Statistics: Young riders and the problem with girls on bikes

[huw williams]

During the last week of the primary school term recently I did a series of coaching sessions for year 6 kids (10-11 year olds) up at St Peters School, in South Croydon.
A 1-hour session every day with 2 on friday so 6 sessions in total. This was with my British Cycling hat on, so I had to get parental consent and rider information forms for each rider. Some of the statistics which came out were quite interesting. 11 riders started on day 1 but word quickly got around that the sessions were much more fun than regular school work so by mid week I had a group of 17 to work with.

So in a group of seventeen 10 - 11 year olds:

11 of them were on medication for asthma (very high percentage, like dodgy 80's hair-metal bands, asthma is making a comeback)
12 of them were girls (an even higher percentage)
All of them stated that the main reason for doing the sessions was so that they could feel confident enough to ride on the road with friends (quick Monty, get the membership forms out )
None of them had any experience of riding as a group (ie more than two riders)
5 of them (4 boys, 1 girl, said they were interested in racing)
All of them owned helmets but only 6 said they wore them regularly
All of them owned bikes in excellent working condition, everything from BMXs to full-suspension mountain bikes

A week later a similar thing caught my eye at an induction session at Hearn Hill track where I was working
There were in excess of 20 novice kids in the group of which around 75% were girls. This is quite surprising because the only reason to ride track is if you have some inkling to race which suggests some serious intent to begin with.

While the enthusiasm and application of the kids in both the track and school groups was encouraging (and inspiring, I now see what parents are on about all the time ) - we know that statistically, by the time they get to junior or young adulthood, most of them will have given up cycling and never make it into the umbrella of the local cycling club network. Further, the male/female split completely shifts on its axis and the vast majority of young riders who DO get into clubs are boys. This is as true on the track as it is on the road. I was informed that while big numbers of youth riders regularly do the induction sessions and even go on to compete in novice standard races. Only a very few make it past the junior stage into senior racing where even fewer are girls. This was underlined by the fact that when the female dominated novice group gave way to the training and racing group which was next up on track, that group featured just one female participant in a group of 20 riders

So somewhere between the ages of 10 and 18 a lot of young riders (especially girls) with undeniable enthusiasm for the sport are slipping through the net. And while the number of bums on saddles in local clubs is slowly on the increase, this doesn't seem to be the case with young and female riders* which could have long-term negative implications.

*Addiscombe is an exception rather than a rule here, being such a successful club we get more than our fair share of youth and female riders

PS: By the end of the week at the school, all riders were skillfully negotiating complex slalom courses in large groups while displaying through-and-off and group awareness skills which would give many riders in our saturday club run groups a run for their money

Also 2 of the boys have now been forwarded on to local BMX specialist coaches as they showed above average competence in the sessions and I'm meeting the parents of the girl who expressed an interest in racing this week with an eye to getting them to take her up to Hearn Hill. If I can keep her clear of boys, make-up and Bacardi Breezers for the next six years maybe I've discovered the next Victoria Pendleton

[Jon H]

[quote="huw williams"]11 of them were on medication for asthma

[Antloony]

[quote="huw williams"]11 of them were on medication for asthma (very high percentage, like dodgy 80's hair-metal bands, asthma is making a comeback)

[huw williams]

I was aware that in recent years there has been an increase in asthma sufferers among the young - but not to that extent.
Belwo are some official figures from asthma UK which suggest that in my group there was an abnormally high number of sufferers (maybe that's Croydon for you )
I should also say that although the parents stated on their forms that their kids possessed inhalers - none of them actually felt the need to use them during the week of the sessions so clearly there weren't any serious sufferers in the group. Over eager doctors? Over protective parents? Who knows


One in ten children has asthma and it is the most common long-term medical condition.
On average there are three children with asthma in every classroom in the UK
The UK has the highest prevalence of severe wheeze in children aged 13–14 years worldwide.
If one parent has asthma, the chance of their child developing asthma is approximately double that of children whose parents don't have asthma.
Every 19 minutes a child is admitted to hospital in England, Scotland or Wales because of their asthma.
Smoking during pregnancy brings a 35% increased risk of your baby being wheezy or having breathing difficulties.
Children whose parents smoke are 1.5 times more likely to develop asthma. Nearly a third of all long-term childhood illnesses are due to doctor-diagnosed asthma.

[adrian]

[quote]What do you put that down to, lack of exercise, poor air quality, parents smoking in the house or is it a simple case of doctors playing it safe by saying anyone with a slight wheeze must be asthmatic and automatically gets put on medication.

[Andrew G]

Interesting stuff Huw.

[Wild sweeping generalisation]I expect the drop off in girls participating is heavily due to the cleeky (sp?no idea) nature of secondary school where the girls all hauled themselves away from all sports asap[/wild sweeping generalisation]

[quote] I'm sure I could make out the little girl pleading, 'Please stop Mummy smoking!'

[adrian]

Cliquey.

Actually, I thought boys were flakier and more prone to drop everything at the whiff of beer, fags and girls. I thought girls were more constant, and less likely to waver in their interests. But then, I'm basing this partly on my own experience and mostly on the lyrics of Undertones songs.

[Michelle]

But for boys it's always been acceptable to work physically hard; they have for years and years and years looked up to sweaty football stars, sweaty rugby stars, not quite so sweaty and a bit portly cricket stars.

The only fields I can think of where the is nearly equal time given to different sex coverage is tennis and more specifically Wimbledon. And also track and athletics, although this is less available on average joe tv.

Thus girls have not had as many sporting heroes to look up to.

Then along comes the media scrum associated with people like Victoria Pendleton, and she looks good too (and you don't really see much sweat in the photos - steady Sean) and all of a sudden there is an increase in intererest from girls. It's cool to be on a bike, or specifically on a track bike at the minute, but any bike will do when there's no track. And there you have your current increase in interest.

I'm not sure whether the increase in girls' numbers that Huw is seeing now, will translate to increased numbers in clubs etc in the future or whether there will be a drop off. Perhaps there were reduced numbers in the past, and therefore reduced numbers in clubs etc now and you cannot extrapolate the data in this way. There are lots of barriers in the way of the transition from cycling girl to cycling woman, especially when Cycle Clubs are involved.

Surely it falls to us, as the biggest club in the area, to try and make use of this increased interest in the best possible way. Perhaps by asking the girls what they want to do next?

Any other ideas how we could get them in?

[Graham O]

I'm kinda interested in this as I have two girls....

I reckon that more girls are getting into sport these days. It is quite difficult though as I don't think its that easy for girls to find a sport where they can be a success and potentially get the same acclaim as men whilst maintaining some feminimity. At school, sports like netball and hockey are all well and good, but they are nowhere at the national \ olympic levels.

l also reckon that there are more girls into cycling because of Victoria Pendleton. She has gots lots of attention and has gained success whilst retaining a little glamour....

[Graham O]

Sorry Michelle...look like I repeated some of your stuff there...

Ideas....

1) Get the girls in the club to enter an event (team time trial or something) and get the local newspaper to cover it)
2) Girls club run....(i.e. no hairy \ creepy fellas), but need to mimimise the impact if the cafe somehow. It must be very intimidating turning up to a cafe full of 60 fellas when there's 1 or 2 other women there....
3) Do a Girls London to Brighton or similar..

Unsure of others...Think its very similar question to 'how do we get more younger people involved'

[Michelle]

Should you segregate?

Or should you chuck everyone in together all at once?

Or should you introduce girls to a bunch of hairy blokes gradually?

Come on, lets have your thoughts on this, it is interesting. Plus potentially anthropologically and ethically questionable

[Amy]

1. Asthma - anyone mentioned pollution yet? Things like car exhaust?

2. Getting girls on bikes - going on the theme of sweeping generalisations, girls don't tend to be as competitive as boys (well not in sports anyway, boyfriends? Now that's another matter). I think the emphasis should be on the non-competitive side - health, exercise, socialising, meeting fit blokes (who all seem to have partners at home complaining that they're out on their bikes ), anything else? Once they're in, they can be introduced to more competitive elements of cycling. Emphasise the structure of the club runs and ensure that women are supported in their attempts to move up the groups - almost like J4F, ensure they make it or at least have someone to look out for them if they're not sure of the route if they drop back, things like that. Admittedly this should be happening already for both men and women - all part of the ACC code of conduct

[Andrew G]

Last time I was out on a club run, yeah I know it was a while ago, there did seem to be noticably more ladies present than say a year ago so I think there is an increasing feed in.

I think Amy's spot on about a lot of women/girls being less drawn to the competetive side but the fitness side. One thing that always amazes me is the amount of people who drive/get a bus to a gym to use a running or cycling machine.

Graham - In addition to the Surrey League 4-up TT (which is expensive to enter unless a SL racing member/licence holder) there are a few Open TTTs (team time trials) promoted by clubs under the CTT regs. If there was interest then it would be a great idea to enter a women's team, I'd happily point people in the right direction regarding entry forms/dates etc.

[Amy]

[quote="Andrew G"]Graham - In addition to the Surrey League 4-up TT (which is expensive to enter unless a SL racing member/licence holder) there are a few Open TTTs (team time trials) promoted by clubs under the CTT regs. If there was interest then it would be a great idea to enter a women's team, I'd happily point people in the right direction regarding entry forms/dates etc.

[Andrew G]

Getting a bit late in the season now, next year I'll sort out a few options from the handbook and run distances/dates past people. The advantage of Open CTT TTTs is you just need your entry fee as you belong to an affiliated club, no need for racing licences etc.