Marcus Agnew: We need to back our girls

Marcus Agnew

I often say to people, if I had a magic wand, and could magically fix one thing to enhance the future of New Zealand sport - it would be to change the social/cultural perceptions surrounding girls and sport. In particular it would be to erase the negative perceptions that still pervade over girls going 'hard' in sport, and training hard in the gym to develop both strength and power.

Yes we have seen some massive changes in recent years, and we are definitely on an upward trajectory in terms of female engagement in such activities which is great, but we still have a way to go. If it was equally cool for girls through the teenage years to engage in strength training, as it is for boys, our female sport would be in a much 'stronger' position on the world stage in 10 years from now.

It is a common misconception that if females lift weights they are suddenly going to become a man, with bulging muscles and hairy arms - well forget it, it won't happen, you need testosterone to grow muscle, and even for guys it is damn hard, so girls don't worry.

For you girls that are concerned - the good thing is you don't need to grow muscle to get strong. Yes that's right. Now I won't bore you with disinhibition of the Golgi tendon organ, motor unit recruitment, firing frequency, synchronisation, blah-blah-blah, but trust me, if you get your nervous system firing, you will kick butt - and won't need bulging muscles to do it.

From a young age boys are encouraged to be tough... "he's a little animal". But girls are much less so, they are encouraged to be 'girly', it's all around us in society, so it is no wonder that girls are more likely to drop out of sport when is becomes 'not cool'... which is sad.

Again, things are vastly better than they used to be on this front - with the advent of such activities as crossfit, and movements like 'Strong is the new Skinny', it is much cooler now for females to be lifting weights and training for strength.

Aside from sport performance, it's just damn good for health. Losing muscular, and bone strength, is a natural part of the ageing process - so strength training definitely promotes good health, even 'anti-ageing'. It is particularly important for teenage females who are right in that critical window of their life for developing bone integrity, yet often they don't get the opportunity to train strength, and may pay for it later in life with fragile bone issues.

So I think we should actively foster toughness in our young girls, we do it with our boys (even if subconsciously). I'm probably a bit biased, as I have three young girls of my own, but interestingly in Hawke's Bay at the moment we do have some serious girl power going on.

Into the third year of the national Pathway to Podium programme, of the 13 Hawke's Bay athletes selected, Regan Gough is the only male - all the other 12 are females.

This year's Pathway to Podium group is Georgia Hulls, Kate McKelvie, and Briana Stephenson, bolstered by other high potential athletes Ruby Adsett, Amanda Jamieson, Amy Martin, Eva Goodison, Laina Samia, Piera Hudson, Georgia King and Jessica Turfrey.

An awesome lineup of talent, with all of them preparing for Junior World Championships or other international competition.

In Hawke's Bay we don't currently have a training base for them to prepare, but hope to soon with the AUT Millennium Hawke's Bay project.

To get these girls, and others into the same training environment feeding off and competing against each other would be an exciting prospect for developing talent in our region, and inspiring pathways for all girls - encouraged to be as tough and strong as they like, just as boys are, and certainly not made to feel any less of a women for it.

Olympic weightlifting, coached properly, is brilliant for developing sport performance and enhancing health - i.e. it's not just about power; the all-round speed, flexibility and co-ordination is hard to replicate in any other activity - and it's fun. The more young girls, and boys, we can get into it (under quality guidance) the better. It would be a must for most of the budding talents listed above, and for others coming through.

Given the quality of international women's weightlifting, it is hard to believe that females were barred from competing at the Olympics until as recently as 2000 in Sydney; deemed as too dangerous, yet the men have been doing it since year dot.

But girls, now is your time, you got it pretty good these day, but let's make it better - you go for it, kick ass - be the best you can be!

-Marcus Agnew leads Talent Development and the Pathway to Podium for AUT Millennium Hawkes's Bay. He is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.