March/April 2019 - 11

In " A Psychosocial Examination of Women's
Relationship to Strength Training and the Weight Room, "
author Holly Crane notes that only 29 percent of collegeaged
students use resistance training at least two times
per week, an overwhelming majority of which are men.
Google searching images associated with the term
" build muscle " yields more than 2,000 photos, but only
7 percent are specific to females. Many female studentathletes
perceive a lack of support as an obstacle to their
involvement in weight training, and this is where athletic
administrators and coaches can help.
Communication
Communication is a powerful tool to inspire many
when it's used intentionally. It must be used with surgical
precision when attempting to influence female studentathletes
to embrace a cultural shift in their weight
room experience. Clear communication from leaders
also makes others feel supported, and this support can
be a key component of inspiring others to go beyond
expectations. Consider these points of emphasis:
* Communicate about the benefits of strength
training. Routine physical activity is associated with
improved psychological well-being through reduced
stress, anxiety and depression. Strength training for
females acts as a buffer, decreasing the risk of eating
disorders. In some cases, simply improving knowledge
about the benefits of strength training increase female
participation.
* Communicate about the deterrents to strength
training. Strength coaches should be keenly aware of
the deterrents to strength training for female studentathletes
and coach through them. Strength coaches are
wise to communicate openly about how the girls might
feel about exercising in front of their peers, and actively
reframe this perception of the potential fear of negative
evaluation. Basic exercise physiology should be
included to teach the athletes the importance of the
movement they are performing, and emotional appeals
can be used to drive them toward resilience.
* Communicate support from the leadership. It
is possible that athletic administrators underestimate
their influence on cultural matters such as these.
When advocating for the value of an experience
that may seem countercultural, athletic administrators
should overcommunicate. Visiting a female weight
training session to give out some encouragement,
public statements in booster meetings, pep rallies, and
parent meetings are ways that athletic administrators
can communicate their support for female athletes in
the weight room.
Competition
The psychology of team competition is an underutilized
method to optimize female strength training.
Team competition reshapes the mindset from " everyone is
looking at me " to " my team is looking to me. "
" Each semester, the students in our strength training
classes draft a team to compete in a series of physical
tests requiring strategy and teamwork to complete, " said
Kim Ledford, female sport performance trainer The
King's Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida.
" For the female student athletes, we found that the
greatest challenges as a coach were students desiring
to have a 'skip day,' and students complaining that
they physically can't execute a specific movement. As
a proactive measure, we accounted for this in my point
system. Teams earn points for placing in competitions,
or team members completing an extra mobility and soft
tissue session. Teams lose points for skipping workouts or
being tardy, and for saying, 'I can't.'
" We have noticed a significant difference in the
student-athletes since introducing this competition.
They hold one another accountable on the days we are
working out, and they push one another to exhaustion
in the name of competition. Since introducing this
concept, we rarely hear the word 'can't' uttered in our
weight room. "
Coordinated
The human body is designed to perform specific
movements. When programming for high school,
consider that you are building a base of fitness for
young people, which they will draw upon for life. We
strive to create functionally fit athletes who can take the
movements learned in high school, and subsequently
continue their fitness journey into adulthood. Strength
coaches ought not relegate female athletes to developing
only lower body and aerobic fitness, and ought not
relegate male athletes to developing only upper body and
agility training.
To be a well-rounded athlete, it's imperative to train
all aspects of fitness. Schools should seek to train
" human body movements, " as opposed to male and
female or sport movements. When both males and
females are completing the same workouts, they can
share with their peers about the challenges and successes
they experienced. They have a common bond, and can
commiserate and encourage together.
This is not an exhaustive list of ways to engage female
student-athletes in a healthy commitment to strength
training. This demonstrates two ideas that are critical to
growth and improvement in any area: Be aware, and be
intentional. The growth of opportunities can leave leaders
in athletic departments ignorant to the fact that there are
still many hurdles to leveling the playing field for female
student-athletes.
Awareness is the cure for ignorance. Once an
athletic administrator or coach becomes aware of a
shortcoming in the athletic experience, intentional
action becomes the solution to enhancing the lifechanging
impact of interscholastic athletics. This
includes the experience of female student-athletes in
the weight room.
Kim Ledford, CSCS, XPS is the female sport
performance trainer at The King's Academy in West
Palm Beach, Florida and a former NCAA track &
field student-athlete. Chris Hobbs, CMAA, Ed.S. is the
director of athletics at The King's Academy.
WINNINGHOOPS.COM 11
http://www.WINNINGHOOPS.COM
March/April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2019
