On Tuesday the 3rd of March we had the opportunity to attend an empowering women in sport talk, with inspirational guest speakers – Anna McCarthy (LGFA + Rowing) Denise Murphy (Triathlon) and Louise O’Brian (Gymnastics).
They shared their experiences and insights in coaching girls through their respective sports.
One thing that we found very interesting was a topic of “what does fun really mean”. The guest speakers spoke about ways they try to incorporate fun into trainings to entertain ages ranging from 5 to 17. Lousie spoke about having a board in the gym where the athletes can write their name and skill they achieved, whether it be a straight leg in a skill or completing a whole tumbling pass; she found the sense of achievement writing their name beside their accomplishments brought enjoyment to all athletes which made attending practice fun. In a team sport context, Anna spoke about including games in training sessions which she found brought that same enjoyment. For anyone interested in learning more about what fun means in youth sport, resources from Prof. Amanda Visek including this video, this research paper and this summary from Sport New Zealand might be useful.
Another discussion we found very interesting was the conversation around how the facilities around Ireland can be very limited, which has a huge effect on young girls. Anna gave an example of bringing a team to a game and there was only one bathroom for about 30 girls, so they had to go to another bathroom on the other side of the pitch, so they were late for their warmup, so they did not warm up properly. She also mentioned that there should be regulations around every newly built or renovated facility to have proper changing rooms and bathrooms so young girls can get changed in private and not have to wait or go to the other side of the pitch to use the bathroom. While this might not seem like a coaching issue, it is! Your coaching will be compromised if the environment in which you are coaching is impoverished. Regardless of sport, asking, “How can I create an environment to allow the athletes I coach to thrive?” can be an important foundation for successful experiences.
There were many great points mentioned through this talk but the final one that was intriguing was the difference in coaching girls and boys; an audience member stated that he found a big difference between coaching girls and boys saying that when you ask boys to do a certain drill they just do it whether they understand it or not. In contrast, girls will ask many different questions to make sure they understand fully what they are doing. Anna, Denise and Louise commented on this returning to a fundamental principle: coaches should take different approaches to coaching based on the needs of the athletes. Meaning if the coach knows the athletes like to ask questions, they should dedicate time to this during training and allow the athletes to speak freely and communicate with them. For more on the difference between coaching girls and boys, check out this Podcast from Rugby Coach Weekly.
Coaching isn’t just one technique you can learn and use for everyone; you must evolve your methods to cater to your athletes’ needs and wants, to ensure you’re giving the athletes every opportunity to grow and succeed.
Amy O’Connor and Emma Sweeney are second-year students on the BSc Sports & Exercise Sciences programme in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the University of Limerick.
PESS News & Information 