Doctors 'empowering' UK women to succeed
- author, sarah dawkins
- role, bbc sports
From European champions to World Cup finalists, England's Lionesses have enjoyed unprecedented success in recent years.
So what is their secret?
Head coach Sarina Wigman and her backroom staff have been key to instilling a winning mentality.
But there is one member in particular who has helped improve competitiveness by inspiring a different kind of change: addressing the taboos surrounding the health of female athletes.
Dr Ritan Mehta has worked for the Football Association (FA) as Head of Women's Medicine for nearly 10 years.
The team grew stronger by talking about periods, sports bras, and breast and pelvic floor health.
He told BBC Sport: “We started looking at the menstrual cycle about five or six years ago. We want to help athletes understand themselves more deeply.
“I'm really surprised at how open the players are. As a male doctor in a female environment, I think I was probably more conscious than the players.”
The FA's approach to women's health was further refined three years ago when it began working with a leading sports bioanalytics company that provides a platform to track menstrual cycles through an app.
More than half of Women's Super League teams use the FitrWoman app, allowing players, coaches and medical staff at both club and international level to track their cycles and adjust their training and nutrition accordingly. Masu.
“One size does not fit all, so we are trying to understand each individual,” Dr. Mehta explained.
One player was suffering from bouts of nausea, and by tracking his cycles over time, he realized that they were related to specific times of the month.
“You can never go all the way to zero. This is a natural process for women. Women experience hormonal changes that unfortunately cause some symptoms that can affect them.
“We're not going to delete everything, but can we make it better? Can we make it 1% better? Can we make it 10% better?”
There's a lot of attention now on the health of your pelvic floor, the area of muscles that control your bladder and bowels.
Dr Mehta, who is also Reading's club doctor, said this could have the biggest impact on female players, as research suggests 20% of players in the professional game are affected. thinking.
“We sometimes hear anecdotal comments from players about leakage, especially when it comes to gym and athletic activities and other issues including pain and discomfort,” he added.
“There are gaps in our understanding at this stage that we hope to fill.”
The pelvic floor discussion is one of the FA's recently launched women's specific health projects, with Chelsea recently becoming the first Women's Super League club to appoint a pelvic health specialist.
Investment in this area has already helped a number of players, including England international and Chelsea defender Niamh Charles.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the 24-year-old said:
“There are some movements in the gym that are uncomfortable to do with your back, but once you engage your pelvic floor and start breathing correctly, the pain goes away.”
Lionesses' approach to women's health now extends to its under-16 pathway team, with a focus on educational programs and one-on-one sessions with players.
Charles added: “It’s a routine, high-performance thing.
“It's very important when you're playing football, but it will continue to be important as long as I live, even after you retire.”
