|
Women's football (soccer) is not new.
In England the 'fairer sex' have been playing the 'beautiful game' since the nineteenth century
and on Boxing Day, 1920
the premier women's football team of
the day (Dick, Kerr Ladies) played another Lancashire team, St.
Helen's Ladies, before a capacity crowd of 53,000 at Goodison Park
with another 10 to 15,000 fans locked out.
In the same year the Dick, Kerr
Ladies toured the USA where they played eight games against male
opposition, winning three and scoring 35 goals.
|
 |
|
The Dick-Kerr's Ladies Team which
toured the United States in 1920.
They outscored their male opponents
35-34, and left with a 3-3-2 record.
|
However, female participation in
football in England was actively discouraged by the Football
Association until quite recently
(the FA banned women from using it's grounds for fifty years between
1920 and 1970), and is still widely considered as a 'man's game' in
which women are seen as marginal, both as players and even as
spectators.
Yet by 2002 football had become the
number one female participation sport in England. Today it is the
country's fastest growing sport and the coverage of the England
women's football team competing in Euro 2005 on prime time terrestrial
television will surely result in more and more girls wanting to
emulate their new-found sporting role models.
The scale and speed of this explosion
of interest in English female football is demonstrated by the facts:
in 1993 there just 80 girls teams. In England today there are more
than 7,000 teams and over 100,000 registered players.
Female interest in playing football is
not limited to the birthplace of the 'beautiful game'. In the USA
the game really took off after
90,185 fans
watched the women's national team
beat China in
the final of the 1999 World Cup. Today, an estimated 6 million
American girls play soccer regularly and in many other countries
there are large and growing numbers of girls and women playing the
game.
The fact that
female soccer is so popular today inevitably means that many coaches
(especially in the younger age groups) will suddenly have girls in
their squads for the first time. Other coaches will be switching
from coaching all boys teams to coaching all girls teams. This will,
understandably, result in some anxiety for soccer coaches who will wonder if girls should be coached in the same way as
boys. They won't know if the coaching techniques they have used with
boys in the past are transferable to girls and male coaches may worry about how they
should treat girl players who get injured. Female coaches may have
similar concerns. These worries are perfectly
understandable but not often expressed.
The fact that
football coaches (who are, of course, predominantly male), are so
reluctant to voice their concerns about coaching girls might be
because they interpret 'equal opportunities' as meaning that all the
children in their charge must be treated exactly the same. They may
believe that to consider treating one group of children differently
to the others is inappropriate, old fashioned and even reactionary.
However, this
ignores the fact that boys and girls have been shown to differ in
their approach to sport, soccer and coaching in several, possibly
significant, ways. These differences need to be understood
by soccer coaches if they are to coach boys and girls as effectively
as possible.
Before we look at
why the gender of the children you are coaching might influence your
coaching style, it is worthwhile stressing that boys and girls are
more similar than they are different. For example, the reasons why
girls and boys want to play soccer are virtually the same:
|
|
Girls |
Boys |
|
have fun |
99% |
94% |
|
improve at my sport |
98% |
94% |
|
learn new skills |
95% |
89% |
|
be competitive |
94% |
94% |
|
be in shape |
92% |
88% |
|
be with friends |
92% |
87% |
|
keep busy |
73% |
63% |
Source:
Mary Healy
Jonas,
Do Boys and Girls View Competition in
Different Ways?
Also, both sexes
respond better to positive reinforcement than negative
criticism, boys and girls can both kick a ball just as far (good
technique, not strength is the key to distance) both can pass
accurately and so on. Also, both boys and girls like their coaches
to be assertive, cooperative, determined, respected (and
respectable), willing to help, dedicated, 'cool' and energetic.1
Research into gender
differences applicable to soccer coaches is pretty thin on the
ground. However, The
President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report on
Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls (1997), concluded
that females, in general, are more internally motivated by self
improvement and goals related to team success and appear more
motivated by a cooperative, caring, and sharing team environment.
The authors cited Garcia (1994) that some female athletes actually
can be 'turned off' by coaches who over emphasize winning.2
However, my own experience
as a soccer coach who has switched from coaching boys to coaching
girls teams supports the findings of Dr Stewart and others that:
-
Girls tend to be more analytical than
boys. This means girls will not take generalities at face value. They will want to know why they should do something a
particular way more than boys will.
-
Team unity is more important to girls
than boys.
-
Girls may place more emphasis on 'fair
play' than boys who are more likely to bend the rules.
-
Boys are more likely than girls to
blame other people (the referee, the weather, the coach) if they
lose. Girls have a tendency to blame themselves for a poor
performance.
-
For girls, winning is not as important
as making sure every player gets an equal amount of playing time.
-
Males appear to be more 'self' or
'ego' oriented and tend to be more 'win at any cost' in their
approach to sport.
The reason for these differences is
not certain. Certainly, they could be highly
influenced by social or cultural expectations (Gill, 1994) so
presumably could be 'unlearned' if the conditions were right.3
Gender
differences relevant to soccer coaches have also been identified by
Mary Healy Jonas' study,
Do Boys and Girls View Competition in
Different Ways? She considered the
differences between girls' and boys' responses to three statements:
"I
would do almost anything to win"
|
|
Almost
never |
Occasionally
|
Sometimes |
Frequently
|
Almost always
|
Frequently + Almost
Always |
|
Female |
20% |
23% |
27% |
15% |
14% |
29% |
|
Male |
11% |
15% |
26% |
20% |
29% |
49% |
"It
is more important for key players to play in order to win than for
everyone to get equal playing time"
|
|
Almost
never |
Occasionally
|
Sometimes |
Frequently
|
Almost always
|
Frequently + Almost
Always |
|
Female |
25% |
21% |
30% |
14% |
10% |
24% |
|
Male |
11% |
12% |
36% |
21% |
21% |
42% |
"I
get very upset when my team loses"
|
|
Almost
never |
Occasionally
|
Sometimes |
Frequently
|
Almost always
|
Frequently + Almost
Always |
|
Female |
21% |
28% |
33% |
10% |
8% |
18% |
|
Male |
10% |
23% |
26% |
21% |
21% |
42% |
Conclusion
Boys and girls
should always be offered the same opportunities and given the same
consideration during your coaching sessions. Don't, for example,
cancel a training session for girls because of inclement weather if
you wouldn't cancel it for a boy's session. And if you coach mixed
groups, don't try to 'protect' the girls. Treat them equally but
understand the differences.
It's not insulting
to females to consider if they need to be coached differently. It
is, rather, an indication of your desire to coach them as
effectively as you can.
To quote Dr Stewart:
"If differences exist, coaches need to
be aware of them. That awareness could assist coaches in varying
coaching styles to meet the individual needs of the gender being
coached. If individualization is achieved, coaches would be
assisting both the team, and the individual player, in achieving the
highest performance possible. It could also reduce the frustration
experienced by coaches who switch between teams of different
genders."4
|
SUMMER SPECIAL!
Quote 'July1' at the checkout to get a massive 20% discount - only during
July.
