This document discusses a study on whether boys and girls should be coached differently. The study found that both male and female athletes valued their coaches' personality the most as a positive attribute and disliked negative personalities. While females placed more emphasis on communication, positivity, and caring from coaches, and males valued winning more, the overall similarities between what both genders wanted from coaches were greater than the differences. The conclusion is that effective coaching depends more on individualizing to each athlete than coaching differently based solely on gender.

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Should boys & girls be coached the same
way?
Dr. Craig Stewart - Professor, Department of Health & Human Development, Montana State
University
o Introduction - Pupose of this Study
o Methodology
o Discussion
o Conclusions
Introduction
"Should I coach girls differently than boys?" That is a question often heard in the private
conversations between coaches. Coaching has survived a period in which that question,
regardless of its legitimacy, would have instigated ridicule. The mere implication that there might
be different methods for coaching the two genders was characterized as an assault on all
females.
But as the number of athletic opportunities for females increased, the louder the question has
become. It is not being asked to identify either gender as less competitive than the other, but by
dedicated coaches who sincerely desire to use the best methods to prepare female athletes.
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2. Purpose of this Study
The purpose of this study was to determine if gender differences existed in former athletes in
their perceptions of 'favorite and least favorite' coach characteristics. Former athletes have been
identified as valuable sources of information from which little information has been gathered
(Anshel, 1990). Smoll and Smith (1996) related athletes' memories and perceptions of coaching
behaviors to coaching effectiveness, and stated that the psychological impact of sport
participation on athletes could be examined by how players and former players remember their
coaches' behaviors. Kenow and Williams (1999) found that surprisingly little research has been
reported on the effects of coaching behaviors and its effectiveness. In their study, they found
players who perceived their coaches as being more compatible, evaluated their communication
ability and player-support levels of the coach more favorably. Conversely, if athletes disagreed
with the coach's goals, personality, and/or beliefs, some psychological needs of the athletes
were not met. That failure often resulted in frustration and a loss of self-concept by the player.
Therefore, it was hypothesized that if differences existed in how male and female athletes
remembered their favorite and least favorite coach, understanding those differences would
assist professionals in coach education in the preparation of future coaches. It would assist in
clarifying any differences between genders in how each valued specific coaching
characteristics, thus contributing to whether one should alter coaching behaviors dependent
upon the gender of the athletes. Conversely, if no differences were gleaned in this comparison,
that too, would provide valuable insight in coaching methods.
Holbrook & Barr, (1997) stated that while coaching females is not significantly different than
coaching males, gender differences occur in some psychological domains. They wrote that
there are differences in the manner women respond to positive feedback. Also, females seem to
value personal improvement over winning more than males, and regard team unity as a
stronger motivating factor than males. The authors were adamant, however, that these
differences have nothing to do with the female athletes' skill levels, desire and willingness to
work, capacity to learn, and mental toughness.
The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report on Physical Activity & Sport in
the Lives of Girls (1997) supported Holbrook and Barr that there are more similarities between
the genders than differences. However, the report identified specific areas of differences
requiring coach awareness. According to the report, 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. It is
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3. not that female athletes want to win any less, but may approach competition differently than
male athletes. In some competitive circumstances, female athletes place more emphasis on
sportspersonship and 'playing fair', than males. When their team loses, females have a
tendency to blame themselves first for the poor performance. Under similar circumstances,
males appear to be more 'self' or 'ego' oriented and tend to be more 'win at any cost' in their
approach to sport. Males are more apt to break rules to achieve their goals and blame others
(the referee, the weather, the coach) when they fail. The causes for the psychologically
differences are unknown. They could be gender related, but could also be highly influenced by
social or cultural expectations (Gill, 1994).
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.
Methodology
Students in two, college, coaching classes were asked to complete an in-class assignment. In
the assignment, they stated their gender, total number of years they had played organized
sport, their main sports, and the highest level they had played. They were then asked to list both
the positive qualities of their favorite coach and the negative qualities of their least favorite
coach (Stewart, 1993).
The descriptive statistics are presented in Tables 1 & 2. The coaching qualities were recorded
and categorized following the guidelines of Neuman (1997). The categorization process allowed
the author to quantify the final results as the percent of total responses, by gender, in each
area.
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4. 4

5. Discussion
The positive category, PERSONALITY, received the most references by both genders (males =
27.8% & females = 19.6%). Within this category were specific behaviors interpreted as being
related to a coach's personality (or that which made that coach a unique person)- assertive,
cooperative, determined, respected (& respectable), willing to help, dedicated, a quality person,
great personality, 'cool' under pressure, responsible, liked coaching, a role model, energetic,
and wanted to be there. Likewise, PERSONALITY also was the most frequent reference in the
negative responses (males = 32.1% & females = 24.5%). In addition to being the opposite of the
positive personality characteristics previously mentioned (unwilling to help, not a role model, not
a nice person, not focused, not personable, and a 'jerk' ) other negative behaviors which
represented personality were arrogant, disrespectful, indecisive, lazy, too much ego, too
relaxed, rude, thought he was God, unreliable, weak willed and irritating.
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6. Other positive categories for females which appeared most frequently were COMMUNICATION,
POSITIVE and CARED. For males, the next most frequent were CARED, MOTIVATION and
KNOWLEDGE. For males, COMMUNICATION (problems), TEACHING SKILLS (lack of), and
(playing) FAVORITES were the next most frequent responses in the negative category. For
females, NEGATIVE, TEACHING SKILLS, and COMMUNICATION were negative categories
mentioned most.
Though impossible to verify statistically, perhaps the best representations of similarities and
differences between the genders are presented in Tables 3a-4b. Tables 3a and 3b present the
frequency of positive responses in percentages of both female and male athletes. In Tables 4a
and 4b, the negative responses of the genders are presented.
In the positive responses, the greatest numerical differences between the genders occurred on
COMMUNICATION, EMOTION, and POSITIVE characteristics of coaches. The females
recorded those characteristics more than males. On the other hand, males recorded more
responses in positive coaching characteristics in WINNING.
The frequency of NEGATIVE coaching characteristics can be found in Tables 4a and 4b with an
apparent difference between genders in one area. Only in the category, NEGATIVE, does there
appear to be a visible difference between genders with females recording more responses than
males.
Conclusions
In the examination of gender differences in sport behavior, Gill (1994) stated that investigation
of these factors is more related to social and psychological characteristics than behaviors
directly associated with a specific gender. In addition, she wrote that behaviors and
characteristics are neither dichotomous nor biologically based, and the attempt to investigate
them is elusive at best. As the society changes in which athletes exist, so do the gender roles of
the athletes.
The results of this study appear to support that belief. There were more similarities in how males
and females remembered and characterized their favorite and least favorite coaches than
differences. Both genders valued 'personality' above any characteristic as a positive attribute.
While personality is a broad, general descriptor, it certainly provides future coaches with specific
behaviors that players remember. Athletes of both genders characterized their favorite coaches
as those who were assertive, cooperative, determined, respected (& respectable), willing to
help, dedicated, a quality person, great personality, 'cool' under pressure, responsible, liked
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7. coaching, a role model, energetic, and wanted to be there. The memories of those athletes can
provide future coaches with behavioral guidelines by which to develop their coaching styles.
Other positive characteristics which were similar between genders were CARED AND
COMMUNICATION. With both genders, these characteristics were remembered by coaching
behaviors such as cared for me as a person, cared away from the game, talked to me about
school, and asked me about things away from my sport.
In contrast, males valued KNOWLEDGE (of the sport) and TEACHING SKILLS more than
females. Females appeared to value EMOTION and POSITIVE characteristics of coaches more
than males. These findings appear to support the thesis that females tend to be more
internalized than males in some motivational aspects of sport. Females are apt to valued
performance improvements based upon positive interactions and self-comparisons, while males
base some motivational factors on externalized factors which would be impacted by a coach's
KNOWLEDGE of the sport and the ability to TEACH. However, females remembered the lack of
TEACHING SKILLS as a frequent negative characteristic just as male athletes had.
In the comparison of negative memories, the genders were even more similar than with positive
attributes of their former coaches. The only obvious differences were in NEGATIVE (more
frequently noted by females) and WINNING (more with males). However, those differences
were very small. These results seem to accentuate the similarities between the genders.
Certainly being remembered as 'favorite' or 'least favorite' coach is not, in itself, an absolute
measure of coaching effectiveness. However, since the subjects in this study were experienced
athletes with extensive backgrounds in traditional sports, their input should be valued in the
determination this area.
It has been stated that, in general, most coaches do not understand female athletes as well as
they should. That very likely remains true today. Sport clinicians and coach educators should
spend more time exploring gender differences among athletes and emphasizing working with
young female athletes more. Continued examination will assist coaches, and those who train
them, in working with all athletes effectively.
Finally, although qualitative data is difficult to analyze statistically, it does provide information
that is valuable to provide coaches with knowledge on how players perceived and remembered
their behaviors. This study represents but a small contribution to the determination of how best
to coach athletes of either gender. Additional work like this is needed to establish other areas of
similarities and differences.
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8. References
Anshel, M. (1990). Sport psychology; From theory to practice. Scottsdale, Az.; Holcomb Hathaway Publishing.
Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration. (1997). The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report on Physical Activity & Sport in
the Lives of Girls. Retrieved October, 1999 from World Wide Web: http://www.kls.coled.umn.edu/crgws/pcpfs/sxn1.html.
Garcia, C. (1994). Gender differences in young children's interactions when learning fundamental motor skills. Research
Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 66 (3), 247-255.
Gill, D.L. (1992). Gender and sport behavior. In T.S. Horn (Ed.), Advances in sport psychology (pp. 143-160).
Champaign, IL; Human Kinetics Publishers.
Gill, D.L. (1994). Psychological perspectives on women in sport and exercise. In D.M Costa and S.R. Guthrie (Ed.)
Women and sport: Interdisciplinary perpective (pp. 253-284).
Holbrook, J. E. & Barr, J. K. (1997). Contemporary coaching: Trends and issues.
Carmel, In.; Cooper Publishing Company
Kenow, Laura. (1999). Coach-athlete compatibility and athlete's perception of coaching behaviors. Journal of Sport
Behavior, 22, (2), 251-259.
Neuman, W.L (1997). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Boston, Ma.; Allyn & Bacon.
Smoll, F.L. & Smith, .E. (1996). Children and Youth in Sport: A Biopsychosocial Perspective. Madison, Wi.; Brown &
Benchmark Publishing.
Stewart, C. (1993). Coaching behaviors: "The way you were, or the way you wished you were". Physical Educator, 50 ,
23-30.
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