The gap it fills
Boys receive a substantial strength boost through puberty as a by-product of hormonal change. Girls grow in height and mass without the same automatic gain in force production, which is why relative strength often dips through the same period.
Structured resistance training closes that gap deliberately. It is the difference between an adolescent female athlete plateauing through puberty and continuing to improve through it.
The performance case
- Improved sprint acceleration and top speed.
- Higher jumps and better repeated jump capacity.
- Sharper change of direction and deceleration.
- Better late-game performance as fatigue resistance improves.
- Improved confidence in physical contests.
The injury prevention case
Adolescent girls have markedly higher rates of non-contact ACL injury and patellofemoral pain. Strength and neuromuscular training - particularly hamstring, glute and single-leg work with landing feedback, is the intervention with the best evidence for reducing both.
It also builds tolerance in the calves, quadriceps and trunk, reducing the growth-related conditions that affect all young athletes.
The bone case
Adolescence is the window in which most adult bone mass is accrued, and loading is one of the strongest stimuli for bone development. Resistance and impact training in the teenage years produces bone density benefits that persist into adulthood, a health outcome that outlasts any sporting one.
What the programme looks like
- Two sessions a week of 30–45 minutes, on non-consecutive days.
- Squat and hinge patterns, progressed from bodyweight to loaded.
- Single-leg work: split squats, step-downs, single-leg Romanian deadlifts.
- Nordic hamstring curls and glute work.
- Calf raises, straight and bent knee.
- Landing, hopping and bounding, with coaching on knee position.
- Trunk control: Pallof press, side plank, dead bug.
Answering the common objections
- 'She'll get bulky', hypertrophy requires deliberate volume and eating; strength gains here are largely neural and structural.
- 'She's too young' - readiness is about following coaching, and most are ready well before their teens.
- 'She already trains four times a week', then replace a session rather than adding one; strength is the part that raises capacity.
- 'It's not what girls' teams do', which is precisely why the injury statistics look as they do.
Getting started
Start with bodyweight competence, two short sessions a week, and progress patiently through range, tempo and then load. Test something simple every couple of months - a broad jump, a single-leg hop, a set of calf raises, so progress is visible.
The athletes who benefit most are usually the ones who start earliest and keep going through the years when it is easiest to stop.