Barbie Couldnt Hang With Todays Female Athletes

Copyright 2006 Adam Kessler

With the Womens NCAA Tournament right around the corner, it brings to light how far womens athletics have come. Todays female athlete is stronger, more powerful, and could kick the snot out of the female athlete of 20 years ago. What has been the most significant change, which can be said for male athletes as well, is the training and conditioning that these females go through to be the best at their sport.

The Williams sisters, Mia Hamm, Katie Smith, all these women are powerful women that have put in their hard work. This hard work has led them to lifting weights, training with specialists, and speed, agility, quickness training that makes them finely tuned machines. With this hard work, they have been breaking down the myth that if you lift weights you wont look feminine, but have big bulky muscles like guys. These women have sleek, toned muscles, yet are still powerful enough to blow by their competition.

What strength coaches like Adam Kessler of Sports Conditioning Specialists have figured out is that women can do exactly what men can do when it comes to working out.

What I have noticed is that women tend to pick up the technique a lot quicker than men, which makes them a little more efficient at their lifts, said Kessler, whose facility has helped many of central Ohios more recognized female prep athletes. I work them out just like I do the guys and the results are the same. They get stronger, quicker, and more dominant in their sport.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of coaches out there who refuse to accept new schools of thought. They will not use weights with their female athletes despite what research has shown. It is not that they dont want them at the best of their abilities, but these coaches still think that weights will do more harm than good for their athletes. Even if they let them strength train, the females arent pushed at the same intensity that guys are.

One of the biggest reasons why female athletes, especially soccer and basketball players, should strength train is because they are at a higher risk of tearing their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The leading experts feel that this can be reduced by increasing the females hamstring strength and the only way to do it effectively is by weight training.

We really try to focus on increasing the hamstring strength with all of our basketball and soccer players, but especially the females, says Kessler. For some reason, the females hamstrings just dont fire in effectively to stabilize the knee properly when they are cutting or jumping. Our exercises really seem to help with this, as well as improve their speed and explosiveness.

Needless, to say, todays female athletes, just like their male counterparts, are pushing themselves to their utmost potential. As more and more strength coaches help to educate the old school coaches, you will start to see and even greater push for proper female conditioning. This conditioning will develop the female athlete to the point where we can stop saying there is a great female athlete and start saying there is a great athlete.

About the Author:
Adam Kessler is President of Fitness Planning Consultants. His company runs Sports Conditioning Specialists, a speed and strength training facility located in Columbus, Ohio. To read their free reports on sports training go to:
http://fitnessplanning.com/free_reports.htm

Barbie Couldnt Hang With Todays Female Athletes

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