^{Originally published on BabyCenter.com September 23, 2015}

I seem to have fallen over backwards into helping as a coach with my son’s soccer team. As it turns out, you only have to express an interest (or maybe, as in my case, have a brother-in-law who is also coaching) to do this. It’s quite fun, but really weird when parents say, “Hi, Coach.”

Now, we’re talking four-year-olds running after a soccer ball, so coaching in this case is really just a glorified version of saying “Kick the ball toward the net and stop knocking down your teammates.” Still, the experience has been fun and given me a chance to get some first-hand observations about kids and sports.

One of the things I’ve noticed in the chaos of the weekly scrum is that there does seem to be a difference between the boys and the girls on the team. In general, we hear a lot that boys are naturally more inclined to sports than girls. But how true is that?

In a team of mixed genders, it seems to me that the girls are easier to motivate and get going than the boys. Maybe it’s just the mix of kids we have, but the girls are way more likely to jump into any activity, while the boys seem to need a bit more prodding.

Does this mean that my anecdotal experience proves anything? Not really – it just flies in the face of what I’ve generally been told and even what I’ve thought from time to time. And it turns out that some research indicates that there isn’t really much difference between boys and girls on an athletic level.

A 2012 study at Indiana University followed almost 2 million freestyle swim meets, choosing the sport because it relies more on basic muscle function than hardcore training. The study found almost no difference between boys and girls all the way to the age of 13, at which point puberty finally gave the boys an advantage.

Despite the fact that there isn’t a physical divide between boys and girls in youth sports, there’s a big difference in participation, with about 60% of girls getting involved with sports compared to 80% of boys. This gap continues into adult participation, where most coaches are men and most team parents are women.

Why the gap? There are a lot of potential reasons, including gender bias, girls being pushed into non-sports activities, and more. While there are a lot of reasons why girls might not get involved in sports, the idea that they aren’t as physically capable hopefully isn’t one of them.

From a parenting perspective, volunteering to help out with kids’ sports has been a very good experience because it’s given me a chance to focus on what’s going on with more kids than my own. I’ve got to see some unique strengths and weaknesses in a number of kids and been able to chat with some interesting parents as well – not something I would do sitting on the sidelines and cheering on my son exclusively.

If you get a chance to coach or assist with your kids’ sports, I suggest you take it. And if you happen to notice what I’ve noticed when it comes to girls and boys at that young age, let me know. I’d be interested in seeing if my experience is unique or not.

Featured Image: Roman Boed, CC BY 2.0, cropped and resized