Children and Women in Sports

Children and Women in Sports

Regular physical activity and sport are among the most powerful tools we have for building healthy, confident and capable individuals — and the way we use them has to change as a person grows. A movement pattern that is right for an infant learning to crawl is not right for an adolescent, and what an adult needs to stay free of lifestyle disease is not what an older adult needs to stay mobile and steady on their feet. This unit of the CBSE Class 12 Physical Education course looks at how activity, growth and health fit together across the human lifespan, and at the special considerations that apply to girls and women who take part in sport.

Across the unit you will study five connected themes:

• Exercise guidelines of the WHO for different age groups — how much and what kind of activity is recommended from infancy through old age.
• Common postural deformities — knock knees, flat foot, round shoulders, lordosis, kyphosis, scoliosis and bow legs — and the corrective measures for each.
• Women's participation in sports — its physical, psychological and social benefits, and the barriers that have historically held it back in India.
• Special considerations for female athletes — menarche and menstrual dysfunction.
• The female athlete triad — the interlinked problems of disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction and low bone density.

By the end of the chapter you should be able to discuss exercise guidelines for the different stages of growth and development, classify the common postural deformities and identify their corrective measures, recognise the role and importance of women's participation in sport in India, understand the special considerations linked to menarche and menstrual dysfunction, and explain the female athlete triad in relation to eating disorders.