Great sports for girls

Let’s face it. On average it’s harder to get girls involved in sport than boys – but don’t despair. Gavin Evans, a father of two (reasonably sporty) teenage daughters, spells out some of the ways that your daughters can keep fit in their earlier years...

When girls leave primary school the incentives for sport diminish rapidly. They’re suddenly too old for childhood gym classes and the great, cold, muddy, sweaty outdoors loses its appeal.

The first solution is to get them excited well before reaching secondary school. And the second is to present a rich variety of choices... they’ll do swimming and running in PE, and should also be offered netball and hockey. If those don’t grab them, here's some other ideas:

• Top ten sporting dads

Football 

Pros:

• Camaraderie of being part of a team

• Direct link to a British national obsession

• Heart-pumping aerobic exercise

• Has overtaken netball in terms of female participation in the UK

Cons:

• Not ideal for girls who hate rough and tumble

• Or those who prefer the great indoors

Horse riding

 Pros:

• The horse, the hat: the girlhood dream

• Not too competitive unless they get into jumping

• Great for building friendships with other riders

Cons:

• Expensive – even if you don’t own the horse

• Major time investment unless you live in the countryside

• Only moderate exercise (horse does most of the work)

• How to be a touchline dad

Ice skating 

Pros:

• Girls see it as graceful and feminine

• Lots of dressing-up involved

• The thrill of gliding around on ice

• The dance moves of figure skating

Cons:

• Tough if you’re far from an ice rink

• Not the cheapest option (skates, costumes, rink fees)

• Relatively low aerobic benefit until elite level

• Some girls find grading and competitiveness off-putting

Water aerobics

Pros:

• Playing around in water

• Cool, unsweaty route to vigorous exercise

• Fun activity for groups of friends

• Combines strength work, toning and cardio-vascular exercise

• Not expensive

Cons:

• The water bit (requires public pool)

• Not an option until they reach about 13

• Lack of competitive element makes for high drop-out rate

Tennis

Pros:

• A sport for life – keep playing into old age

• Androgynous – play with boys and girls, singles or doubles

• Outdoors, but no rough and tumble

• A fun cardio-vascular workout without being too exhausting

• Can be competitive or merely social

Cons:

• Takes a while to learn to a reasonable level of proficiency

• Some girls (and boys) lack the innate ball sense to get past a certain level
  

• Social scene can be rather exclusive (in some clubs).

Five more…

• Circuit training (gym-based mix of muscle-toning and aerobic exercises)

• Snowboarding (Check out the UK's real snow domes)

• Softball (like baseball, but with softer ball and underhand pitching)

• Wall-climbing (indoor mountaineering)
• Martial arts (judo, jiu-jitsu, karate, kung-fu, Thai-boxing, Tae Kwon Do etc)
• Sport

Author

Gavin Evans is a father of two daughters - aged 17 and 13 - and lives in North London. 15years ago he changed gear from being a full-time reporter to full-time parent and part-time journalist. His writing on issues affecting fathers has been published in a wide range of publications including The Guardian, The Independent, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan, The Times and The New Statesman. He has written five books on sport, a chapter on men in Your Pregnancy Bible and is completing his first screenplay. Gavin also regularly posts blogs at www.gavinevans.net.

Any others

Can you think of any other great sports that girls like? Add your ideas and tips to the comments below.