Best way to coach women

EITS wrote:

Two words:

Ice Cream

The thread is "Best way to COACH women", not "Best way to CATCH women".

In need wrote:

Does anyone have any good advice on how to get women more excited about training hard?

Thanks

Threaten them with sex. Then if they still won't get with the program, pick one out, show her your dick and threaten anal.

In need wrote:

So the other coach and I (both men) are having a tough time getting our women to be more competitive. We think this is because they just aren't as committed to training as our men are.

Does anyone have any good advice on how to get women more excited about training hard?

Thanks

Interesting. I have coached both D1 men and women, HS girls and boys and my experience is that I have always had a difficult time getting the women/girls to not overtrain themselves. The women were not as race savvy either, trying to bust races from the gun and fading. What I found was difficult with the women was to teach them that racing is different from running and that a few seconds of holding back in the beginnng would be worth multiple seconds at the end.

The men always seemed more secure in their abilities, able to run calmly and effectively in both their training and racing.

Having run in high school and on a D1 team, I heartily disagree with everything D1 has said. Obviously, D1 is a male who has little to no concept of the average female mind and whose techniques would destroy a silly middle/high school female's psyche.

My coach in high school was very hands off, which I greatly enjoyed. Like many have said, I was prone to overtraining myself- I didn't need a coach pushing me even more. In fact, one year in college my coach stepped up the pressure by being a hard-ass towards the girl's team. In response, I began voluntarily running 80-100 miles a week and was completely physically, mentally, and emotionally shot by October 1st.

The following year, coach relaxed A LOT (we think he was on some sort of medication that semester) and the team dynamic was the best it'd ever been that year and we all improved because we weren't stressed out.

If your girls want to be good, they'll do the work. However if they're lazy and don't want to be good, being tough on them will piss them off to no end and eventually they will quit because of their intense hatred of your coaching methods.

Go with what others have said about encouragement and rewards, but be sure to balance that with just enough discipline to ensure that they do the work.

As a woman who ran for both a bad high school team and a fairly good college team, I think that the difference for me was the expectations that were set and the level of information that I learned about training methods in college. Having a high standard for your team doesn't mean that you have to be rough or dictatorial, but letting your girls know what they have to do to succeed and why they're doing the training that they're doing.

Let them know before the season starts what's expected of them to be on the team, and what's necessary for them to become better. Basically tell them right off that they're going to be expected to run X number of miles (of course depending on some age and ability), that they're going to have to put forth a solid effort in workouts and that they're going to be expected to train on weekends. Then tell them that anyone who can't meet that level of committment should reconsider being on the team.

Meet with them individually and take the time to learn what they want to get out of running and where they're at abilitywise. Then you can help them set specific goals for the season.

Almost everyone who goes out for xc and track wants to race faster, but I think that it's a problem in both mens and womens high school teams that often because they don't understand the purpose of specific workouts, they don't corrolate those workouts with success in racing. Let them know your basic training philosophy and the reason why it will lead to their success.

And celebrate PRs and good races. My high school coach didn't seem to care whether we were improving or not as long as we were just out there racing. Make PRs and improvement something that they can feel proud about and see as a goal.

LilyFair and runner femme are giving you pearls of wisdom fo free - be wise and take them to heart.

I'm a girl and when i was in hs my girls team was a helluva lot tougher and more motivated than the boys team. Our guys team were all super lazy, never ran in the off season, cut everything short and were just a bunch of babies.. but the girls team did everything they were told and were a lot tougher than the boys.. so it just depends on who u are dealing with so i dont wanna hear this crap about girls just being lazy

also, you dont have to be nicer to the girls and put things in different ways.. my college coach does that now and i hate it.. yes, i have a bunch of whiney babies on my team who cant take any form of critizism or yelling but im the exact opposite.. i NEED to be yelled at.. yea, it might "hurt my feelings" or whatever but ill get over it because i know im getting yelled at for a reason.. so you dont have to be any less firm with the girls just because they are girls.. if they cant handle a little tough coaching and are gonna quit the team or hate u cuz of it then they really dont deserve to be running xc in the first place.

Ironically, I am a female, and have coached women at the Division I level for a long time (15+ years), with alot of success. I am not implying that being a hardass is the way to go - I am far from that. If you have individuals who want to do the work, there is less reason to be tough on those athletes because they have that drive already. If you have athletes who don't want to do the work required, having them pissed off and quit is what you want. Please read my entire post, I am referring to Division I athletes, not junior high or high school girls. When i coached at the HS level long ago, the dynamic was obviously much different.

Just because you personally don't like a coach who yells, doesn't mean it isn't right for someone else if they need that sort of motivation. You sound like you would be a pain in the ass to coach, not to mention stupid for running 80-100 miles a week because your coach became a "hard ass." Maybe a few hugs and a "compliment sandwich" would do the trick!

As a guy, do what we do best, scratch our balls, spit..ask who watched the game last night and who got laid..then wonder whats for dinner...everything else will work out fine

The problems you are having are the reasons no one cares about chick sports.

There's a bunch of pussies on this thread that's for sure. I think I'd threaten to punch 'em in their pusses.