When I started coaching my first women's team, I had previously coached high school boys, senior men and men's national league sides and the team I was taking over had won only one game the previous season and finished bottom of the league but contained some talented young players. The first meeting I had with that team, I had prepared a presentation outlining where I wanted to take the team over the next 3 years, culminating in winning the National Knockout Cup and winning the Northern Premier League (both apparently ridiculous goals to achieve?). In that same presentation, I informed the team that I would be coaching them as a football team, not a women's football team, something which I thought the players would appreciate and thrive on. Over the next three seasons, my approach to coaching the side changed dramatically. In fact after about a week my approach changed and although I still coached the side with high expectations and demands, my approach to achieving that changed dramatically. In the third season, we did win the National Knockout Cup and we finished second in the league but we had also produced 3 Senior NZ Internationals and 4 further age group Internationals and I had produced close working relationships with a number of players and parents of players which culminated in quite an emotional (for me) leaving party before I joined Adelaide United and FFSA.
What I hadn't realised during my early days coaching that side was that after my first meeting, a number of the players were 'scared' of my vow to coach them as I had coached the men before. Many of them knew boys I had coached and some had seen me coaching the men's National League side and they expected me to be; 'harsh, shout a lot and to be mean'. These players who I grew to admire and respect and who worked so hard for me had after that first meeting, 'given me a week' to see what I was like and if I was going to be mean and shout a lot etc. they would leave the club. Fortunately for me I wasn't mean and didn't shout a lot, so they gave me a bit longer than a week. (I only found this 'nugget' of information out about a year later, once the players had got to know me, trust me and were willing to share that piece of information).
So does this mean you have to be soft and nice to coach women's football? Well I can assure you I am certainly not soft on my teams and nice, well as my dad would say, "Nice is a biscuit" (sorry English joke). In fact I would say by the time I left Claudelands in New Zealand, I was being just as tough on the girls as I had been on any of my male sides that I coached but it was just done in a different way! The expectations and demands need to be just as high on female footballers but the way you go about achieving them need to be different!
Mia Hamm, one of the greatest ever female footballers, when asked how she wanted herself and her teammates to be coached, replied,
"Coach us like men, treat us like women."
Mia Hamm
"Don't think that we, as women, can't compete at the same level of intensity as men do. And don't think that we, as women, can't train at the highest level of fitness as men do. We can, and we want to. We don't want to be coached differently and we don't need to be coached differently. So coach us as you would coach the most elite men's team. And at the same time, treat us like women, which means don't be in our faces, don't be confrontational. Challenge us, but do it in a humanistic way"
Tony DiCicco
So why am I writing this now? Well for a number of reasons really; firstly, I am still learning and I think as a coach, the day you think you have no more to learn, is the day you are finished! I still make mistakes and I made a mistake at training last night, I was overly critical of a player and it affected her performance. I hopefully have put that right now by reinforcing some of the good work she did in the training session and by providing individual feedback to that player. Secondly, I have had a number of players and parents contact me lately with issues about their playing this season. A number of both senior and junior players or their parents have contacted me and said that they are considering moving clubs or even just not playing this season because of issues at their club and with their coaches. The comments I have heard include; '.. my coach picks on me at training', he says things like 'is that what they teach you there' or 'he just shouts at me, tells me I am no good but doesn't tell me what I am doing wrong or how to do it better' and '... I am not going back to **** to get shouted at and told to run laps'.
In a recent survey completed by over 250 female football players in South Australia, around 70% said they stayed at or went to a club because of the atmosphere at the club and over 60% said they made their decision because of the quality of coaching at the club. The comments that I am hearing about coaches picking on players or shouting at them to run laps do not promote or lead to a positive atmosphere and do not constitute good coaching! They may work in the men's game but they DO NOT work in the women's game!
The sooner clubs and coaches start to take some responsibility for their own actions and strive to improve and promote a positive culture, the sooner the women's game in SA will start to grow and develop.
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