Blowing the whistle on girls who give up sport too soon

AS DERVAL O’ROURKE dipped towards the finishing line at the recent European Athletics Championships in Barcelona her only aim was to close the narrowest of gaps between her and the eventual winner, Nevin Yanit from Turkey.

But with her supreme effort, which clinched the silver medal for the 100 metres hurdles, O’Rourke was playing a part in helping to close an altogether different sort of gap at home – that between the numbers of boys and girls involved in sport.

High-profile successes by Irish sportswomen reinforce the message to teenagers that sport is definitely for girls.

At primary school age, most children are involved in physical activities. But as girls progress through secondary school they are much more likely than boys to opt out, with just over half of them playing sport in their late teens.

Research that is due to be published in the autumn by the Irish Sports Council, in conjunction with some Irish universities, on children’s participation in sport, PE and physical activity, is expected to highlight the difference between the numbers of girls and boys continuing with sport once they start secondary school.

Early indications are of a “significant enough gap”, reports Fiona Coyne, participation manager with the Irish Sports Council. “The gap starts off in primary school but it would not be hugely significant.

“When they get to secondary school, there would be quite a large gap between boys and girls, particularly in relation to team sports, which would traditionally be more provided for in schools but would not be as attractive to girls.”

There are many factors at play, such as too few sports being offered to girls and them becoming self-conscious about their bodies and not wanting to change in front of others or wear the PE kit. Some cite the pressure of study. However, Coyne remarks, they still seem to find the time to watch television and go online.

The sports council has worked with girls who routinely avoid PE to see what would motivate them to get involved. “What comes back is that they want to have fun; they don’t want any pressure and they don’t want it to be competitive,” says Coyne.

The value boys place on competition would be intrinsically higher, she suggests, than it would be with girls – but not all girls. “For inactive girls, competition is very, very unimportant and fun and enjoyment is very, very important.”

The phenomenon of teenage girls dropping out of sport is being tackled by some sporting organisations, schools and parents and there are signs that the trend is slowly starting to be reversed.

According to 2007 figures from the Irish Sports Monitor, only 46 per cent of girls aged 16 to 20 were involved in sport, compared with 70 per cent of their male peers.

The following year, female participation in that age group had risen to 52 per cent, while the male rate had dropped to 60 per cent (the latter being attributed partly to young men not being able to afford to go to the gym during the recession).

While it is too early to be definitive about it, Coyne believes these figures may indicate the impact of “Women in Sport”, a promotional and funding programme that the Irish Sports Council started five years ago.

One group of parents in Co Galway have been making a difference at a local level with their own initiative. Noticing that girls were dropping out of traditional organised sports, members of the parents’ council at Seamount College, an all-girls secondary school in Kinvara, decided to provide other options.

“Once girls go into secondary school, whether it is body image or whatever, they become very disinterested and become much more difficult to motivate in the sporting area,” says Ailish O’Shea, an outdoor pursuits instructor and chairwoman of what was christened the Get Off Your Arse (GOYA)Gang.

“Lads generally will have a grounding in the GAA and they carry on with that or rugby. Camogie will cater for girls but there is a huge drop off.”

The idea was to offer girls taster sessions in sports such as rock-climbing, caving, hill-walking and kayaking. “Outdoor pursuits attract kids who are not as competitive in sports such as hockey. They also provide a passion and a challenge.”

Initially they were hampered by a lack of equipment and training – buying in the services of instructors was expensive. But trained volunteers came forward as the project gathered momentum.

Professional outdoor pursuits instructor Kevin O’Callaghan now takes care of all the training, ensuring proper standards are observed.

“He oversees all safety aspects of it, trains the adults and nothing happens until he says it is safe to do so,” says O’Shea, who is talking to me on the phone from Achill Island in Co Mayo, where she is camping with five youngsters who are trying coasteering for the first time.

“They jump off rocks and wait for the swell to bring them in and they have to climb back up – under very controlled conditions,” she stresses. “They have instructors with them.”

The previous week eight adults took 15 youngsters, ranging in age from seven to 17, kayaking down the River Barrow. While some boys are involved, the 60-plus children in the GOYA Gang are predominantly girls.

As well as involving girls in exercise, GOYA activities are social and educational too – “a lot of what we do comes into their geography”, says O’Shea, who also highlights the mental health benefits: “To go up the hills and lose yourself in your thoughts and the fresh air is a huge element of it.”

The HSE Community Games, which culminate in national finals in Athlone this month, aim to involve as many children as possible in a wide range of activities.

“The more things they try – girls and boys for that matter – at a younger age, they more likely they are to find something they like and keep at,” says the games chief executive, Fiachra O Mathúna.

A child will not necessarily share a parent’s passion for a particular sport. “If they don’t like it, bringing them to something else can be a tough thing for a parent to do,” he acknowledges.

Community Games organisers keep an eye out for areas which might be in the habit of just entering, say an all-boys GAA team, and encourage them to try sports such as basketball which must have a mix of girls and boys.

The question of mixing the sexes was an issue for the organisers of this summer’s An Post FAI Soccer Schools, which involve 20,000 children aged six to 14. In an effort to attract more girls, it was decided to pilot girls-only sections at some of the camps.

“Although most girls are more than happy to mix in with the boys,” says Barry Gleeson, national co-ordinator of the soccer schools, “there are girls out there who would see the game as a boys’ thing. It is an image we are trying to move away from.”

They wanted 15 per cent of participants in the summer schools to be girls and he reckons it is about 13 per cent at present. The proportion of girls signing up for schools with girls-only sections was one or two per cent higher than those without.

He admits to having mixed feelings about segregation. “It is kind of controversial. In an ideal world we would not have to do this. We would have lots of girls and boys playing together on the camps.”

But they saw how other European countries have been successful in having girls-only camps and events to get them involved. That is the rationale behind the FAI’s Soccer Sisters programme which introduces girls aged seven to 11 to soccer before encouraging them to join clubs or set up new teams.

Parents who want to give their children a head start in a particular sport are often anxious to enrol them in a local club at as early an age as possible. But this can backfire.

“We have a lot of people joining their first club as they enter school,” says Coyne. “The worry we would have is if you join a soccer club or a rugby club or Gaelic club at the age of six but you don’t like it or don’t master it quickly, that could be a negative experience, which could turn you off sport for the rest of your life.

“International research would tend to indicate that people who don’t specialise earlier, tend to stay involved in sport longer in their lifetime,” she reports. “That is an important message we are trying to get out there.”

As for keeping girls involved, she believes the positive role modelling of sportswomen such as O’Rourke and world boxing champion Katie Taylor may be one of various factors having an impact.

“Things are changing,” she adds, “but it is a societal change, it is a cultural change, it won’t happen overnight.”

FIT FOR LIFE: TIPS FOR KEEPING GIRLS ACTIVE

LOOK FOR CHOICES:

Encourage her to try a wide range of sports from an early age so she has a better chance of finding at least one that will remain a lifelong passion.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE:

Support and involvement of parents is particularly important for girls so try to get out with her for a walk, run, cycle, swim or game of tennis, and go to watch her play sport

DON’T IMPOSE:

Let her persist with the sport or activity she likes, even if it bores you to tears.

PUT THE EMPHASIS ON FUN:

Be clear that what matters is enjoying a sport rather than excelling at it. She is much

more likely to give it up if she feels she is just not living up to your expectations.

WATCH OUT FOR ROLE MODELS:

Take her to sporting events where she can see women competing; watch women’s sports on TV with her and discuss their achievements.

LOOK FOR ANSWERS

If she is reluctant to participate in physical activities, try to find out why and help her address any problems she has.

FIELD OF DREAMS: A PASSION FOR FOOTBALL

Tiegan McCluskey (10) dreams of playing football for Dublin in Croke Park someday – just like Niamh McEvoy, who is

coaching her at a VHI GAA Cúl camp in north Dublin this summer.

While dancing was her first love – and she will be competing in the all-Ireland freestyle championships in October – Tiegan’s number one passion now is Gaelic football.

She does not want to miss a day of the eight-week Cúl camp being run by Parnell’s GAA Club at St David’s CBS in Artane.

“I think it is fun and I get to improve on my skills and see my friends,” says Tiegan, who lives in Coolock and is just one of 81,000 children (up to 30 per cent of them girls) aged seven to 13 involved in more than 1,000 VHI GAA Cúl camps.

Ladies’ Gaelic football is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. It may be no coincidence that this surge of interest has come during the recession as it is a very cheap sport for parents to get girls involved in, observes Angela Walsh (24), a member of the Cork senior team and an ambassador for the Cúl camps.

A secondary school teacher of PE and maths, Walsh sees how girls get to an age when they want to spend more time with their friends, dressing up and going out. “They don’t want to be tied to going training in the rain.” But if club structures are good and they make friends, girls will stick at the football, she says.

Wexford camogie player Mags D’Arcy (22), another camp ambassador, acknowledges the temptation to quit sport during the teenage years but says girls are wrong to think that if you play camogie you don’t have a social life.

“When I was in secondary school I had a lot of distractions around me. You have your social life that is starting to develop and the possibility of a boyfriend or two and things can pull you away. Friends can have an awful lot of influence on you as well.”

But camogie is very enjoyable, she stresses, “and I have made a lot of friends through camogie”.

The opportunity to meet lots of girls is obvious but what about the opposite sex? “Don’t worry, they come after a group of girls,” says D’Arcy with a laugh.