Girls Mountain Biking: Catching Up With The Boys
One of the biggest attractions of mountain biking is that it is a unisex sport. Mountain biking does not discriminate based on gender. It also does not remove participants based on their age or ethnicity; in its early years it was largely the domain of men and boys, but now women and girls mountain bikers are joining the fun in record numbers.
Women’s mountain biking has begun to gain prominence in the sport, thanks to women’s mountain biking teams fielded by many high schools across the US. High school mountain biking programs allow female students to master the techniques necessary to succeed in girls’ mountain biking competitions, and many of them are equal to the male cyclists in their schools.
norcal
The NorCal High School Mountain Biking League, founded in 2001, opened the world of women’s mountain biking to Elena Spittler, who was the league’s 2005 women’s mountain biking champion. from Berkeley High School as its only female member, simply to show that girls can succeed in sports. She struggled to keep up with the boys during her first year on the team, but by the time she was a senior, Elena was finding some of her younger male teammates.
Two years after she made a splash for women’s mountain biking at her high school, there are now seven girls on the team, and the total number of women’s mountain biking participants for the entire high school mountain biking league NorCal has doubled.
The league now has a summer girls’ mountain bike camp and intends to host a girls’ mountain bike mini-camp in the early part of the high school racing season to help the girls who compete improve your techniques and build your confidence. The league has committed to these girls-specific activities and is also training its team coaches in recruiting methods and working with female mountain bike candidates.
These girls on mountain bikes [http://www.mountainbikingreviews.com/Mountain_Biking_Dirt_Jumps/] Clinics and camps cover a variety of topics. Girls are required to maneuver their bikes over natural obstacles and steep descents, learning the balance, dexterity, and bike control necessary to compete in cross-country, endurance, and short-course racing events. They are also trained in bicycle maintenance and repair.
Girls Mountain Biking Clinics
The clinics emphasize the importance of preserving mountain biking trails, finding team sponsorship, educating the public on the positive benefits of mountain biking for girls, and improving bicycling skills. They encourage their students to develop self-reliance and challenge them in the same way that their male counterparts are challenged.
Thanks to the efforts of groups like the NorCal High School Mountain Biking League, both girls and girls mountain biking have “caught up” with boys!
