Is it easier to train guys or girls?

I think there are definitely differences in how you would coach girls/guys especially at a high school level. A female's progression does not usually match the male's experience. Girls are really likely to experience a plateau or a dip in their performance at some point and a good coach will need to have experience coaching a girl through that. That's more of a high school issue vs. college and beyond. But also, in our sport, since eating disorders are unfortunately so prevalent among female athletes, a coach needs to be able to recognize and do something if one of their athletes is experiencing this. Some coaches will just straight up ignore it.

I think a lot of training principles probably still apply and work fairly similarly, but coaching isn't just about have a good training plan. There are other factors that make someone a good coach or not. You've got to be able to relate and empathize with their experience.

I had pretty much all male coaches growing up. Some were good with coaching women/girls, and some were not.

Depends on the ages of the females. If you are coaching girls through puberty it can present challenges.

Generally speaking, women seem to have more external motivation to succeed, like to make coaches, teammates, parents happy which I think makes them better to coach. Males more internal motivation, which is great but also leads to a lot more stubbornness and pushback against training methods.

The thread is titled "...train...." so my response is they are equally easy or hard to train. There should be a difference in the way they train but the difference is small. If the thread was "is it easier to coach...." I would say that girls are more difficult by a wide margin. In general, girls are more worried about their position in a team's social structure and they actually listen to coaches. Boys don't care about their social position in the team nearly as much and they're just sitting waiting for me to stop talking so they can go run.

As a coach, usually, when I say something stupid the girls will catch it right away and point it out to me. The boys usually don't think much of it.

There's a book Training for Young Distance Runners (3rd Edition) that addresses this topic somewhat, if I recall correctly. Check it out if you're coaching mid or high school runners.

The depth of the girls competition is so thin, that if you have a girl (or better yet a few) that put in much effort at all, they can have huge success. That in and of itself makes training girls "easier" because you really don't have to do much to have success.

Not sure how to categorize this but I find girls complain 1000% less. They take the plan, the running, the off track workout and execute. 20% of boys belly ache and distract.

Girls actually listen to their coaches. Guys laugh at them.

It is certainly easier to train young girls (12-15yo, right before they have “second puberty”) to a high level. Likewise it is easier to train boys past that point. Once they are full adults (post-collegiate) it is equally difficult.

That makes sense. I can definitely see it play more of a role at the HS level since women's bodies develop differently than men's. I thought about bringing up the eating disorders but I figured that was less of a coaching thing and more of a societal thing, but I guess coaches would need to be able to step in if it's happening. Once it gets to the college level, aside from EDs, is there much of a difference? You mentioned relating/empathizing with their experiences. What are ways that would work for guys but not girls or vice versa?

from my experience in high school and college, guys were more likely to veer away from what the coach said because they would nerd out on researching training methods. Guys were also more likely to get in trouble outside of practice for doing something stupid

Girls were more emotional, and coaches had to be careful and very intentional on the fact that they were listening to them to avoid any issues. There was always drama on the teams when leadership wasn’t spread out and strong. The drama would unfortunately get solid promising talent to quit.

In terms of training, the women’s/ girls teams experienced more issues with ferritin/ iron level issues, and that would affect them and their ability to properly progress without dealing with an emotional toll.

I'm surprised that so many people agreed with this sentiment. At my HS, there were only 3-4 girls every year who actually did what they were supposed to, while 30+ just ran until they were out of sight of the coach on easy days and sandbagged the hard days. The guys were flipped where 30+ did what we were supposed to, and only a couple guys slacked off. We all basically ran into the ground (myself included) because we'd go too hard every day (throwback to the 20x200 @ mile pace workout where my fastest rep was 25 and my slowest was 50). The guys group over the summer also had 2-3x as many daily runners.

It was a big part of why I asked, even though I didn't mention it originally, because I have no clue how the culture on the guys side was so starkly different from the one on the girls side. There were some really good girls on the team for a while too. There was one senior my freshman year who I just saw won a pro race a few weeks ago, and I hadn't seen her name in like 5 years. She was great then, and apparently she's great now, but the effort from the vast majority of girls on the team was nonexistent. My coach was very much a 'Work hard every day' kinda guy, and the kids who got through the season healthy ended up in monster shape, but the rest ended up kinda battered. Made me wonder if different training styles favored one sex more than the other, or if it's all just down to how you treat the athletes.

Girls/women because they like to be told what to do/directed and they also like to put their trust in an authority figure. This authority figure subconsciously also provides them a sense of security/protection, regardless of whether the figure has good or bad intentions.

Boys/men are more likely to think for themselves and question authority and even disobey them to prioritize their personal interests based on their own values.

On the other hand, just having one girl leave/get injured, etc. can cripple your program. It's easier to build a boys team that is resilient to varsity roster shakeups.