Encouragement, pressure, and their impact on girls in sport

Author: Dougal Sutherland ,
Publish Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2026, 1:09pm

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Between the ages of 12-14, girls are twice as likely to drop out of sport as boys Typically if young people drop out, they don’t return, so they miss out on the many benefits of playing sport as an adult.

From a developmental perspective this age is really critical for girls who are often going through puberty and associated body changes, which can bring with it an increased self-awareness, and not always in a good way. Another corresponding change is that girls at this age can often start to become more critical of themselves and often compare themselves to others.

So the last thing they need is more pressure from us on the side-line! Some new research from 2degrees found that’s exactly what girls feel from us, not only in when we shout out from the sideline, but also what we shout out from the sideline.

55% of girls surveyed feel more pressure when there are supporters present and 99% said that the right type of support would help keep them in sport for longer.

They said that support when losing is twice as important as support when they’re winning. And there’s a fine line between pressure vs encouragement.

Comments girls said belong on the encouraging side of the line:

“Good job, keep going”
“I’m proud of you”
“We’ve got this, girls”
“I believe in you”
“Keep your head up”

Comments that cross into pressure:

"Just keep pushing”
“You can do better than that”
“You’re not playing like we know you can play”
“Mark that person”
“Get up”
“Pass/tackle/run!” or yelling instructions mid-play

The key point is that girls are under enough pressure from themselves without us as supporters adding to this – what they need is our encouragement, and sometimes the line between these things can be hard for us to draw as adults.

One really practical outcome of this survey is that clubs and schools can order a free SupportHER Line pack from 2degrees – this comes with an actual physical line that you can be put around your field or court to help remind supporters of the line between encouragement and pressure. If you want to see what this looks like, it’s going to be printed on the field tonight for the Black Ferns v Wallaroos match at GoMedia Stadium.

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