Girls Want To Have Fun Talking Sports
High Schoolers Are Too Old For Games?
One of the things I built into training for my high school girls track team was games — games that built skills but also let the fun in. The season is long. Training runs from September (off-season) to June (championship season), and that's a lot for any age. By the end of the year, focus and physical readiness for championships were critical to their success. I used games to sharpen reaction time and improve focus, and just this year we added a few that target core strength — while the girls squealed trying to get the win.
How Your Athlete Really Feels
A recent survey commissioned by Girl Scouts of the USA found that for 83% of girls ages 5–13, having fun matters more than winning. The other shocker: 77% of parents believe winning or performing well is what makes their daughter enjoy the sport. That's not a small miscommunication — athlete and parent are on two completely different pages. And it's costing us: 32% of girls said they've wanted to quit because of adult pressure about performance, and that jumps to 42% by ages 11–13. We have to bridge that gap.
The Opportunity
I already knew fun and connection mattered to the girls I coach. I was still shocked by the number. It tells me we have a bigger opportunity than I thought to build games into training — so girls get everything sports has to offer, in an environment they actually respond to, where effort goes up because they want to be there. That's something we already do at Top Speed, and this data says we should build on it.
Parents
Honest caveat: this is a survey commissioned by Girl Scouts, not a peer-reviewed study, and the numbers are self-reported. But the gap is big enough to act on. Start by changing the question you ask on the drive home.
Don't ask:
Did you play well?
How'd the game go?
Do ask:
What was the most fun part of practice (or the game) today?
What do you look forward to at practice?
Data like this doesn't just help us have deeper conversations with our girl athletes — it pushes us as trainers to evolve our practice to meet the athlete where she is. Let's continue to evolve together. Read more conversation tips in my post on what to say to your child after a competition.
Lorraine Eloms | Top Speed Athletics & Mental Performance and Life Coaching — helping young athletes develop the mental and emotional tools to compete, grow, and thrive.
