Strength & Conditioning for the Female Athlete
I’ve had the chance to coach a small number of female athletes, younger and older, and these coaching experiences combined with the recent research around training the female athlete have taught me so much.
A common mantra in the sports performance/strength & conditioning industry, is to never train young athletes as if they were elite or professional athletes, and this should also apply when deciding how to train the male vs female athlete. There are many individual differences to consider when creating training plans and coaching the female athlete. Listing all these differences is beyond the scope of this post but I will list some of the important ones that I believe sport/S&C coaches should be aware of for their understanding.
Firstly, amongst female athletes there is a stigma around strength training which is that it will only make them bulkier, gain weight, or make them slower. Over the last decade, physical demands of sport have increased, and there is now a bigger emphasis on strength, speed, power and physical qualities that underpin all these things. Guy Pitchers & Kirsty Elliott-Sale suggest in their article Considerations for coaches training female athletes, that younger athletes have a lower perception of their athletic ability and sometimes are less able to perform resistance training. They also mention that if they perceive S&C training to be a masculine activity, further issues can arise, therefore the role of the S&C coach is to dispel these myths and try to help the athletes, especially younger ones to see the benefits of strength training. Focusing on sport performance rather than injury could also be a way to encourage young athletes and make it a more positive conversation.
Secondly, the menstrual cycle is a topic that is pushed to the side when coaching female athletes. In a male dominated field, it is quite common for a female athlete to have a male coach, and some athletes do not want to have this conversation with men. As a male coach myself, I must understand not only what the menstrual cycle is, but how it affects sports performance for the athletes I train. There are several figures in the industry who have championed the role of the menstrual cycle for female athletes such as Dr. Georgie Bruinvels, Guy Pitchers, Dawn Scott to name a few. Much of the consensus and literature says that many female athletes will have a difference in their hormonal profiles, mainly oestrogen and progesterone being the key active hormones being affected. These hormonal changes will determine how athletes will feel, and how they are likely to train depending on the phase of the menstrual cycle they are in. Knowing and understanding at least some of the basics of the menstrual cycle will also help the coach to inform the athlete how they may need to fuel from a nutritional aspect.
Finally, from a performance perspective there are some key coaching points to consider. Some research shows female athletes are more predisposed to structural joint, ligament and tendon injuries so it is important to make sure these structures are loaded appropriately. Understanding the female anatomy and individual differences between female athletes will go a long way when planning athletic development programmes. Building a strong foundation of basic movement skills and movement capacity should be the first port of call. There’s no need to keeping adding load if the athlete lacks the basic movement patterns desired for their sport. Foundational movements such as the ability to decelerate, jumping and landing, balancing, single-leg squatting, hinging, and bracing should be the focus for many female athletes. One of the most prevalent injuries in female sport is the ACL rupture, which many sport scientists and physio’s attribute to a larger Q-angle, which subjects females to more occurrences of knee valgus. Also, the considerations for coaches training female athletes article points out that ligamentous laxity of the ankle joint has been shown to be greater in women, which helps explain why women sustain ankle sprains nearly twice as often as men. Video your athletes, gather information, and plan accordingly.
It all comes down to building trust and good relationships with your female athletes as a coach. Be positive and try to make your engagements with your athletes purposeful, do not be a barrier to progression. Women already face gender stereotypes in sport so it’s imperative that the coach doesn’t add to these stressors.