The Female Body: Puberty Edition

10 question quiz on completion of all modules, awarded a certificate with 10 CIMSPA CPD points.

Learning Outcomes:

• Better understand the emotional and physical impacts of puberty and how this life stage can alter a girl’s perception of her body, her sport and herself;
• Develop awareness of the barriers and challenges girls face when participating and performing in sporting environments;
• Better understand how to support girls, within your skillset, and keep them moving, training and engaged in physical activity;
• Have more focus and insight in your conversations as you encourage girls to engage in sporting environments;
• Recognise the signs of underperformance, underfueling and underconfidence;
• Know how to broach sensitive topics and when to signpost to professional help;
• Support girls as they develop good movement patterns in order to reduce injury risk;
• Help girls to understand their bodies and track their hormone health;
• Understand your scope of practice when supporting girls going through puberty;
  - Recognise strategies you could implement to enhance girls’ experience of sport.

• Teenage girls in sport - The opening module sets the ‘why’ of the course by highlighting the physical, emotional and cultural obstacles facing girls. We explain problems at the crossroads of puberty, education and exercise and explore how you, in your professional role, can engage in conversations, solutions and actions.
• Menstrual cycle and performance - In this guide to the adolescent menstrual cycle, the hormone rollercoaster, we explain how it regulates, affects and impacts girls. Hugely practical, we’ll help you understand it so you can feel confident around it, and inspire girls to master their cycle – which’ll help them all through life.
• Kit for teenage girls - This module highlights common pitfalls and misunderstandings around kit. Have ‘the right kit’ and you’ll remove barriers, ensure safety and improve performance for girls in sport. So let us guide you into kit knowledge and strategies – including the wonders of a sports bra – to better support her.
• Nutrition for young athletes - Good fuel is essential but girls’ relationships with food can be complex. This module offers nutrition advice specific to developing girls’ bodies and needs, and offers strategies coaches can use to promote body-confidence. You can learn a new language and inspire girls in positive food choices.
• Injury risk and resilience - This module lays out the injury risks facing younger girls and their developing bodies. It offers practical strategies in successful injury prevention and creating safer sporting environments. We also focus on risks to the female brain – a hugely concerning topic in emerging sports science research.
• Pelvic health - This module illuminates a massively underappreciate power centre in the female body. This is vital information about bladders, bowels and pelvic floors, with fantastically practical strategies you can use to engage girls in pelvic health and risks, and how to incorporate pelvic exercise into your work.
• Environment for teenage girls - Harnessing all information, ideas and reflections from previous modules, number 7 brings everything together to guide coaches and teachers into braver conversations, and into action. This is a starting point so you can design new environments for girls in sport so they can thrive from this day on.

This course is aimed at anyone who trains and coaches women. Content has been carefully created to be accessible to all – regardless of current experience or knowledge. The only prerequisite is that learners are over 16 years old.

With the exponential rise in women's sport and the interest that organisations have to close the gender gaps this course will help with career progression through:

• Retaining female talent in the workforce - because by completing this course they will have a better understanding of their own bodies and will be able to apply this learning to themselves so that they are healthier.
• Anyone completing this course will be upskilled so that they can better serve the girls and women they work with - as teams, clubs and brands look to tailor their approach more to the needs and requirements of girls and women they will be looking for people who have this education and experience.
• These courses will enhance the learning that you have and be able to make you operate better when working with girls and women in sport and exercise.

The Puberty Edition was specifically designed so teachers and coaches can understand the physiological, anatomical and psychological changes erupting in teenage girls' bodies.

However - This course is NOT a puberty qualification that will teach you everything you will ever need to know about the subject.