Dragonwing Girl Blog
What to Look Out For When Buying Performance Base Layers for Girls
We understand, and you've probably heard before, that physical activities benefit you and can help you lose weight, among other health benefits. But what you wear is pivotal to the quality of your exercise. No matter how you want to enjoy the outdoors, base layers are the greatest method to keep yourself comfortable.
Benefits of Investing in Performance Base Layers for Girls
Regular exercise is beneficial to your overall health and mental well-being. We hear a lot these days about high-performance apparel and how it can affect our exercise. It turns out that the clothes you wear might significantly impact your performance. They provide many other advantages besides helping you get into the appropriate attitude for a gym session.
Product Spotlight: School to Sports Bra for Girls
The School to Sport Bra is great for girls of every age. It's the perfect first bra or training bra for girls.
Product Spotlight: The Racer Seamless Sports Bra
Here's the rundown on our Racer Seamless Sports bra. In this article we talk about what makes this sports bra so special and talk about its softness, support and sustainability!
June 17: Happy Birthday, Venus Williams!
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Happy birthday to Venus Williams, 21 Grand Slam title holder. Williams has won more Olympic gold medals, three, than any other female tennis player, and is only the second player to have won Olympic gold in both singles and doubles at a single Olympic Games. She and her sister, Serena, who have both been ranked World No. 1 at one time or another, have faced each other in 8 Grand Slam singles finals and hold a record for being the only two players to have ever faced each other in 4 consecutive Grand Slam singles finals.July 9: Happy Birthday, Kara Goucher!
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Happy birthday to Kara Goucher, former NCAA Cross Country Champion. Goucher has the Olympic A Standard in the 5000 and 10,000 m and placed third in the New York Marathon in 2008, the first American woman to make it to the podium since 1994. She has also placed third in the Boston Marathon, second at the Arizona Half Marathon, and first at the Lisbon Half Marathon and the mile at the Melrose Games. She has placed third at the World Championships twice.
Wedgie trouble!!
"Somebody call Triple A! We need a crane to help Emma pull out her wedgie!" - My Coach (I kid you not, he said this)
Both 8 year old me and 14 year old me could have used some DragonWing girlgear compression shorts to avoid these wedgies
A Fish Out of Water
Now that September has started, Anna is back in the pool four or five days a week. In the sometimes strange world of year-round swimming, most swimmers take August off to give their bodies a much needed rest. It seems odd to me that the one month kids want to swim, year-round swimmers…don't. They can ride bikes, go for a run, lounge by a pool, play in the ocean. But swimming laps--don't even THINK about it.
So Anna channeled her inner runner and went several times a week for runs in our neighborhood. And my girl was a fish out of water because running is NOT her sport. She wore a tween sports bra from Dragonwing which definitely helped. The Keyhole seamless sports bra, made of moisture-wicking fabric, was soft and comfy in the August heat and fit really well across her broad shoulders. The Dragonwing sports bra made her runs more comfortable, so I am really happy we found it.
Now Anna (my fish) is back in the water as I write on this rainy evening. The heat of August will soon be a distant memory as we settle into the routine of school, swim, and sleep. I am grateful for the structure it imposes on our life but a small part of me misses our less-regimented August lives. Late dinners on the porch, s'mores with friends and some time to catch our breath before school and swim start again. Now we're back in the daily routine and my fish is back in the water. All is right with the world.
Courage, as defined by my fortune cookie
When we're full with Kung Pao chicken, sweet and sour chicken, rice, dumplings and lo mein, we each open a fortune cookie. We have a belief in our household that fortunes don't necessarily belong to the opener of the cookie, just somebody at the table. So once we've all read the fortunes aloud, it's an unspoken tradition that we decide who gets which fortune. Tonight, this was mine, and it was applicable in two ways:
Courage is the mastery of fear--not the absence of fear.1. After dinner, I was scrolling through Twitter and saw that a former teammate of mine had just committed to Florida State to play soccer. So, my dad asked me if I was still okay with my decision to not play soccer in college and to quit. Looking back on the decision, there were two sides to me. The first and more dominant side was the one at complete peace with the situation. During a tournament in Colorado, I had just scored my dream goal and as I came off the field, I no longer envisioned myself playing in the upcoming season. It was also exciting to think of my weekends not being filled with 10 hour bus rides and Jason's Deli box lunches. The other half of me was freaking out. I had been playing soccer for as long as I could remember. I didn't know life without it. Like I said, Freaking Out.What if I miss soccer in a month? What if my dream school calls me right now offering me a roster spot? What will my teammates think? How am I going to tell my coach? Even though I knew this was what I wanted, it was still so hard. And I was so emotional. On the phone call with my coach, my tears got so bad that I had to secretly put myself on mute so I could blow my nose without him hearing. Through the blurry eyes and raspy voice, I made it through. There are still moments where I want nothing more than to train with my favorite coach and ex-teammates, but overall I'm very happy with my decision. I faced my fear of the repercussions of quitting, and so far I haven't looked back.
2. My friend just texted me, "a fattie spider crawled in my bed and I can't find it!!" This right there is courage. HE STARTED LOOKING FOR THE SPIDER IN HIS BED.
I can make tough, life-changing decisions, but if I were in his situation, I would have been out of that room so fast and would have been sleeping on the couch for a week. I don't know where he landed with the spider situation, and he hasn't responded for a few minutes. For all I know he's convulsing on his floor with a spider bite in his arm. But at least he looked. And I think that's what courage is about.
A Swimmer's Body
I want to start by saying that most older teen female swimmers HAVE bodies. They have hips, thighs, butts, breasts, shoulders and some curves. They have confidence. Looking like a string bean is out. Looking and being strong and powerful is in.
This a big change for me as a former high school and college distance runner. I am short (good for a distance runner) but more solidly built than a toothpick. For most distance runners, it really is a case of “less is more.” For years my coaches bugged me about losing weight, so I would be faster.
Back to swimming. Swimmers who are training hard eat a LOT. Not junk. But high quality calories—carbs, fats, proteins. That tremendous caloric output during heavy training has to be matched by a healthy caloric intake. Anna eats dinner #1 around 5:00 pm for her 6:00 pm practice. She gets home around 8:30 pm, showers, and then has dinner #2 which is more like a heavy snack. It usually involves some fruit, peanut butter, or leftovers from dinner #1.
So yes, women swimmers have women’s bodies. They are expected to train, to eat well, and to swim their fastest. Swimmers have broad shoulders and strong bodies, and those are something to be admired because they represent dedication and hard work.
Mom, I Love Cross-Country
"Mom, I LOVE cross-country." Ok. Wow.
I'm going to take a little detour here because I know Dragonwing sells sports gear for tween and teen girls, but today I'm going to write about my 7th grade son. D is an avowed "nerd." He swam in the past because I made him and he could see his friends, but it wasn't something he embraced. Most of his summer activity was whatever was going on at summer camp, summer swim, and watching Netflix.
He joined the (no-cut) middle school cross country team this past week. I want to note that the North Carolina weather has been high 90s with high humidity all week. On the second or third day of practice, he hopped into the car after practice dripping sweat with a bright red face. I braced myself for the complaint. "Mom, I LOVE cross-country."
Pause. Deep breath. Inside, I was jumping up and down. "What do you like about it?" "I don't know, it's fun. We ran through the woods today and picked apples. The trails are fun and it was shady."
I'm delighted. Beyond happy. Because everything we know about why sports are good for girls also applies to boys, especially the slightly nerdy, not your-typical-jock boy. Over the course of the cross-country season, D is going to benefit from teamwork, hard work, camaraderie, seeing his own times (hopefully) improve, and understand that running, as with almost any sport, can be a lifetime pursuit. And the beauty of running is its simplicity. As humans, we were designed to move and to run. It's in our DNA.
I'm glad D is literally following in my footsteps. But even more importantly, I'm hoping he has found his "sport." His go-to activity when he's having a bad day or needs to work off some excess stress. The "runner's high" is real. A long time ago, I wrote that no matter how bad a day was, as long as I completed my run, it was a good enough day.
For D, I'm hoping this cross-country season is the season where he discovers the joy of sports.
Back to School--A Parent's Perspective
Following on Emma's post about returning to school, I thought I'd write about "Back to School" from one parent's perspective.
My absolute favorite thing about summer is no homework. Zilch, nada, zero. Summer evenings are less tense because we are out of the "get your homework done, eat dinner, go to swim practice, shower, go to bed" frenzy. On the other hand, the kids were binging on Netflix and made it to the seventh season of Supernatural. I am not proud of that.
I LOVE back to school shopping--all that promise with clean binders, new pens, folders, and the promise of a new school year. Everything is bright and new, and as Emma said, the kids seem genuinely glad to see their friends for the first few days. A few months later, extraneous papers will trail out of my son's binder and he will have lost several assignments, never to be found.
And as much as I love a lazy week, I'm also glad we're back on some sort of routine though waking up is a bit tough. By 10 am I'm ready for lunch. However, never underestimate the power of a good power nap. This year Anna has "Emotional Health," which I believe is a form of meditation often leading to a midday snooze.
And now that we're back in a routine, my job search is kicking into high gear. My previous freelance gig terminated in July, so it's now time for me to hit the ground running, resume in hand.
In summary, I have mixed feelings about back to school. I'm glad the kids have structure to their day, and they are being challenged by their teachers. I don't like being the "homework police" so I'm trying to get out of that job and let my son bear the consequences. We'll all get used to the early mornings and if not, Labor Day is just around the corner!
