my deal is that I want to be a high school coach, but don't want to coach girls. it is nothing against female athletes and not it's not a chauvanism thing, but rather that I don't think I could relate to girls as well and don't feel equipped to deal with female issues and especially their personality conflicts. i just don't know how to train females. i want to stick with what i know, which is training men. is this wrong?
dude, are you gay?
I felt similarly before I began coaching two years ago. I was willing to give it a try but was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing still. Now I would be perfectly fine coaching a women's only team. Why? Guys have their own egos you have to deal with, often second guessing training and are much more reckless. Basically, they don't listen nearly as well as the women. I've had the priveledge of working with mostly cooperative men, but I was shocked to find out that once I made an effort to earn their trust, our women took my word as gospel. You say jump, they ask how high, you say run, they ask how far. I've heard this from many other coaches as well that women are usually more coachable. Yeah, you do have to put up with some pettiness between them and your first practice that one of them informs you that they are on their period and practice is going to suffer (largly an excuse as I have come to understand). But in the end, as a coaching experience, it can be much more rewarding than fighting with guys over race tactics/workouts/pacing/recovery.
My highschool coach was great with the guys but he was excellent with the girls. To be honest I feel women bring more to the table. Guy runners think they know everything, women are willing to learn.
dudes wrote:
my deal is that I want to be a high school coach, but don't want to coach girls. it is nothing against female athletes and not it's not a chauvanism thing, but rather that I don't think I could relate to girls as well and don't feel equipped to deal with female issues and especially their personality conflicts. i just don't know how to train females. i want to stick with what i know, which is training men. is this wrong?
A guy I train with was in my conference in college. He said his coach used to coach both the men's and women's CC and track teams and his 3 axioms were:
1) - Never marry before age 30
2) - Date at least 10 women before getting married
3) - Never coach a team of women
The coach and almost all of his athletes that went into coaching never hit any of those 3 marks but the guy I train with managed to adhere to all 3 axioms.
Are you an aspiring priest by any chance?
dudes wrote:
but rather that I don't think I could relate to girls as well and don't feel equipped to deal with female i just want to stick men. is this wrong?
Son, it is only wrong in the eyes of the church. (not really because many priests would understand your temtations)
to many stereotypes! girls and boys are different but there are good male runners and good female runners... everyone has their problems.
Couldn't disagree more. I've been coaching men's and women's teams for 9 years now and I much prefer coaching the women. They listen better, object/whine less, they're more respectful, and most importantly they stay away from contaminating outside factors that may impact their running better. Guys get hurt doing the stupidest things, usually to impress the girls. The girls simply get better and win big races. I still like working with the guys, but I get far more as a coach from working with the women.