{"id":5905,"date":"2014-03-19T16:50:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T20:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5905"},"modified":"2014-03-26T14:15:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T18:15:52","slug":"coaching-should-recognize-differences-between-men-and-women-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/coaching-should-recognize-differences-between-men-and-women-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaching should recognize differences between men and women: expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coaching men and women in sport has its similarities, but differences need to be recognized and addressed. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the message Dr. Vicki Harber delivered to a packed room of many of Aurora\u2019s coaches.<\/p>\n

Dr. Harber, a professor of physical education and recreation at the University of Alberta, is a former Canadian Olympic rower and women\u2019s soccer coach. She has done extensive research on metabolic and hormonal responses to physical activity and dietary intake in women and has been spreading her knowledge and experience to coaches and athletes all over Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are huge benefits to girls and women being involved in sport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to a crowd of mostly male coaches, Dr. Harber went over details about how coaching female athletes can be different in terms of physical injuries, socially, and also in controlling the training environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach, know what you know and what you don\u2019t know. Don\u2019t pretend you know,\u201d she said, adding coaches have to be able to understand what girls and women might be going through.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour training atmosphere and climate is yours to be managed by you. I want to be able to instill some confidence in you that it can be done.\u201d
\nA main area of discussion with coaching females was how to avoid cliques and rejection among teammates.<\/p>\n

Sarah Gray, who coaches boys and girls archery, stopped by to hear whether her coaching strategies were appropriate for these very types of situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the girls\u2019 team, we have a magical wall of silence, as we like to call it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re allowed to talk on one side of the line on the floor and as soon as they cross it, they\u2019re quiet and they\u2019re focused on their performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of singling people out for talking too much, we just sort of say, \u2018go over there, that\u2019s the appropriate area for you guys to gossip and chatter\u2019. There is that sort of thing that goes on and we found that if you try to cut it out all together, it\u2019s just a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Gray also said it\u2019s more about learning how to coach different personalities than anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody should be able to coach everybody,\u201d she explained. \u201cI don\u2019t agree with this separate idea, because I think we\u2019re all individuals and there are certain men who will be able to work better with females and vice versa. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just\u2026looking at the athlete from the individual perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Harber explained there are key things coaches can do to help create a positive atmosphere for the athletes. Her key points were for coaches to develop social connections, acceptance, skill acquisition and act as role models.<\/p>\n

The majority of female athletes are coached by men, which Dr. Harber said makes it even more important for the coach to be in tune with issues and, at times, show signs of empathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they feel acceptance, you are going to get their best effort,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Brent Purdy, who coaches with Aurora Soccer Club, said he was eager to see what Dr. Harber had to say and pick up a few tips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like some of the things she said in terms of the social cohesion,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s really important for chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purdy also coaches school teams and said learning how to coach female athletes has been a big learning curve. He added, however, that it\u2019s important for coaches to understand the differences in coaching women.<\/p>\n

Aside from the social aspects, Dr. Harber also said it was important for team physicians to understand gender specific implications of health issues.
\nShe said girls and women are more susceptible to certain musculoskeletal injuries and various medical problems like ACL tears.<\/p>\n

A large part of her research has been to highlight ways to prevent injuries with appropriate training and nutritional intake.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coaching men and women in sport has its similarities, but differences need to be recognized and addressed. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the message Dr. Vicki Harber delivered to a packed room of many of Aurora\u2019s coaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1xf","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 11:07:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}