From the commonly misconstrued to the outright false, US Lacrosse Magazine goes “Myth Busters”​ mode in its September/October edition. Don’t get the mag? Join US Lacrosse today to start your subscription.

At the intersection of sports, natural abilities and gender, myths and assumptions abound.  Some beliefs are spoken, and some tenets are just implicit in our culture. Many female athletes will tell you that male athletes are perceived as stronger, faster and, thus, better athletes. Cue John McEnroe’s recent comments on Serena Williams being a great athlete, yet he quipped, she would only rank 700th if she competed against men. His diatribe sparked outrage and debate ensued. One commentator noted that McEnroe was comparing apples to oranges.

Was he? If we say separate but equal, are we unfairly stereotyping athletes or are we accepting innate gender differences and different pathways to athletic excellence and participation?

Dr. Christine Brooks, a coaching educator for USA Track and Field, offers a course, “The Science of Training Young Athletes,” in which she works through several studies looking at the various biological systems that define athletic performance. Her sources show that in the pre-puberty stages, boys are not stronger than girls. Specifically, she cites studies on lower body and core strength in which girls outperformed boys or maintained equal results at a minimum.

Similarly, in another study of adolescent swimmers, reviewing more than 1.9 million swims, the authors found little or no difference in performance based on gender in swimmers 12 and under.  

While these studies demonstrate comparable physical attributes and strength based performance in the youngest ages, they do see a shift around age 13, such that by age 15, boys are around 12 percent stronger than girls in their lower body and 23 percent stronger in their upper body. Research indicates that by age 17, boys are 50 percent stronger than girls in lower body strength.

Brooks, among others, cautions that the widening gap in strength after puberty may reflect not only inherent capacities, but also differences in training opportunities.

So if boys and girls have equal physical strength prior to puberty, what is the impact of that on our approach to youth sports and coaching? Advocates for mixed-gender sports at the youth level caution us not to simply expect boys to outperform girls in contests of speed or strength. Brooks’ data suggests that mixed gender play is not a disservice to either group from a physical perspective. Many girls have benefited from playing boys’ lacrosse or ice hockey in non-traditional areas that do not boast enough participants to field girls-only teams. Our expectations of strength and speed performance should be the same of both genders in the pre-puberty age groups. 

The physical and mental requirements for success do diverge in men’s and women’s lacrosse. There are specific strategies of each sport that should be part of the training experience at some point in the pathway.

Coaches can address this conundrum with tactical knowledge and by understanding the definition of success for female and male athletes in their sports. But to do this, our culture must move beyond the judgment that females are inferior physically due to strength disparity, and coaches must resist consequently pushing female athletes into male athletic molds.

We see this in calls for women to play men’s version of games, whether it is lacrosse, ice hockey, football, etc.  Not only does this suggest a lack of respect for different forms of athleticism, but it also preferences what an athletic experience and performance should look like in a prevailing mindset that assumes women play a lesser version of the men’s game. If we start athletes on the same pathway, then we must ensure they maintain equal status when the pathways diverge. 

Coupled with this bias, there resides an even more subtle myth that impacts the team experience and coaching at all levels — that boys are inherently more aggressive and competitive in their nature and that coaching boys is different than coaching girls. We revert to the stereotype of the elite competitor based on what we see in the male pathway of athletic behavior, perpetuating the notion that females find different values in sports than males.

The perception exists that female athletes are more socially minded and risk-averse. Too many people think that this detracts from their commitment and competitiveness. This matters most in youth sports, where many female athletes have male coaches. In lacrosse, at all levels, the percentage of male coaches in the women’s game has risen over the last 15 years. Coaches who are untrained or unaware of the variability in physical and mental differences between genders may profile their athletes based on these assumptions.

Maureen Monte, an author and leadership consultant, found promising data points and answers in her study of athletes’ mindset based on a Gallup Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment.

“My research found that, in measuring the internal motor of athletes, it is unproductive to expect men and women to compete in the same manner,” Monte observes. “While both men and women athletes are high in the strength associated with grit, I found that women compete from a motor that is about connecting. They are high in Developer — a strength that brings everyone along the learning curve — [as well as] Empathy and Harmony.

“For women, the ‘we’ matters. Male athletes are less relationship-oriented. They compete with a motor that is about galvanizing with high-energy strengths like Competition, Command and Significance. Both genders want to win, but they generally get to victory via different energy sources.”

Ultimately, the constellation of myths and perceptions about gender and sports suggest that we are far from experts in our training and assumptions in youth sports. As more opportunities for girls and women to compete both recreationally and at the highest level emerge, we must provide the same standards for physical and mental development of our female athletes as our male athletes. The language we use in sports has the potential to set a false dichotomy.

It is critical that we do a better job of studying and understanding the multiple and gendered pathways to participation and excellence.

Caitlin Kelley is senior manager for the women’s game at US Lacrosse. She set school and NCAA records in lacrosse, track, ice hockey and cross-country at Wesleyan.