Considerations in Coaching Girls and Women in Sport and Physical Activity Settings

Abstract

The number of girls and women involved in sport has risen dramatically over the last several decades. Given this increase, an interesting question is whether or not there are important differences in coaching girls as compared to coaching boys. A search for coaching books published since 1980 with titles suggesting a discussion of gender differences in coaching results in one book focusing on coaching boys and over 30 books that focus on coaching girls. The books that focus on coaching girls include titles like They Can Do it!, the Female Athlete, Issues with Coaching Girls, Designing Women, and Pregnancy and Other Practical Considerations. Clearly there is from the popular literature supporting the perception that there is nothing special that you need to know to coach boys, but there is important information you must have if you are going to coach girls. Although the focus of this talk is not on the social issues reflected in this disparity, interested readers should consult a recent content analysis of popular coaching books for an informed discussion of these issues (LaVoi, Becker, & Maxwell, 2007). The focus of this talk is on the empirical supporting the perception that there are differences in coaching boys as opposed to coaching girls. With regard to physical differences between men and women, there is substantial evidence. However, with regard to gender differences in psychological factors related to sport performance, there is very limited empirical and this has primarily been translated from research conducted in other venues such as educational settings, worksites, or personal relationships. In fact, the majority of the evidence for gender differences in psychological factors that are critical for coaches to be aware of appears to come from expert opinion or to be based upon experience and gender stereotypes. That being said, there is to suggest that there are small differences in communication between men and women (Allen & Valde, 2006). For example, men have been shown to be more talkative than women and to use more assertive speech whereas women use more afflliative speech (Leaper & Ayres, 2007). This is consistent with perceptions that women are rapport specialists who use communication to develop relationships while men use communication to problem solve and to aggressively focus on task accomplishment. Meta-analytic also indicates that all-female groups prefer a leader who uses a democratic style while all-male groups are more equivocal in terms of their preference for an autocratic or a democratic leader (Foels et al, 2000). There is some empirical of gender differences related to assertiveness and motivations for participation in intercollegiate sport. Men tend to report higher assertion scores than women (Keeler, 2007), and women report that they are less accepting of aggression in sport than are men (Tucker & Parks, 2001). Female athletes report a higher value for the social aspects of sport while male athletes more highly value the competitive nature of sport (Flood & Hellstedt, 1991). With regard to physical issues relevant to sport, there is empirical regarding pain perception and tolerance, injuries, and physical attributes. Although pain thresholds and pain tolerance are higher for the general population of men as compared to women (Riley et al., 1998), some suggests that there are no gender differences in pain intensity or affect amongst athletes (Hall & Davies, 1991). In terms of injuries, there are no differences in injury rates between boys and girls participating in youth (7-13 yrs) soccer (Radelet et al., 2002). In contrast, female high school athletes have greater overall injury rates than males in the sports of soccer and softball/baseball (Powell & Barber-Foss, 1999a) and have a greater rate of mild traumatic brain injuries (concussions) in the sports of soccer, basketball, and softball/ baseball (Powell & Barber-Foss, 1999b). …