Thoughts on Coaching Girls - 2

February 11th, 2008

Spike’s piece, quoted in part here, was written for a regular RFU technical coaching bulletin, to which the Director of Rugby Coaching at Stanford University in the USA subscribes. He responded via the RFU. The USA has by far the largest number of women rugby players in the world.

Here are Jonathan Griffin’s comments in full:

* Men are most definitely from Mars and Women most definitely from Venus, not any more so then when on a practice field. They must be coached differently; where language is used differently; pitch of voice is different; dynamic of the drills/activities/games are different; emphasis on teaching points are different. This is simply because women’s and men’s motivation to play is generally very different.
* I believe that every coach should have a copy of the following book. ‘Gender and Competition: How men and women approach work and play differently’ written by Kathleen J. Deboer (see Amazon, cost: US$14). I have found the following diagram from the book very useful as a summary of how to approach the coaching of the two sexes.

Women: accepted–> train –> compete
Men: train –> compete –> accepted

Gary Street (England HC [Head Coach]), Kathy Flores (Eagles HC), Franck Boivert (ex-Women’s World XV Coach) and Daryl Suasua (ex-Black Ferns Coach) are four excellent examples of high quality coaches working within the women’s game. The women’s game with its current global boom is calling out for the highest quality of coaching. I believe it starts at understanding the underlying motivations of why women play the game. Without this understanding we will never be able to coach the technical or tactical aspects of the game to the team and the experience will be one of frustration and unfulfilled potential by all parties.

I would like to add that coaching women is a real pleasure. As outlined already, women adore their team, want their peers to be good at what they do, support their peers and ask questions because they have a deep seated desire to learn and understand. They will work on aspects of their game that is required to make the team better. It is worth noting that these qualities can also be hindrances to individual and team improvements, and as such the need to set high standards with women is critical. Encouraging them to ‘smash the self imposed glass ceiling’ of what they perceive is the limit to how good they, as individuals and as a team, could be is a critical motivating factor to the success of coaching female rugby players.

Weighting up the pro’s and con’s I believe working with women has made me a better ‘coach’ and I would encourage all coaches to give it a try. You will immediately gain a greater understanding of you strengths and weakness as a ‘coach’.

Thanks
Griff

—
Jonathan Griffin
Stanford Rugby - Director of Coaching

Update: By subsequent email, Griff suggested that:

the less elite the girls, and / or less experienced, the more literal the points outlined. You find that elite women such as Charlotte Barras are motivated very similarly to that of male players. But critically not the same as male players!

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