Coach/Athlete Relationship

 

Females face many struggles foreign to male coaches. Male coaches often need to learn how to communicate with their female athletes. Often when coaches criticize female athletes, females stereotypically will take the criticism as if it was aimed directly at something they did. This can cause feelings of doubt and overthinking actions in an effort to correct the criticism that may not ever have been aimed at themself. When coaches criticize male athletes, however, males assume that the criticism was meant for someone else. To prevent the female reaction, coaches can make sure to clearly communicate what they want when they criticize an athlete and should give praise to motivate athletes. Coaches who are negative and critical often do not connect well with female athletes. To prevent the male reaction coaches need to specifically pick out athletes that they are criticizing and talk to them. Daring male athletes also tends to motivate them. 

 

One major struggle that is unique to females is the menstrual cycle. Females often feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in bringing up the topic of their menstrual cycle. This is unacceptable because coaches need to understand the menstrual cycle to monitor for signs of amenorrhea, ensure that their athletes are getting the right nutrition, and adjust training to best fit their energy and hormone levels. Top athletes track their cycle to understand what nutrients they lack at certain intervals, at what point in their cycle they perform the best, and when they should do certain types of training to reap the maximum benefits. By having education about the menstrual cycle coaches can then educate their athletes and disillusion them about the myths around the menstrual cycle and athletics. Coaches of younger athletes need this information to be able to help girls who are not explicitly educated about menstruation, talk to parents, and understand the symptoms and effect on athletic performance. 

 

Females can talk to their coach about this subject by being straight forward. They can ask for a private meeting to talk about it rather than doing it in front of their teammates

 

Coaches can approach this subject by not making their athletes feel like menstruation should be kept secret and is shameful. Instead, they should be open about it 

 

If you have a problem with your coach you should first listen to what he or she is saying to you and try to figure out if you have the problem or they do. Before you go talk to them make sure that you do not have a temper. When you have a problem don’t gossip but rather go directly to him or her. If it is a major situation you may need to take a parent or a person of trust with you. In extreme situations, you may have to go the people above your coach rather than directly to him or her. 

 

Many females have to deal with objectification. In athletics, it is no different. The media, coaches, teammates, fans, etc., are all guilty of objectifying women. Objectification is the act of degrading someone to the status of a mere object. In many women's sports the focus is not on their athletic accomplishments or performance but on their image. How an athlete appears has very little to do with their performance. A woman may not fit the traditional body type of an athlete in their sport but that does not determine their performance. If all women tried to fit the same body expected in their sport then most would be unhealthy mentally, emotionally, and physically. 

 

Coaches can deal with this by not making comments on a female athlete’s body that have no correlation to their performance. By not placing focus on how someone looks in the first place then objectification can be avoided. 

 

Female athletes have dealt with objectification by creating platforms that highlight women’s accomplishments in sports and personally speaking out about their feelings on the issue. 

 

Teammate or Competitor Relationship

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Female relationships are difficult especially in a competitive environment. When you have relationships amongst the competition there are a few guidelines to keep in mind. ​​