Why I am (mostly) glad I am a man. And why nice girls don't do sport

Every now and then I am overcome with a feeling of resentment towards women.  I look at them with their shoes and their scatter cushions, and feel .. what is the word?  Oh yes, jealous.


By most objective measures, women are the superior gender  Taken as a population, women are more socially intelligent than men.  They are better able to deal with conflict, and less likely to be lead by their ridiculous egos.  They work harder than men, often at more than one thing at a same time (a skill that many men would condemn as witchcraft).  And most importantly of all, women are much, much nicer than men,


Obviously, they are not especially nice to each other.  I've taught in a girls school, so I have seen things that would make your toes curl.  And if you haven't, trust me: the evil that men do is nothing compared to what two thirteen year old girl friends will say and do to each other.


But such behaviour is merely an anomaly.  My personal theory is that it is a result of excessive intelligence.  Human brains evolved to deal with the harsh, Machiavellian social settings of early hominids, and we have essentially the same brain architecture than our ancestors had 40,000 years ago.  It seems to me that most women just have a lot of that Machiavellian intelligence to spare.


I am, of course, aware that I am making wild generalisations that are crude and stereotypical.  And I know that for every Hillary Clinton there is a Sarah Palin, and for every Noel Edmonds there is a Stephen Fry.


Overall, weighing up and the pros and cons, I am happy to stick with my theory.  Women are best.  Men are rubbish.  So, every now and again the loser in me whispers in my ear "Look at them, with their intuition and social grace.  See their under-stated humour and their kindness?  Compared to them, you and your kind will always be oafs.  Hairy, smelly oafs.  Who start wars."


What's stopped me from switching sides?  Of taking the unkindest cut of all?


Well, women don't have it all their way.  Nature always strives for balance.  For all their virtues, they have to deal with a variety unpleasant biological afflictions that are best not discussed in civilised company.


And they have to cope with the Daily Mail.  There are many popular newspapers in the UK, but the Mail stands out.  Partly because of its stout defence of all things that are great about modern Britain, like Princess Diana and the death penalty.  And partly because it markets itself primarily to women.  The Mail claims to be The Newspaper for Women.


The extent to which the Mail stands FOR women can be judged by its content on 8th March.  International Women's Day.  Whilst other media were banging on about women's achievements or the prejudice of patriarchal society, The Daily Mail cut right to the chase.

The movie star Cameron Diaz's attempts to be 'girly' were undermined by the fact that she had clearly done some exercise: "...  sporting an LBD [no idea, sorry] with an asymmetrical neckline [er], Cameron Diaz was unable to disguise her toned arm and shoulder.  The actress looked more tomboy than feminine at a promotional event ..."


The author of this social commentary, Alanah Eriksen, doesn't really mean 'tomboy', does she?  By claiming a degree of androgyny about the actress' appearance, she is feeding into a long-standing cultural theme: sport and exercise are boys' activities, and girls who choose to break this basic rule probably break other, more serious, social taboos too.


Nice girls don't play sport.  Girls who play sport are not nice.


And this principle must be right because we witness it every day: from increasingly early ages, girls drop out of sport and physical activity, often never to return.


I wonder if it was a coincidence that the Mail choose this particular day to publish this diarrhea.  I don't read it, and for all I know, the paper usually has features by Germaine Greer on the joy of menopause, and the sports pages are full of women's boxing and international netball.


If so, it is simply unfortunate that it printed an article that demeans and insults women on the very day that the world was celebrating the extraordinary advances that women have made this century.


But I suspect not.  This nonsense is ridiculous but not without precedent.  Women are bombarded with messages that tell them how to behave in order to remain 'girly'.  And some of the messages, like this one, are positively harmful to women's health, because exercise is a necessary ingredient of well-being.


And this is why I grudgingly choose to remain a man.  I can live with being a bit slow and useless.  And I look forward to my inevitable decline into ridiculousness.


And if I decide to play some sport or do some exercise, I know that I won't be condemned by an evil hate-rag that makes its money by reinforcing society's prejudices and playing on people's fears.

You have read this article equality / gender / sport / sports with the title gender. You can bookmark this page URL http://say-sport.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-i-am-mostly-glad-i-am-man-and-why.html. Thanks!

Making Sport a Daily Habit: What Motivates Children to Take Part in Sport?

I am really pleased to present a Guest Post from Ed Cope, a specialist researcher in Youth Sport at the University of Berdfordshire in the UK.

Ed's topic is one of perennial interest and importance: children's participation in sport.

Comments and responses to this (and previous) posts are positively encouraged.

In most sport coaching contexts, children can choose whether or not they wish to participate in sport. Therefore, it could be assumed that all children who engage in some form of sport or physical activity do so because they want to. However, not all children take part in sport for the same reasons. A large body of literature exists that documents children’s motivations for taking part in sport. This blog discusses the key findings from the literature that specifically relate to children’s motivations for participating. Furthermore, a number of recommendations will be made, which will enable coaches to deliver more developmentally appropriate coaching practices.

Children engage in sport for a variety of reasons. From comprehensively reviewing the literature, five common themes have consistently emerged. Each of these themes will be briefly discussed in this section.

Perceived competence

Children with a high perceived competence level are much more likely to participate in sport, than children with low competency levels. High competency is achieved when children experience a feeling of success. Alternatively, children’s competency levels decrease when they experience failure. It is often the case that children perceive competence against the level of effort they exert. Therefore, if a child is rewarded for the amount of effort they put in, their competence levels will likely increase.

Fun and enjoyment

Fun and enjoyment has largely been considered the primary motive for why children take part in sport. However, there is no one global definition of fun and enjoyment. According to some researchers, it has been suggested that a number of sources affect what children perceive to be fun and enjoyable. These sources can be grouped into three categories; achievement (skill mastery, perceived competence and physical appearance), social (friendships, social recognition, adult interaction and team interaction), and intrinsic (excitement and energy, flow, movement sensations and good times). It is important to understand what sources affect children’s motivations to participate.

Parents

Parents have considerable influence over children’s motivation to take part in sport. In particular, parents can influence their children’s perception of competence through the role they play in their children’s sporting life. The extent, to which parents become involved in their children’s sport, will either promote motivation levels, or decrease them. It has been suggested that over-involved parents who pressure their children to win, have a negative effect on their motivation. At the same time, under-involved parents who show little appreciation of children’s efforts will also have a de-motivating impact on their willingness to maintain participating. It is recommended that parents show care and support, with an emphasis on effort, teamwork and fun.

Learning new skills

Research in swimming and athletic contexts suggest that some children take in sport in order to satisfy their intrinsic motivations of learning new skills. The reasons stated were that children enjoy learning new skills to make them better at the sport they participated in, and because of the inherent challenge it presented. In addition, it has been found that some children also wish to learn new skills to impress coaches, parents and friends/teammates.

Friends and Peers

Although not as significant a motivational factor as some of the other sources that have been discussed, friends and peers do influence children’s motivations to take part in sport. Children cite friends and peers as motivational influences when they are given the opportunity to work together, gain social acceptance, and make friendships. When placed in situations that promote direct competition, many children become de-motivated.

Key points

• The majority of research, which has studied children’s motivations to participate in sport, has done so from a psychological viewpoint. However, children’s motivations are also influenced by a number of socio-cultural factors (e.g. parents and friends). Considering this, motivation is a context specific phenomenon, as what motivates one child in one context, may not necessarily motivate them in another.

• Most children are intrinsically motivated to take part in sport (i.e. they participate for reasons such as wanting to learn new skills or because they enjoy participating). Coaches must be aware that they are responsible for creating the coaching environment, with this influencing children’s desire to remain intrinsically motivated. Consequently, if children are to remain motivated, the coaching environment must be aligned with the reasons for children wanting to participate.
• 
  
• Coaches, who use more positive behaviours, over more negative behaviours, have been found to maintain and increase the level of children’s motivation. Coaches should minimize their use of negative behaviours, but also be aware that constant delivery of positive behaviours such as general positive feedback will have an adverse effect on children’s motivation.
• 
  
• Coaches should look to limit the amount of instruction they give. It has been argued that too much instruction impacts on the ability of children to engage in decision making and problem solving tasks. Instead, an effective coaching strategy is to remain silent for periods of coaching practice, as this allows a coach to observe and reflect on practice. At the same time, it allows children to make their own decisions and work problems out for themselves.
• 
  
• Coaches must strive to understand the personal motivations of all of the children they are coaching. As has been highlighted, children have many different motivations for participating.

Further reading

Keegan, R. J., Harwood, C. G., Spray, C. M., & Lavallee, D. E. (2009). A qualitative investigation exploring the motivational climate in early-career sports participants: Coach, parent and peer influences on sport motivation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 361-372

McCarthy, P. J., & Jones, M. V. (2007). A Qualitative Study of Sport Enjoyment in the Sampling Years. The Sports Psychologist, 21, 400-416

Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., Barnett, N. P., & Everett, J. J. (1993). Enhancement of Children’s Self-Esteem Through Social Support Training for Youth Sport Coaches. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78 (4), 602-210.

Wall, M., & Côté, J. (2007). Developmental activities  that lead to dropout and investment in sport. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 12(1), 77-87.

Weiss, M. R., & Petlichkoff, L. M. (1989). Children’s Motivation for Participation in and Withdrawal from Sport: Identifying the Missing Links. Paediatric Exercise Science, 1, 195-211.

Weiss, M. R. (1993). Children’s Participation in Physical Activity: Are We Having Fun Yet? Paediatric Exercise Science, 5(3), 205-210.

Biography

Ed is currently a full time PhD student at the University of Bedfordshire. His research interests are centred around the pedagogical practices that children's sport coaches employ, and how these impact on children's sporting experiences. Ed is also a practicing children’s sports coach.

Ed can be contacted by email: Edward.cope@beds.ac.uk

You have read this article aims / coaching / disability sport; sport; inclusion; School Games / education / education sport / gender / PE / physical activity / physical education / player development / sports with the title gender. You can bookmark this page URL http://say-sport.blogspot.com/2012/02/making-sport-daily-habit-what-motivates.html. Thanks!

Participant Development in Sport

LTAD?


Core skills and capabilities?


Early Specialisation?


Talent Development?


Critical Periods in Development?




There is increasing demand on coaches and teachers to keep informed of relevant research evidence, and to adapt their work accordingly.  Evidence-based practice is accepted as the default position for those claiming to be professionals in sport.


The trouble is ... Well, there are a few troubles.  For example:

• Some of the research literature is highly complex, and uses arcane jargon;
• Some of the literature seems to contradict itself; and
• There is awful lot of it out there.

Dave Collins, myself and a small group of subject experts from physiology, psychology and sociology carried out a comprehensive review of the literature on participant development in sport on behalf of sportscoachUK in 2010.

Click on the image to get a free copy.

The report turned out a lot more 'comprehensive' than we'd imagined at the start, and it is certainly the most thorough review carried on playing, developing and improving in sport.

It also includes HUGE list of references.

It offers a critical analysis of such hot topics as LTAD, early specialisation, and talent development.  It also gives an examination of the assumptions that underlie most sports development programmes.

The review was written as a reference document for sportscoachUK, and so the tone is at times quite technical.  So, we also wrote an Executive Summary, which is available by clicking the next image:

The Review team was:

Richard Bailey, PhD, RBES Ltd

Dave Collins, PhD, University of Central Lancashire

Paul Ford, PhD, University of East London (Now BOA)

Áine MacNamara, PhD, University of Limerick (now UCLAN)

Martin Toms, PhD, University of Birmingham 

Gemma Pearce, MSc, University of Birmingham 

We hope this resource proves useful, and makes some contribution to the quality of sporting experiences of all.

You have read this article education / education sport / exercise / gender / learning / Olympic Games / olympics / PE / personal skills / physical activity / physical education / player development / sport / sports / sports coaching / women with the title gender. You can bookmark this page URL http://say-sport.blogspot.com/2012/01/participant-development-in-sport.html. Thanks!

Can a woman be a sports personality?

2011 has not been a good year for women's sport.  So said Gary Lineker, in defence of the all-male shortlist for this year's Sport Personality of the Year.


Throughout the show Lineker and his fellow presenter Jake Humphrey repeated their mantra - 'this has been an amazing year for British sport' - with the fervour of vacuum cleaner salesmen coming to the end of the month.  But, if their earlier defence of the award's selection process was true, they obviously didn't think it had been a good year for sport; it had been a good year for men's sport.


Lineker's position can be questioned in a number of ways.


First, we might ask why the BBC's celebration of such an amazing year of sport was so dull.  The BBC is well-versed in reducing thrilling action to gentle tedium (aka A Question of Sport).  But the highlights presented this year didn't amount to much at all.


Second, it s not at all clear how the achievements of Andy Murray and Amir Khan this year are more noteworthy than those of Rebecca Adlington, Jessica Ennis, Kerri-Anne Payne and Sarah Stevenson?  By any objective measure of sporting success, Khan and Murray would have been placed significantly lower than these women.


Of course, the BBC event is not based on objective measures of sporting success.  It is an award for sports personality.  There is obviously something oxymoronic about this phrase; a show based on champions who were also a bit of a laugh would barely make it through the opening credits.


According to the organisers, the award ought to go to the "to the sportsman or woman whose actions have most captured the public's imagination".


And here is the problem.  The vast majority of people's information about sport is via the media, which decide for us what we celebrate.  So, Sports Personality of the Year highlights a much bigger issue, which is the highly partial coverage of sport.


Some sports are covered; others are ignored.  Some sports people are lauded; others are demonised; others are invisible.  A football match between Bangor v Prestatyn is televised live; England winning the World Netball Series passes with barely a mention.


The standard defence is that coverage of sport follows demand.  But demand settles for the diet of sports presented.  Spectator sports that are, on the surface, profoundly dull (snooker, darts, Welsh football) can secure an TV audience, whilst more obviously exciting sports (basketball, kickboxing, netball) are pushed to the margins, or satellite TV.  And, generally speaking, we don't have much interest in sports we have never seen.


Occasionally, the media bias that is inherent within the system works in favour of individual women, but for reasons that have nothing to do with sport.  How else can be explain Zara Phillips' otherwise inexplicable prize in 2006 (ahead of Beth Tweddle, Nicole Cooke, and some men) or her mother's victory in 1971?


Take away the Royalty effect, and eleven women have won the award in the fifty-eight years history of the event.  Despite the suggestion by some that matters are starting to sort themselves out in our more enlightened times, the ratio of male to female winners has remained relatively consistent from the beginning.


A perusal of the list of past winners shows a clear pattern: female victory usually requires an  unprecedented achievement (think Kelly Holmes, Virginia Wade, Paula Radcliffe).  Male victory often requires much less.


The outstanding example of an athlete who has somehow been overlooked by the media is the triathlete Chrissie Wellington. Despite the fact that she is widely regarded by sport professionals as one of the world's greatest athletes of any discipline, and continues to dominate the ludicrously challenging Ironman (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run), she is hardly known at all in her home country.


Wellington was not shortlisted in any of the four years she won the Ironman (which included 2011).  Writing in her blog, Wellington seems remarkably philosophical about the debacle:

"But the responsibility doesn't just lie with the media, it lies with the athletes to actively engage with the media, it lies with the governing bodies who must package their sports to make them attractive, it lies with sponsors to package their athletes and it lies with the government to promote a range of sports in schools."

She is right, of course.  The marginalisation of women's sport is the result of systemic bias.  But 'the system' is not a thing in itself; it is the complex of different elements.  Change happens through these elements.


The "panel of industry experts" selected by the BBC to shortlist was made up entirely of newspaper and magazine sports editors:

"These are chosen because of their expertise in the area, their coverage of a wide range of sports throughout the year and the extent of their readership".

Actually, this just means that all national and larger regional newspapers were invited to vote, along with Nuts and Zoo magazines.


I'm not making this up.  Nuts ("it's got girls. Lots of girls. Glamour models, enthusiastic girls-next-door, brunettes, blondes") and Zoo ("a compelling package of girls, football, bloke news and funny stuff") contributed to the selection panel for Sports Personality of the Year.


So we have reason to doubt their suitability for this particular task.  We might also wonder whether newspaper editors, who surely must take some responsibility for currents inequities, really fulfil the BBC's stated requirements of expertise and coverage of a wide range of sports.  It requires no complex statistics to realise that the column inches given to male sports people is hugely greater than for their female peers.  And when women sports people are giving newspaper space, it is rarely their sporting prowess that is the focus.


At least the Daily Mail, the voice of reason and tolerance, kept the issue alive.  The day after the Sports Personality of the Year was broadcast, the paper had an extended feature on some the leading female sports people in Britain:

"The females may have been missing off of the shortlist for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year Awards, but they certainly made an impact on the red carpet earlier tonight.

The ladies of the sporting world couldn't wait to flash their legs and show off their glitzy style at the bash ..."

I suppose we are lucky that some of the female sports people are attractive.  Otherwise, there'd be no coverage at all.

You have read this article equality / gender / media / sport / sports / women with the title gender. You can bookmark this page URL http://say-sport.blogspot.com/2011/12/can-woman-be-sports-personality.html. Thanks!

Sporting Mythology - a request for help

One of the more interesting projects with which I was involved in recent years was a BBC radio programme called Black Men Can't Swim.  The general premise was an investigation by the actor and comedian Matt Blaize into why so few black people swim in the UK.  More specifically, the programme tracked Matt's attempts to learn to swim himself.


Matt, like many black people, had grown up with a strong conviction that learning to swim was more difficult for him than for his white peers.  And this conviction was given support by an obvious lack of black swimming role models, and by the fact that he had failed to learn himself.


My role, along with sport scientist Matt Bridge from the University of Birmingham, was to talk about the evidence.  We both concluded that whatever physical differences might exist between blacks and whites, they were far less than commonly supposed.  And, most importantly, none of these differences warranted the conclusion that black men can't swim.


There are, of course, a cluster of 'X can't Y' myths about sports performance.  'White men can't jump' is such a cliche in basketball that they even made a film based on the subject.  Women can't throw?  Asians can't play football?


Each of these ideas serve two purposes: they justify the exclusion of some groups from some sports; and they act as a barrier to potential players (and who knows, champions?) from entering and enjoying the sport.  And they are all basically questionable.


I'll return to these ideas in a later post.  For now, I'll just point out that they are just one type of myth that is associated with sport.  Others include:


historical myths - such as the idea that the game of Rugby started at Rugby School when a pupil picked up the ball and ran.


training myths - 'no pain, no gain'.


political and economic myths - the claim that hosting the Olympic Games makes financial sense.


And then there are myths about talent development, fitness, the mental side of sport, champions, coaches, and the benefits of sport.


Sport seems to attract myths with remarkable ease.  Some of these myths are outright nonsense.  Some are merely dubious.  And some, if I am honest, are really just matters of opinion.


This is where the 'request for help' of the title comes in.  I am planning a writing project based on the myths of sport, and I am very keen to receive ideas.  As I mention above, the myths can be to do with the history of sport, its performance or its outcomes.  If you know a commonly held but suspicious belief about sport (or a specific sport), I'd love to hear from you.


Please write your ideas in the comment box of this blog, or write to me at info@richardbailey.com

You have read this article bullshit / gender / myths / PE / race / sport / swimming with the title gender. You can bookmark this page URL http://say-sport.blogspot.com/2011/12/sporting-mythology-request-for-help.html. Thanks!