activity and develop strategies to encourage increased participation.

The research involved a deep exploration of the lives, behaviours and attitudes to sport, of teenage girls aged 13-18 in both rural and urban areas.

Director of Participation and Ethics, Sport Ireland, Dr Una May outlined the need for this research: “We also know that girls who are active in their teenage years and develop a love of sport are much more likely to establish a life-long relationship with sport and exercise in to adulthood. By really understanding the motivations and attitudes of teenage girls, we can now confidently review existing programmes to enhance appeal and relevance. We can also use these principles to innovate and develop completely new initiatives. ”

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media, Catherine Martin said: “For the first time we have a true understanding of what is causing teenage girls in Ireland to drop out of sport, or what is preventing them from getting involved in the first place.”

Hopefully this report will be a game-changer.