I think it's a great point about the research not being kept behind the walls of academia, but I also think that it needs to be talked about in language that is none academic so that good conversations can take place. My second thought is that more conversations need to happen around the groups of people who are displaying the bias towards female coaches as I know, from experience, it's not always men. My Daughter plays hockey and has a male and female coach, and they both coach on different aspects of the game, but the girls react differently to the male than they do the female. It's only subtle differences, but there are differences in how they listen, respond and behave around the two coaches. You know Hols and you know how open she can be when we have conversations around this stuff and she has said that when the team practice (I don't stand on the side lines when my kids train because they don't need to hear me or parents, they need to hear the coach) other parents have been heard saying things like "Ooh, coach 'x' is being a bit bossy tonight". I've asked her why coach'x' was being bossy and she tells me that she wasn't being bossy but she had to shout to get the girls to stop talking and listen. There are so many things we could pick apart from that small comment such as :
Parents not supporting a female coach
Young girls behaving differently for the female coach
Female coaches actions being interpreted differently
Parents not correcting behavior directed towards female coaches
but, fundamentally I think the bias is not just from men and that sometimes concerns me more. I could chat to you for ages about this so I've save it for training next week :-)
I see the experiences Jess has encountered which of course frustrate me. They also appear to undermine coaching as a craft with its own skill set. The idea that being a man makes you a better coach? The idea that having played international sport makes you a coach? I’m struggling for an analogy but of the latter I would say, assuming you’ve done anything at a high level makes you able to coach, teach, direct is just wrong. To the best of my knowledge Steven Spielberg was never a great actor!
I think it's a great point about the research not being kept behind the walls of academia, but I also think that it needs to be talked about in language that is none academic so that good conversations can take place. My second thought is that more conversations need to happen around the groups of people who are displaying the bias towards female coaches as I know, from experience, it's not always men. My Daughter plays hockey and has a male and female coach, and they both coach on different aspects of the game, but the girls react differently to the male than they do the female. It's only subtle differences, but there are differences in how they listen, respond and behave around the two coaches. You know Hols and you know how open she can be when we have conversations around this stuff and she has said that when the team practice (I don't stand on the side lines when my kids train because they don't need to hear me or parents, they need to hear the coach) other parents have been heard saying things like "Ooh, coach 'x' is being a bit bossy tonight". I've asked her why coach'x' was being bossy and she tells me that she wasn't being bossy but she had to shout to get the girls to stop talking and listen. There are so many things we could pick apart from that small comment such as :
Parents not supporting a female coach
Young girls behaving differently for the female coach
Female coaches actions being interpreted differently
Parents not correcting behavior directed towards female coaches
but, fundamentally I think the bias is not just from men and that sometimes concerns me more. I could chat to you for ages about this so I've save it for training next week :-)
Great writing 👏
I see the experiences Jess has encountered which of course frustrate me. They also appear to undermine coaching as a craft with its own skill set. The idea that being a man makes you a better coach? The idea that having played international sport makes you a coach? I’m struggling for an analogy but of the latter I would say, assuming you’ve done anything at a high level makes you able to coach, teach, direct is just wrong. To the best of my knowledge Steven Spielberg was never a great actor!