A couple of years ago, there were a lot of ads about girls stopping sport around age 15. The reason they give is ‘why can you be what you can’t see?’

In theory, this makes sense, however not every teenager wants to be a professional sports player.

With most sport, there gets a point where it’s not just playing for fun, there’s extra pressure for kids to start thinking about being a professional. Kids stop doing swimming lessons as the only option is to do squad and not every kid wants to be up at the crack of dawn before school every day to swim, so they quit. Even with team sports, so many kids want to just play for fun, but at a certain level, it stops being fun and starts being about their future.

One of my kids was in to AFL football. He was in a junior team for a while. When we moved out of Melbourne, we tried to find a team for him to join, however all of those for his age were an incredibly high standard as most of the team members had been playing for years, there wasn’t one that was just about playing for fun, friendship, and fitness, which is what we were looking for.

Sometimes it’s not about not seeing professional athletes in your gender, sometimes it’s that the sport just isn’t fun any more…

There are also other issues with girls and sport. One is uniforms as many are uncomfortable and not practical for playing. Another is that sport is not a positive experience for everyone.

I know for me, PE was a nightmare. We weren’t taught about exercise for fun, and if you weren’t proficient in sport, then you were bullied by both the kids and the teachers. I have also realised that I don’t get the ‘feel good’ hormones from sport, another thing that so many experts promote.

Next time people are talking about why girls are quitting sport, look a bit closer at the actual reasons girls are quitting. Sport isn’t for everyone (yes, I know there is a lot out there about health benefits) it’s a hobby like playing music or art for many people, girls and boys alike. It’s more complicated than many people lead us to believe.

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