I think this might be one of those blog posts where the title will scare people off not realizing that it still relates to soccer or sport. I really hope that anyone who has started reading this article, will read it right to the end.
As I have written about earlier, I sort of fell into coaching. It wasn't really something I aspired to. My fiancés team was looking for an assistant coach, I used to go watch games, so I was in. Head coach quits half way through the season and voila, I am now a head coach. The reason I mention this is that when I started out, coaching was about winning. Trying to put together the best team possible and win games, league titles, provincials etc. I was luckily to inherit a good group of players and was able to qualify for national 4 times in my 6 full years coaching club. Things like teaching the game, developing players, creating a legacy, were not in any way part of my thinking. I was young, starting out and while I was passionate about the coaching and loved the sport, I didn't see the bigger picture. As I transitioned into coaching the provincial teams, and at the National Training Center, as always I still cared about winning, but some larger issues emerged. It was about scouting, identifying players that would be considered the best among their peers to represent their province, to represent a style of play that we are proud on in Quebec, help these players develop, learn the game, find those deserving to train at the CNHP and hopefully one day make it onto the national team. I have been lucky enough to get to watch approximately a dozen players that I coached to one degree or other wear the Maple Leaf and represent Canada. I would never say that they are there because of me but I would hope that maybe I played a part. Since those days, I have now completed 15 years coaching university at Concordia. Winning ? Yes, still very important to me, developing players yup, also important, but as I get older and my time coaching probably is nearing it's conclusion, I have started to think about what I want my coaching legacy to be, but in some ways, what I want to be remembered for in general. I have always focused on coaching the women's game and in many ways, I was considered myself an advocate of women's soccer and women in sport in general terms. However as I experienced different things in my work career, I start to see that maybe my coaching has bigger implications. It can be about helping student-athletes develop skills that will help them in their lives beyond sport ( accepting that I can't make them better, just give them the chance to develop these skills, the rest is up to them). I look back and realize that providing well structured, competitive and well rounded student-athlete experience is bigger than soccer, sports or winning and losing. It can be about empowering young women to strive to become successful in what area they chose to pursue as careers. It can be about fighting for exposure, investment and support that is equitable for women and what is provided for men, which in turn will only enhance the entire structure I am trying to put in place. It is about creating a group of women that can be role models for future generations of younger women, on and off the field, in sport and in life. It's me, a male doing what I can help to give women the place they deserve in society. I think one small part of this is getting women to be willing to take on coaching roles that are traditionally held by men. Even as a man, who has spent all his coaching career coaching women, I do think there is a place, and should be a place for women in coaching. It is why I have always wanted female assistants, hoping to prepare one to take over. While more recently, I have tried to convince graduating players with strong leadership skills to stick around and help me with the soccer program. Sports have the ability to teach life skills necessary for success after the final whistle of a player’s career sounds. n increase in female sports participation leads to an increase in women’s labor force participation, especially in previously male-dominated occupations. I did some research and studies show that over the past forty years there has been a steep decline in collegiate women coaches. There was a time when 90 percent of all women's teams had female coaches. Today, that number has been cut almost in half, with only 40 percent of women’s teams having a female coach. In comparison, females coach only two percent of men’s collegiate teams. With the growth of women's sports, there are more opportunities for women to get into coaching, however it also means that there are more coaching jobs period, more chances to make a living coaching, The expansion of female sports has given women the opportunity to be athletes and potentially to coach on a higher level, but these same coaching opportunities are also available to male coaches. The drought of female coaches starts before college ball. Female sports at the youth and high school level are coached predominately by males. This instills a belief in girls that male coaches are more qualified than female coaches, so they want, or prefer, a male coach. It has happened in the past when I ask something of the team which seems challenging or difficult and the players will respond with the traditional " you have to understand that its different for girls" . This comment usually gets the same response from me each time. I ask the players, ' What would you think if a boss told you, we can't pay you as much since it's different for women" or “ What would you think, if you went into a job interview at Microsoft and they said, “We only want to hire a guy?” It’s not a fair precedent to set.”The mentality of wanting a male coach is derived partly from the lack of exposure to female roles models and leaders in coaching positions. If young female athletes are not being exposed to same-sex role models, the likelihood of women pursuing a male dominated profession is going to decrease. Changing the paradigm held by young female athletes and empowering women to become coaches requires two things to happen. First, more experienced, credentialed women become involved the hiring process, and secondly, young female athletes need a greater awareness of women in coaching roles. The first step requires empowering and mentoring more women into positions of head coaches and athletic directors. The decline or lack of women's coaches is attributable to a few issues, that years ago, it wasn't considered a legitimate path for coaches to be involved in the female side, that it wasn't a viable financial option and in part it is also attributable to those making the hiring decisions, “Male athletic directors are hiring male head coaches, who are hiring male assistant coaches. This could be helped if more major programs hired female athletic directors who would bring in female head and assistant coaches”. Females should have more input in the hiring process and the program development. As more women establish higher profile athletic roles, young female athletes will have stronger coaching mentors who will instill an awareness of male-female parity of coaching skills. Interacting with and being exposed to female coaches will hopefully prompt young female athletes to view coaching as a possible career path. Research shows that having same-sex role models inspires others to pursue similar achievements and it’s been shown that female athletes who were coached by women are more likely to pursue a career in coaching4. The coach-athlete relationship builds a bridge of non-competitive rivalry for women to mentor and support each other. Retired or current players and coaches and younger generations of potential female coaches should have a means where they can connect and discuss the possibilities of viable coaching careers but also if doing it as a career isn't an option or of interest at least that they understand the impact coaching female sports can have on younger girls This exposure helps eradicate the belief that the coaching office is for men and connects young players with mentors who can help pave a path to a career beyond sport. I hope you have read this all the way to here.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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