Coaching Styles
In the world of sports, to most athletes, a coach can be either their best friend or their worst enemy. A coach can be someone a player looks up to as a person or can lead an athlete down a path to hating their sport or disliking them as a person. Every coach coaches in a different way but some of the ways are better suited for different genders. Coaching is a very hard job, as coaches are always stressed but, they should learn the correct way to coach their players. It is a hard decision to decide what techniques to use and the amount emotion to show while coaching but they need to learn how to control it.
Gender differences are important for coaches to consider, due to the way that males and females develop. For example,“male and female brains have important structural and functional differences. Certain parts of the female brain are larger than the male brain, and vice versa. Also, the male brain is designed to process serotonin, which is a key factor in regulating mood and emotion, over 50% faster than the female brain” (Gilbert). Additionally, there are factors that impact males and females differently when it comes to health conditions. A passionate author states, “Males are much more likely to succumb to drug and alcohol addiction whereas females experience much more depression and anxiety. Also there is a big difference in culture, psychological, neurobiological, dimensions, including behaviors, mindest, communication style, preferences and worldviews”(Gilbert). Due to these differences coaches must adjust their on and off field activities to ensure they maximize their productivity of these athletes.
When coaches are trying to figure out how to coach a player or how they should respond, they need to think of three things, memory, communication and relationships. With memory, females recall experiences with more emotion and details. Also, the female brain is designed to see events in emotional high-definition. Males typically only remember the big picture of what happened and don’t overthink the situation. With communication, women need a nurturing voice instead of being yelled at like most males. Female brains are also wired to have stronger and more elaborate verbal communication skills because the cables connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain are thicker in the female brain. On the other hand, males are typically begging to withdraw from the situation. With relationships, physical activity and competition are the preferred method for building relationships among males. Females prefer to bond through talking and sharing stories and becoming more connected to each other. END
There has been multiple studies done on men’s and women’s brains to help show what coaching can do to both of the genders brains and mental health. Gender equality has caused many problems because it is trying to become prominent in today’s society but, this topic is very sensitive towards athletes. Even though many studies are being done there are still issues, if a person asks a question about the differences in coaching styles between the two genders, they are sure to spark a lively debate. A big topic with coaches is the belief that the coach should be more blunt and direct when coaching boys because they aren’t as sensitive as girls. Most people believe statements like these bring down women athletes and do not help them to create new visions of were women’s sports can go to other people and were more steps toward women’s equality can happen in the sports world.
Inequality and different treatment with both players and coaches is happening in today’s society. Many times, female coaches often feel inferior to male coaches. Many of these feelings started to occur after 1972, when the gender equity law known as Title IX was enacted. Title IX is a federal law that states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Women were head coaches of more than 90 percent of women’s college teams across two dozen sports when it was enacted but now that number has decreased to about 40 percent. Only about 3 percent of men’s teams are coached by women. Due to these statistics, women should be given the same opportunity to coach at any level, yet many times athletic directors end up hiring men for coaching positions. In today’s society, many people are asking “where are the women coaches in the sports world,” but seldom anything is done because there is a stigma that men are better coaches. When men were rising in the coaching world, women were slowing not coaching any more because the increasing demands of the job, the strain on working mothers, the fear and discrimination among lesbian and bisexual coaches, lack of mentors, lack of networking opportunities and perceived gender biases. This has also increased the salaries that men receive over women.
All of these factors tie back to inequality in our society. Some women feel like they will get judged when they are coaching purely because of their gender or their sexual preferences. These concerns make it very hard for our society and sports world to grow in an equitable manner, due to building a false sense of insecurities across what could be a highly qualified coaching staff. As college sports are growing and becoming even more popular, athletic directors need to look into having more women in higher level coaching positions to help grow and enable the change that is needed to embrace equality across sports. Not only is this fair, it will provide for a well-rounded society, providing women with more opportunities to do what the love. Having a women’s coaching staff start in college and it being broadcasted on television will help generate more interest. This interest will start to perpetuate across sports in high school, middle school and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) coaching divisions, which will lead to having more women role models coaching athletics.
-Allison Bryan
