Do you find yourself asking,“How do we motivate our girls? How do we encourage our girls to support one another? How do we promote courage, authenticity, and participation?
Me too. I am a PE teacher, sport, health and fitness coach with 25 years experience in education, community sport, and the health and wellbeing industries. I spent years working with women and girls helping them rise above the social pressures and societal norms, and I still found myself asking, “why don’t they see how much potential they have?”, “why are they so afraid to be themselves?”, “what is holding them back?”.
So, with these issues growing in front of my eyes every year, and the research indicating that 83% of our girls aged 15-17 do not do enough physical activity, 1 in 2 teenage girls suffer psychological distress, and girls aged only 9 years old experiencing sharp declines in body positivity, I embarked on a journey of personal and professional development so I could learn and understand the psychology and neuroscience of beliefs, feelings, behaviours and thinking that affects women and girls when it comes to being physically active. I wanted to see the big picture so I could make a difference to the health and wellbeing outcomes for our girls, just like so many of you.
The research reflects what we see, our girls are less active as they get older, and as this happens they are more prone to low self esteem, increased social pressures, and increased mental ill-health. Self talk and mindset flips are rife and this leads to the “opt out contagion” that we so often see in our PE classes. But only more recently has the research taken the dive into “why” this happens and what our girls need to help them survive and thrive in the world they are living in. What the research has revealed leaves us with some food for thought about how we can encourage our girls to get more involved.
Our girls want to be heard, they want input and they want to learn. Our girls want to improve, they crave mastery. This is the primary reason girls (68-72%) choose to play sport to begin with. To find mastery they need deliberate practice, and overtime flow is unleashed. FLOW = FUN . Lessons when they all say “ is that it, its over already?” is what we strive for. Providing opportunities for them to immerse is key. So, how do we do this?
We need to create coherence, alignment and connection between emotion and cognition. Emotions are energy in motion. Emotions are not a hindrance to participation, they are functions, and when we tap into how we can “Prime” our girls for action we can transform the culture of our classes. This feeds self confidence and motivates them. They want to have FUN, and be competitive but not have to compete or compare. They don’t want to be grossed out by the environment (think sweaty smelly gear, stinky opposition, ill-fitting uniforms, or derogatory comments from others), or to have a result as the focus. They want their effort to be acknowledged before the outcome, and they need feedback to be focused not only on the performance but on the process. Their sense of self worth is fuelled by sensing the value of the effort. Our girls need to be inspired, to learn more about incredible women in sport who have role modelled positive contribution at all levels of sport. (60% of young females report not having a female sports role model they looked up to).
And, they need to know the WHY! When we take the time to educate them about the PURPOSE of the activity for the sport and for life, they can connect with the deeper level of cognition that they inherently crave. Activity for activity sake will not work.
The way we start our lesson is so critical. We must “Prime for participation” with our verbal, physical and visual cues. What our lessons look like, sound like and feel like are the keys to opening the door to participation. We need to be approachable and open, our energy is key. Our language, verbal or physical, is observable by our girls and they interpret it with highly tuned intuition. Our tone, our posture, our enthusiasm, our facial expression influences their predictions about the lesson.
If we appease the socially accepted negative self-talk and group think that PE is “hard, or boring” by saying we are “JUST” or “ONLY” doing this today, we undermine their self perception and the value of what we, or they do. We need to focus on the FUN. Lack of it is a prime reason given by girls for dropping out.
Let’s start our lessons with activities that build connection, challenge cognition, involve teamwork toward a common goal, refocus their attention on the “soft skills” of resilience, communication, problem solving, and reframing, and bring on some novelty to engage the senses and trigger curiosity. And don’t forget the magic of music! Give them the opportunity to create a PE pump up playlist, and spread the auditory energy and vibes.
Kelli Coates, Founder, Creator, Facilitator – Big Picture Health
Big Picture Health is a social enterprise that provides women and girls with safe and inclusive opportunities to engage in physical activity and sport, learn positive wellbeing practice and develop resilience leadership. We empower women and girls to reach their potential in wellbeing, sport and life. We offer staff and students a range of programs, workshops and tools that they can use in and out of the classroom.
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