Strong Girl Squad 'lifting' girls' confidence at Louth Academy

Weights helped give girls’ confidence a lift in a special workshop at Louth Academy.
Year 9 students from Louth Academy take part in Strong Girls Squad workshop. Photo by Jon CorkenYear 9 students from Louth Academy take part in Strong Girls Squad workshop. Photo by Jon Corken
Year 9 students from Louth Academy take part in Strong Girls Squad workshop. Photo by Jon Corken

Coaches from Strong Girl Squad, based in Lincoln, showcased weightlifting to the Academy’s year nine pupils, and Instructors showed groups of up to three how to correctly execute a deadlift, and the girls were encouraged to perform a deadlift with just the bar, weighing 7.5kg.

They were then asked to add weights to make 17.5kg, emphasising the importance of stretching, muscle protection and posture.

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The aim of the workshop was to show the girls what was possible with self-belief, and the Academy’s Head of PE, Tim Lowe, said the coaching was excellent:

Year 9 students from Louth Academy take part in Strong Girls Squad workshop. Photo by Jon CorkenYear 9 students from Louth Academy take part in Strong Girls Squad workshop. Photo by Jon Corken
Year 9 students from Louth Academy take part in Strong Girls Squad workshop. Photo by Jon Corken

“The girls were given great encouragement to take on the weightlifting challenge, once they had been coached how to do it properly,” said Tim.

“Once they overcame understandable nerves, they were amazed the weights they could lift and were all surprised it wasn’t as heavy as they’d first thought.

“The session gave them a huge amount of confidence and showed them how weightlifting can help them improve in other sports by developing abilities in strength, speed and balance.

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“We’d like to thank Kristen and her coaches for coming to Louth Academy.”

Head coach of Lincoln gym LN CrossFit, Kristen Ingraham-Morgan, and her team of female coaches travel across the country to bring their workshop to secondary schools and show its benefits to girls.

Kristen said the idea was to show weightlifting could be safe, fun and cool to ensure more girls felt the benefit of playing sport.

“There is a gap in the group of girls aged around 13 or 14 in sport,” she said, “They are disengaged from sport and any physical activity and there is a huge decline in the amount of girls who enjoy taking part in PE at school.

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“A lot of it comes down to them being uncomfortable or simply not liking or having any interest in the sport that is on offer.”

Louth Academy Principal Philip Dickinson said: ““Exciting enrichment at Louth Academy is essential to build confidence and achievement in our students.

“We were thrilled to welcome Kristen and her team to the Academy to provide the students with a unique opportunity.”

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