{"id":28067,"date":"2024-10-22T08:15:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T08:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=28067"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:04:28","slug":"how-sport-wales-is-enabling-female-athletes-to-succeed-on-the-world-stage","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-sport-wales-is-enabling-female-athletes-to-succeed-on-the-world-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sport Wales Is Enabling Female Athletes to Succeed on the World Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 22 Oct 2024 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How Sport Wales Is Enabling Female Athletes to Succeed on the World Stage<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Human Performance<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-sport-wales-is-enabling-female-athletes-to-succeed-on-the-world-stage\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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The institute\u2019s Female Health & Performance Team sets out some of the most important considerations for female athletes from grassroots through to elite level.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
A regular menstrual cycle is generally a sign of good health in female athletes \u2013 although not all female athletes are necessarily aware of this.<\/h6>\n

\u201cThere are still female athletes who see it as a positive if their periods stop when they\u2019re training,\u201d Dr Natalie Brown, a Research Associate at the Welsh Institute of Performance Science, tells the Leaders Performance Institute on Teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is because it\u2019s easier and more convenient; they\u2019ve not got to deal with the symptoms or the bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the impact on their short and long term health, let alone performance, could be significant. \u201cIt\u2019s an indicator that they do not have enough energy for those basic bodily functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, such myths have grown to fill the void left by a lack of education and awareness across sport.<\/p>\n

Brown is part of the Sport Wales Female Health & Performance Team who are working to redress that balance by seeking to identify how the Welsh sports system can better support female athletes in their health and performance.<\/p>\n

In the first of a series of articles exploring the work of Sport Wales\u2019 Female Health & Performance Team, we discuss some of the major health and performance considerations for female athletes as well as some of the common myths that endure.<\/p>\n

Female athletes: long overlooked<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was encouraging to see a 50:50 split between male and female athletes at an Olympic Games for the first time in Paris earlier this year, but the stark reality is that just 22 per cent of leadership positions in sport are held by women.<\/p>\n

This is a symptom of a wider gender imbalance. Sport, much like society, has been geared towards males, with female sport often overlooked and under-resourced.<\/p>\n

\u201cFemales are participating more, and that\u2019s great to see, but the environments in which they are participating have not necessarily been set up for females,\u201d says Esther Goldsmith, who both works alongside Brown within the Female Health & Performance Team and joins her on the call.<\/p>\n

A girls\u2019 rugby team, for example, may not have access to suitable changing rooms or toilets. \u201cThat means they have to arrive prepared and, if they\u2019ve not got access to toilets, what does that mean if you\u2019ve got someone on her period?\u201d says Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in just focusing on the menstrual cycle you\u2019re ignoring the bigger picture around women\u2019s experiences of sport and how the system that we\u2019ve designed doesn\u2019t enable women to thrive in sport because they\u2019re trying to thrive in a male system.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continues: \u201cGirls go through puberty earlier than boys and so they have experienced hormonal changes at a time when they’re very unlikely to have been exposed to a strength stimulus and an appropriate movement at a young age when they would really benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing is access to physios,\u201d says Goldsmith. \u201cMost female teams don’t have access to a full-time physio, whereas male teams do.\u201d Inevitably, female teams suffer more time lost to injuries than their male peers. \u201cIn a male setup you might have a physio input that means that there’s no time loss as a result of a niggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is compounded by the lack of sports science research on female athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFemales have different biological and physical makeups,\u201d says Goldsmith. \u201cWe know our hearts, circulation and hormones are different, our anatomy is different, and therefore our biomechanics are different.\u201d<\/p>\n

As long as the performance community overlooks this, from the grassroots to elite level, female athletes will leave both health and performance potential on the table.<\/p>\n

Education<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Female Health & Performance Team is focused on trying \u201cto provide practical, tangible things that you can do to support your female athletes without it becoming too complicated or time-consuming to achieve,\u201d as Brown puts it.<\/p>\n

Education is a significant lever. \u201cA lot of teams say \u2018we need education\u2019 but then they don\u2019t necessarily know how to deliver it,\u201d says Goldsmith. \u201cI will deliver some classes to athletes, coaches and practitioners and work with them to help them take responsibility for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sport Wales is aiming to create a culture where everyone, from board members to volunteers, considers the importance of female health. Goldsmith and her colleagues work with athletes and coaches to address health, wellbeing and performance questions.<\/p>\n

It might involve classroom discussions but it could also take in one-to-one sessions. \u201cIf you\u2019re working with an athlete there\u2019s a bit of that \u2018we\u2019ve got to work on this together\u2019 because every female body is completely different and everyone will respond in a different way,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll go into some sports and work with some female athletes and they\u2019ll respond to or act differently with you to how they might in their day-to-day training environment because you\u2019re external and not part of their setup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldsmith will also adapt her approach depending on to whom she speaks. \u201cClasses will look different depending on what part of the pathway you\u2019re working on because a 14-year-old is going to respond very differently to a 25-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her colleagues also strive to go beyond \u201csurface level\u201d initiatives and have carried out behavioural mapping. \u201cHow do we actually change behaviour so that females are considered, whether that\u2019s with the athletes themselves or with the coaches and performance directors to look at actionable ideas?\u201d<\/p>\n

Myth busting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around 90 per cent of athletes who menstruate report some symptoms including pain, reduced motivation and fatigue. Brown uses this stat to set the scene for an illuminating story: \u201cI once asked an athlete if their menstrual cycle affects their training and they said: \u2018no, not at all. I just miss training if I\u2019m really struggling\u2019. I just had to sit there and say \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to have to take a step back here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown and her colleagues routinely dispel common misunderstandings and myths.<\/p>\n

One such myth is the supposed need to periodise training according to an athlete\u2019s menstrual cycle. \u201cThere is inconsistent evidence\u00a0 that you should completely adjust all of your training based on phases of the menstrual cycle,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Media headlines suggesting links between ACL injuries and the menstrual cycle have not helped. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with some athletes who are petrified of training in a certain way at a certain time because of those headlines and their anxiety,\u201d says Goldsmith. Another persistent myth is the idea that stopping the use of hormonal contraceptives will restart someone\u2019s cycle (they may experience a withdrawal bleed, which is not the same as a menstrual bleed).<\/p>\n

Coaches are just as susceptible to these myths. \u201cYou could see them, especially with team sports, asking \u2018well, if I’ve got two athletes in that phase and two athletes in that phase and 20 in that phase, how do I make sure that they’re all training based on their phases?\u2019\u201d All are relieved to hear there is an alternative solution to providing female-specific support.<\/p>\n

One might also assume that a female coach would be more sympathetic to the needs of a female athlete but that is not always the case. \u201cSome female coaches or practitioners, for example, never had any menstrual symptoms,\u201d says Brown. \u201cSome of them therefore don’t have the automatic motivation to consider it, and sometimes both male and female coaches can perceive athletes as using their symptoms as an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is important that it is not just females either, particularly as the majority of coaches are male. Some have a wealth of knowledge in the area, others don\u2019t. \u201cIf you ask male coaches if they think there should be equal opportunities for males and females they wouldn\u2019t say \u2018no\u2019,\u201d says Goldsmith. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ve factored some of the things we\u2019ve talked about into their practice. They just haven\u2019t developed that understanding. But when you start communicating it as a performance thing, they\u2019re like \u2018OK, this applies to the world I live in\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

To further help athletes, as well as their GPs, Sport Wales Medical Consultant, Dr Katy Guy, has prepared a letter<\/a> that female athletes can take to their GPs if they were to notice a change in their menstrual cycle. \u201cWe know GPs are under the cosh and have a lot to think and know about, so we\u2019re just trying to create a resource to help bust that myth beyond our institute,\u201d says Goldsmith.<\/p>\n

For all the obstacles that remain, both Brown and Goldsmith are optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last two years there\u2019s been quite a shift,\u201d says Brown. \u201cBefore that, the conversation was starting and there was some awareness but it was more around what was not being provided. There\u2019s been an increase in both research and support in the last two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increased visibility of women\u2019s sport has also supported that shift. So rather than us saying \u2018this is important, you need to consider it, this is why\u2019, I feel like we\u2019ve shifted towards sports, athletes and coaches saying \u2018we know it\u2019s important. What can we do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for upcoming articles where Brown and Goldsmith provide practical suggestions and solutions for supporting female athletes, from enhancing knowledge and establishing supportive environments to embedding positive behaviours and suitable management strategies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Female-Specific Considerations Should Be Part of Normal Practice\u2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n