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.