The first step to receiving an answer is being brave enough to ask a question."

Girls that participate in sports during their youth are more likely to live healthy lifestyles when they are adults. More than three-fourths of working women feel sports has enhanced their self-image and athletes tend to have a more positive body image than non-athletes. Most importantly we want girls to have the opportunity to participate in high quality, fun and engaging programming that is accessible and inclusive on all levels.

By the age of 14, girls drop out of sports two times faster than boys. Girls also have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than their male counterparts. Due to the limited options offered to girls to play sports in high school and college mean girls must look elsewhere to be engaged in positive sports-based youth development programming.

In addition to a lack of opportunities for girls during this crucial period in their lives, many will experience a negative social stigma with being an athlete. They may be bullied, isolated socially, and may want to drop out of sports due to many social pressures. Which includes being inundated with images of external beauty, and not those of confident, strong athletic female role models, this is especially true for women of color.

For young women of color across the world the number of opportunities to participate is even smaller. Our clinics give girls a reason to play. Girls at any age will become successful with strong encouragement to participate in sports and healthy physical activities. By providing quality programming and trained coaches that they lack in their community we know that girls learn important life skills through sports that help them succeed. Skills such as teamwork, leadership, positive communication, and confidence.

While this program was designed to inspire the underserved young female athlete, the programs are extremely beneficial to all young field athletes looking to grow their fitness. It can even be useful for active adults looking to stay in shape and prevent injury.

The most important aspect of training our youth should be injury prevention. The International Journal of Sports Medicine has found that most injuries sustained by our youth are due to “errors in basic motion activities like running, jumping, and catching.” All of these activities are considered complex motor tasks, difficult to sustain for long periods of time. The Journal also found that the “highest prevalence of school sports injuries occurred at the onset of and during puberty (ages 10-14).” Most kids, especially pre-puberty ages, lack the ability to maintain the appropriate posture and stabilizing factors that play a huge roll in performing these activities properly and efficiently for long periods of time. When these important muscles give out, our bodies try to compensate – this is how poor movement patterns are developed and potential injuries occur.

If you want to simply play well, you might be able to get away with eating whatever’s in front of you, but if you want to consistently play energetic, awe-inspiring soccer then you need to start taking a closer look at your diet. Whatever your training goal is, eating consciously will allow the building blocks necessary to achieve improved results. That is why we teach coaches, parents and players key habits and best practices for fueling. If someone plays well on a careless diet, imagine what could be accomplished by giving their body the tools it needs to perform optimally. The fact is that what you get out of your body is a function of what you put into it.