The Uneven Playing Field - Title IX and girls injuries

[NewsCopy]

BY THE TIME JANELLE PIERSON SPRINTED ONTO THE FIELD for the start of the Florida high-school soccer playoffs in January, she had competed in hundreds of games since joining her first team at 5. She played soccer year-round — often for two teams at a time when the seasons of her school and club teams overlapped. Like many American children deeply involved in sports, Janelle, a high-school senior, had traveled like a professional athlete since her early teens, routinely flying to out-of-state tournaments. She had given up other sports long ago, quitting basketball and tennis by age 10. There was no time for any of that, and as she put it: “Even if you wanted to keep playing other sports, people would question you. They’d be, like, ‘Why do you want to do that?’ ” The rest of the story MICHAEL SOKOLOVE New York Times

[CajunFun]

NPR interviewed Sokolove for those of you who prefer to listen... you might even be able to download a podcast, I'm not sure.

The point he makes is that at puberty boys get anatomically and physiologically stronger with very little effort. Girls do not, but they become more flexible.

When girls are subjected to the same training schedules as boys, they do not build up as much muscle mass, and the repeated minor injuries, coupled with the flexibility, leads to severe, sometimes disabling, major injuries.

Female Athletes Suffer Pain for Glory.

[FTBLFN]

You probably hear about females and ACL injuries alot. Actually females are up to 6 times more likely to have that injury compared to males. The good thing is that it is being addressed. There are programs out there that address this issue, and if it is started early, the risk is minimized greatly.