And so we arrive at the final part of this month’s Focus on Women’s Health – Ep. 230 ‘Developing Female Athletes: Women Are Not Small Men’ with special guest Dr Gemma Parry, Performance Specialist and Research Associate at the University of Bath.

Dr Parry discusses important factors related to growth and maturity when working with female athletes, the difference in experience between girls and boys, and the impact of that on the area of women’s health given that we still apply a lot of assumed learnings and methods from male literature to female.

Sharing her unique journey from dance to sports therapy and highlighting her rich experience across Olympic, Paralympic, and various sporting disciplines, Dr Parry explains critical areas like the adolescent growth spurt, physical literacy, and the multiple dimensions of youth athlete development, providing rich insights into the nuances of coaching and therapy for adolescent female athletes.

Dr Parry also introduces listeners to the Physical Literacy Toolkit, a valuable resource for therapists and educators focused on addressing the broader spectrum of children’s development – biologically, psychologically, and socially. Tune in to understand how shifting paradigms can enhance the health and performance outcomes of female athletes in sports therapy.