A Change For The Girls
Just my girls and I showing off our gains. At the 2018 Gotham Girls Tournament.
Our YGG program will teach our girls many skills they can use in wrestling, sports, school, work, or anywhere they go. Some of my favourite ones that I learned through wrestling were building healthy relationships with my coaches, the wrestling community, myself, and many more. Another one was building confidence in two different ways. First, I gained the confidence to be a leader to my team during practices, tournaments, and even off the mats. Second is having confidence in who I am, who I’ve become, and who I want to be. These are just three of the many things being a female wrestler has taught me.
Join our You Grow Girl campaign and help us build a better future for the bright young girls growing in the city.
The You Grow Girl program is aiming to help girls in Mississauga develop their social and emotional skills. I am a female athlete that has been involved with Beat the Streets Toronto (BTST) for 4 years now and let me tell you, this program has definitely helped me develop. Being a female athlete can be hard sometimes, training with boys that are stronger than you, bigger than you, or believe they have more power than you hurts. It makes girls feel intimidated, scared, uncomfortable, or even makes them not enjoy the sport.
I think the new program BTST is launching is a great way to get more females involved in the sports community.
If a co-ed wrestling program helped me gain confidence, imagine what an all-girls program can do!
In my years of doing sports, I think BTST has helped me develop the most skills. Like being less socially awkward. The first year I did wrestling I felt intimidated by the boys on the wrestling team, soccer team, and basketball team. Throughout the years I was with BTST I learned to stand up and be loud if I wanted the team to follow me during the warm-up.
In the last wrestling season, I was one of the team captains of my school wrestling team and I felt pretty confident in leading my team and working with the boy captain. That being said, I also gained the confidence to believe and trust in myself which brought me good emotional stability skills.
You Grow Girl is all about helping girls develop skills that will help them throughout life. I believe this program is going to be successful because many girls like myself feel shy and/or uncomfortable working around boys when they’re new to a sport. Being in an all-girls environment will help them feel safe and confident around their peers, coaches, and instructors. I have been a girl in the sports life for a long time and nothing feels better than having great coaches that provide a safe space for you.
