I am fed up of woman coaches

Boy, chill-out. Can't you read tongue-in-cheek.

And, if you must know, I've impregnated plenty of women leaving my unsupported offspring all over the nation and currently I'm living in my family compound with my many wives.

I am a woman and a coach of a women's cross country and track on the collegiate level. I believe the reason it seems more women are now being hired to coach college programs is because only in the last 35-40 years have women been competing on a higher level. Men have been doing so for much longer. It has taken a generation of women who have competed in the sport and have learned what it takes to coach at a higher level to now decide they want to coach. I'm sure colleges need to fill quotas, but why not will athletic, driven, intelligent women.

It has been much more accepted for women to coach other women's sports like basketball and volleyball, but less accepted for a woman to be the head coach of a cross country or track team. I hope in the next few years there will be less of a microscope on the few women coaches that are coaching some of the major programs. I do not deny that I would not feel as comfortable coaching men. Only because there are too many like you that feel that a woman would not be able to coach them as well. That is crap! We all know there is not magic formula for success. Train smart, consistently, and be ready at the right times of the year and you will succeed.

There are men and women alike that make terrible coaches. I have had both and could care less what gender coaches me as long as they have my best interests as an athlete at heart. The women on my team appreciate that they can talk to me about issues that a man would not understand. I also feel we need more women coaches to promote healthy body image since there seem to be so many male coaches that like to promote starving yourself.

why dont you get over yourself? you seem to be the problem here, just shut up, admit that women are not better than men at coaching (chances are everyones equal, if you can coach you can coach it doesnt matter what sex you are). stop stirring up trouble here and just make your point and go home. i understand your a sexist, male hating, prostitute, you made your point now go. and for the record im all for equal rights and im all for giving everyone an equal chance at coaching regarless of sex, race, religion or whatever, if you can coach ill listen. my junior year in high school i had a female coach and she was great. i ran better than ever. so please dont take what i said above as a sexist remark, im really just telling you to calm down and stop acting like the typical sexist woman.

Here's what I hate about being a female coach......any man coach from another sport thinks that he can just come up and give my athletes advice at any time because he is a man. I coach at the high school level, I am a jumps coach, and I have had men come up during practice, during meets, and just start telling my athletes what to do. And it is HARD to get them to shut up. I finally asked the one guy when his football practices and games were, he asked me why...and I said because I am coming to practice. I said that I had a son who played football, just like he has a son who jumps, so surely that gave me the skill to coach any of his football players, since he seemed to think that he should be coaching my athletes. And I said that I was SURE he wouldn't mind if I stood on the sidelines during a game and coached his players then as well. We are now pals because he apologized for his boorish sexist behavior. And he no longer coaches my jumpers.

A coach is a coach......if they are good it shouldn't matter.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

hungry gnome wrote:

The same could be said about women. Men often know zilch when it comes to women's running.

I'm not a coach, but I am a woman, so I'd like to know just what it is about "women's running" that is difficult to understand. Or men's for that matter. Please explain "male guidance."

Women definitely need a little different approach. Not even just physiologically, considering their different body types, but also psychologically. Successful male coaches of female athletes take into consideration additional variables - how a girl is feeling stress-wise in school and life, how other girls will feel if they are asked to go out hard in a workout and get trounced by the A runner on the team, ETC. When coaching a winning women's TEAM, this approach is essential.

I know there are differences between male and female athletes, but a good coach should know how to handle each individual. You can't just assume all women are one way and all men the other. I've seen plenty of guys get emotional/stressed out and plenty of girls want their coach to be tougher on them.

afemalecoach wrote:

Here's what I hate about being a female coach......any man coach from another sport thinks that he can just come up and give my athletes advice at any time because he is a man. I coach at the high school level, I am a jumps coach, and I have had men come up during practice, during meets, and just start telling my athletes what to do. And it is HARD to get them to shut up.

BOY, does this resonate. I can tell you, afemalecoach, that this also happens sometimes to *men* who coach females--and who, "if they were any good, would surely be coaching males instead"--and so are *obviously* lousy coaches. Twenty-plus years of coaching women did not make this any easier to take. Sure, what the hell, you coach guys, by all means you must be more knowledgeable about *my athlete* than I am.

But I also know that my female colleagues had it much, much harder. I still remember a basketball coach having a "conversation" with some undergrad, after a game (presumably) in which his GF had played. On and on the guy went with "suggestions" about stuff that she and her team HAD to do. How she kept from decking him (which, trust me, she could have) I don't know--I guess because she wasn't as poisoned with testosterone as I, or maybe she was just more of an adult.

During my career four positions I had previously held were filled by women. Three were about as good as I was and one was much (much) better. I don't think that was just an amazing coincidence (and nor do I think I was a terrible coach). As other posters have noted, there are really good, average, and rotten coaches from both sexes in our sport.

I particularly applaud the AD's who hold t&f/xc coaches accountable for results. Those are the AD's, I think, who are doing the most to achieve equality by sex/race/age/etc. in their departments--all they want to know is, can you build programs and win with them. The ones who can, remain employed; the others get cut loose.

Oh......I wanted to smack those coaches! But this is my first season with this new team, and I am trying hard to get along with everyone at this point. In addition to talking to him, I worked hard with his son, and that really helped as well. He tried to coach his son, and that didn't work, mostly because the guy is an ass....so it just made me look better when his son improved big time.

It would be nice to have testosterone sometimes though...I could strutt around and boast about my athletes just like the guy coaches do. But in the long run, for me it is about the athletes, and as long as they know, and I know, WHO coaches them, I am fine.

On another note, what IS it about guys who talk to someone ONE time and all of a sudden they are their 'coach'?

Just another example of a bad coach. Doesn't have anything to do with whether she is male or female, but a bit embarrassing for the school and the Student-Athletes.

Word is people like Dr. Jack Daniels and others much more qualified applied for the position many moons ago, but the position was given to this women.

I was a history major in college. I took "women in history" as an elective. After a few classes, it was clear that the female professor had an agenda, and a big anti-male chip on her feminist shoulder. However, one day a friend of mine made the class laugh out loud when the professor was trying to make a point about female leaders of the world. She asked the question to the class "how often do you think there would be a war in this world if women ran the countries?" My friend said out loud: "every 28 days!"

Now THAT is funny. I don't care who you are.

Good post.

I would prefer a male coach, but I would much rather have had the female coach from the sister school than the male coach I had at my school.

afemalecoach wrote: A coach is a coach......if they are good it shouldn't matter.

Totally agree.

Some guys aren't going to care whether they are coached by a woman, but most won't like it. Most male athletes do not look up to female athletes. (how many boys do you see wearing WNBA jerseys?) Its simply that women are slower and weaker than men, and thats the way it is. There are some broadminded exceptions to the rule, and some vehement partisans, but I think the typical middle of the road guy doesn't want to be coached by someone who's PR's are similar to what they ran as a sophomore in high school. And sorry ladies, no amount of kvetching, sensitivity training, or lecturing is going to change that.

What is going to happen is that the programs with women coaching the men will have a harder time recruiting and will fall behind. The athletes are not stupid and will know if these women were hired to make the school look good as opposed to win. The top talent will go to the schools that are more interested in winning than pleasing NOW and the New York Times.

thats the way it is wrote:

Some guys aren't going to care whether they are coached by a woman, but most won't like it. Most male athletes do not look up to female athletes. (how many boys do you see wearing WNBA jerseys?) Its simply that women are slower and weaker than men, and thats the way it is. There are some broadminded exceptions to the rule, and some vehement partisans, but I think the typical middle of the road guy doesn't want to be coached by someone who's PR's are similar to what they ran as a sophomore in high school. And sorry ladies, no amount of kvetching, sensitivity training, or lecturing is going to change that.

While a great collection of PRs can help a coach's "street cred," are PR's the only criteria for judging a coach's ability?

I have worked with coaches who have great PR's. But their abilities to coach went beyond their PRs. They also knew the game, had good instincts in working with various runners, etc. They could, above all, communicate well with the people they coached.

So in that respect, some men--and women--may not have impressive PR's, but might have other abilities that make them good coaches.

But the problem often is that people don't readily surrender their prejudices. "I can't listen to a woman" or "women aren't good leaders" are generalizations that limit one's ability to grow/learn--similar preconceptions held back for years African American coaches, teachers, major league ball players, and politicians. Isn't it time we stop depriving ourselves of the chance to learn from talented people who don't fit into our boxes?

Joe Vigil and Jumbo Elliot were not even distance runners. Mark Wetmore has pretty ordinary PRs. The PRs of a coach, or even extensive 'race' experience, do NOT translate to coaching success.

Male-female does not matter. Give me the best available coach whom I can resonate with, is even-keeled and morally grounded, and will get me results.

Had a woman started this thread, it most likely would have been given a coherent title, e.g., "Fed up WITH women coaches." If nothing else, fellas, a woman coach would be more likely to both notice and point out you various abuses of the English language. And before you trivialize that, try to remember why you're really in college -- and it's hard to believe some of you managed to get in -- in the first place.

pittman wrote:Period!

Indeed.