What we do.
Empowering girls and women to stay in sport through evidence-based education.
45% of girls aged 14-16 don’t exercise enough to support their long-term health.
For girls ‘not belonging’ in sport accelerates rapidly in teenage years. By 18, more than 50% have dropped out.
Our education enables grassroots clubs, schools and academies to take low (or no cost) steps to create a positive, welcoming environment where girls and women feel like they belong.
Since 2024, we have helped more than 250 girls and women in grassroots sport to avoid injury, improve health, stay in sport and our network is fast expanding.
We are not-for-profit, motivated by our passion to share information we didn’t have growing up, which might have kept us in sport.
Where are all the girls gone?
Listen to 17-year-old Isabelle kyson, national-level sprint hurdler and passionate advocate for girls in sport, explaining why so many girls drop out as they get older.
Isabelle’s points about puberty, performance plateau, and the lack of surrounding education are exactly why we started Optimise.
Join us in our mission to combat taboo, build awareness and normalise conversations about female health in grassroots sport.
How we can help you
There is so much information out there - it’s overwhelming.
Consider us your filter.
We will give you the evidence-based tools and guidance you need to increase understanding and normalise conversations about girls’ bodies in your sports club, school or academy.
Our online educational toolkits provide you with the tools and materials you need to deliver our education to athletes, coaches and parents in your own club, school, community.
Our workshops share the latest academic and elite sports performance offering, vetted by qualified health professionals, with grassroots clubs, schools and academies.
Our online coaching sessions offer one-to-one support for coaches, parents, girls and women keen to understand the science of female health in sport and receive actionable guidance on how to apply it to everyday life.
Every girl - whether she loves to run, dance, swim, kick a ball, or dreams of a professional career, will need to adapt how she trains as she grows into adulthood, to stay safe, healthy and avoid dropping out of sport she loves.
- Dr Stacy Sims, leading exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist -