Friday, November 13, 2015

How can we promote women in sport more?

Holly Ferling, Australian cricketer    Ursula Jacob, Irish camogie player

Team sports and individual sports don’t often pull together but I read an interesting piece last night by a cricket-player calling for just that. 

Australian Holly Ferling thinks women in sport are maybe a bit too focused on worrying about media space, and should instead support each other in getting better. This, she reckons, will lead to a sports pages take-over.

Holly says: “Females make up half of our population, and many do watch some form of women's sport. If we can combine our following, and the disciplines unite, women's sport as a whole will win.”

I have to say I agree with her. I've a lot more time for any woman involved in sport who is also out there promoting her friends, and team-mates online and in the media instead of carping on the lack of coverage.

It’s hard to do, but that’s the place we’re in – playing catch-up with the men. And it is hard, I've done interviews when I was so tired from training the nonsense I was talking might have been better kept quiet! But you do it, don't you?  You can read the rest of Holly’s piece on the Sydney Morning Herald. .

And as it happens I got an email last night through the Union of Students in Ireland with some positive thinking from Wexford camogie player Ursula Jacob (above). I don’t often talk about team-sports here but maybe I should do a bit more now and then.

Anyway, Ursula’s points about why sport is so good for you could just as easily be said for combat sports, swimming or running or whatever you're having yourself. She's calling on students to mix sports and study because: 

  • Sport releases positive endorphins
  • Sport allows you to de-stress from your studies
  • Sport encourages positive interactions with your peers while also
  • Sport allows you to communicate and engage with a wide variety of people
  • Sport can later help you with your career path because many businesses and corporations recognise the important presence sport and physical activity can have in people’s lives
The next bit made me roll my eyes just a little though, she says: 

  • If you’re doing sport, you’re not actively engaging in continuous alcohol related activities.
  • If you are committed and dedicated to training then you recognise the importance of getting a healthy balance between studies and sport rather than spending all your free time drinking

Yikes!

What do you do to promote women’s sport? Online? Telling your friends and family? Sharing pictures? Going to games and fight-nights?
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