Does the gender of the coach matter in female sport?

1. Exploring female athletes
motives for participation:
Does the gender of the coach really matter?
Stefanie A. Latham, Ph.D.
Oklahoma City University
slatham@okcu.edu

2. Introduction
• Title IX and increasing numbers of female
athletes
• Only 41.4% of women’s teams (and less than
2% of men’s teams) were led by a female
head coach — the lowest level of
representation ever, down from more than
90% when Title IX was enacted. (Acosta &
Carpenter, 2009).

3. Percentage of Women's Teams Coached by
Females
100.0% 90% PLUS
90.0%
80.0%
70.0% 58%
60.0% 54%
47% 46% 44%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
1972 1978 1984 1990 2000 2002
Acosta & Carpenter, 2002

4. Increasing Female Sport
Participation Continues
Since 1975 there has been an 875%
increase in female high school athletic
participation
435% increase in college (including, all
4-year, post-high school, and 2-year
institutions)

5. Quote from latest research
data
• You know how girls can hate their female coach, but they
probably wouldn't ever hate their guy coach like they would
their girl coach? He could be as rude as hell and we'll be
like, "it's just his personality", but if it’s a girl coach we're
like, "Oh she has something against me or she hates
me"…Like male coaches can be really rude and mean and
we can get over it, but when female coaches are that
way, you pretty much just think they are [assholes], and
you can’t get over that… My AAU coach [who was male]
was kind of like my high school coach was, like I described
earlier, but everyone still thought he was a good coach.
But my female high school coach who had the same
personality, no one thought she was a good coach. They
both knew the game really well and knew the skills and stuff
and they both had kind of the same personality, but my guy
coach was still thought of as being a good coach, I guess
we just didn't take his crap so personally. (Michelle)

6. Problem
• Gender bias toward female
coaches?????
• Hiring practices of athletic
directors is well documented
• Athletes’ perceptions of their
coaches behaviors and
gender preferences for coach
not explored very well

7. True or False?
―Female coaches aren't winning
championships. This proves that male
coaches are better.‖
"Women are less intense. They aren't as
demanding of their players. They aren't
strong enough."
―Women turn other women off. It's easier
to take coaching from a man.‖
―You don't have to worry about the coach
being a lesbian when you have a male
coach.‖

8. Brief Review of the
Literature
• Williams and Parkhouse (1986)
• High school basketball players
• Asked to indicate their preference between
a hypothetical male or female coach who
was classified as either successful or
unsuccessful
• Overall, 89% of male athletes and 71% of
female athletes preferred a male coach
despite success rate….WHAT???
• Rated males as more knowledgeable, more
likely to achieve future success, more
desirable to play for, and having a greater
ability to motivate.

9. Lit Review
• Weinberg, Reveles, and Jackson (1994)
• examined both male and female basketball
players from JH, HS, and College
• Asked to indicate their attitudes and
feelings towards hypothetical male and
female coaches
• Both M & F exhibited more negative
attitudes towards female coaches than
male coaches
• ranked female coaches as superior in
coaching qualities of relating well to others
and understanding athletes' feelings (two

10. Lit Review
• Medwechuk and Crossman (1994)
• Male and Female Swimmers
preferred male coaches
• Both rated hypothetical male
coaches with better abilities to
motivate and more knowledgeable
than hypo female coaches
regardless success status (W/L
record)

11. Problem
• Old Data…
• Quantitative statistical analyses - Not
clear
• Used hypo scenarios only
• Specific Behaviors not identified
• Not very many sports (basketball mainly)
• Differences bt. Team and individual sports
not investigated
• No voice given to athletes

12. Some Hope
• CBQ, Martin and Barnes (1999)
• Demographic section = athlete’s
age, gender, race, educational
level, sport most played, years of
participation, and asks
preferences of the gender and
age of the coach
• Coaching behaviors section – 12
behavioral categories
• R&V missing and or still being
investigated

13. Coaching Behaviors
Questionnaire
• Coaching behaviors that occur in practice or games
• Reinforcement
• Non-reinforcement
• Mistake contingent encouragement
• Mistake contingent technical instruction
• Punishment
• Punitive technical instruction
• Ignoring mistakes
• Keeping control
• General technical instruction
• General encouragement
• Organization
• General communication

14. Little-Lit Review
• Individual Sport athletes prefer training
and instruction more than Team sport
athletes
• Males prefer more autocratic behavior
than females
• Females prefer democratic behaviors of
coaches –participative in decisions
pertaining to goals, methods, and
strategies, but not studied very
much…female voice is scarce.

15. Problem continues
• CBQ is new and hasn’t been used
much
• Kravig (2003) quant found female
athletes to prefer different coaching
behaviors than male athletes
particularly regarding general
encouragement and communication
and females didn’t like to be
punished
• Preference of gender of the coach
not indicated

16. Purpose
• The purpose of my present study is to mix both
research methodologies to:
• Quantitatively investigate preferred & actual
coaching behaviors preferences of collegiate
athletes AND whether coaching behaviors
differ as a function of the gender of the coach
• Sub-questions= type of sport
(coactive, interactive, mixed) & level of
collegiate play (JUCO, NAIA, NCAA I & II)
• Qualitatively obtain a first-person perspective
of the females athlete’s experiences of playing
for a male vs. female coach AND hear in the
words of the athletes themselves the preferred
coaching behaviors

17. Participants
• So far…. 298 collegiate female athletes -
Caucasian (n=168), African-American (n= 95)
Hispanic (n=22), Asian (n=13);18-25 years of
age (M = 20.7; s = 2.2); 164 NAIA; 134 NCAA
D2
• 60 Coactive sports - golf (n=37) and wrestling
(n=23) (yes we have female wrestling!!);
• 81 Mixed sports - softball (n=55), track and
field (n=36);
• 157 Interactive sports- basketball
(n=53), soccer (n=46), volleyball (n =58).

18. Instruments
• CBQ (R & V) and Interview Guide =
• What sport do you play
• When were you coached by a male and a female
• How many years were you coached by the male and
female coach
• Which coach did you prefer the most and why
• If you had daughters whom would you want them to be
coached by? Why?
• Differences/similarities bt. male and female coaches in:
• Training practices and evaluation of performance
• Encouragement/motivation
• Helping with personal problem and enjoyment
• Coaching methods
• Feedback after mistakes and correcting behaviors
• In general, what are your thoughts about males and females
coaching female athletes

19. Prelim Quant Results
• Means scores on the subscales of the
CBQ = DV, gender of coach and type of
sport = IVs
• 2 X 3 (Gender of coach X Sport Type)
MANOVA used to determine if differences
exist as of function of the gender of the
coach and sport type
• Alpha level .01 to decrease error
• Follow-up discriminant function analyses
and univariate ANOVAs used to id which
coaching behaviors maximized
differences among the groups

20. Quant Results
Actual
• MANOVA produced significant multivariate main
effect for the gender of the coach
• F(12, 260) = 4.62, p = .0001, eta 2 = .18
• Discriminant analyses reveal
• Punishment and Keeping Control were not
significant
• Female coaches were rated higher in
Reinforcement, Mistake contingent
Encouragement, General Encouragement and
General Communication….hummm
• Male coaches rated higher in Organization, Punitive
Technical Instruction, and MCT
Instruction…hummm

21. Quant results
Type of Sport Preferences
• MANOVA revealed a significant multivariate main
effect for type of sport
• Follow-ups analyses indicated that:
• Interactive sports preferred reinforcement,
punishment, mistake contingent
encouragement, general encouragement,
general communication, and ignoring mistakes
more than coactive and mixed sports
• Coactive sports preferred non-reinforcement,
mistake contingent technical instruction, and
GT Instruction more than interactive and mixed
• Mixed sports resembled interactive, but to
lesser extent

22. Qual Results
• 11 interviews so far…..
• All NAIA, 5 African-Americans, 4 Caucasian, 1
Asian
• Basketball (2), Soccer (1), Volleyball (1),
• Golf (2), Wrestling (1 who had actually had a
female coach….hummm),
• Softball (2), Track and Field (2).
• These have been transcribed: themes not
coded yet but discussion of possibilities are
on sticky notes everywhere!!!!!!

23. Interesting quotes
―He was much more together, he knew structure.
He knew exactly where we needed to be, what
time we needed to start‖
―My male coach would sit down before a game and
write down every possible thing the other team
could do to beat us; and then write down next to
it exactly what we could do to defend them‖
Referring to her male coach ―drills in practice
always had a purpose and were very organized‖
―expected more‖ ―no excuses‖

24. ―With my female coach, she had different stuff
everyday. We never knew what to expect out of
her mood and it would take her 10 minutes to
explain what we’re supposed to do in a drill and
then it wouldn’t work well…so we’d just look at
each other like…what the heck, she doesn’t
know what's going on‖
―She never kept score, or held us to a time limit.
We always knew we weren’t going to be really
disciplined and whatever rules were in place
didn’t apply to her favorites‖

25. • ―My female coaches, I always had more fun with
ya know, like they always knew how to relate to
us…but then again I think that made it harder to
swallow when she got on to us for stuff‖
• ―In general, girl coaches are gonna be better at
encouraging and motivating just because
females are more encouraging than males‖
• ―With my male coaches its all about the X's and
O’s. There was no bond. If something was
personally bothering me my female coach would
pick up on it and sympathize or at least ask
what's wrong. My male coach would just punish
us for lack of effort and didn’t care about our

26. Preference for the
Gender of the coach
• All interviewees prefer a male coach
overall
• More knowledge
• More challenging
• Demand more respect
• Possible themes
• Discipline and Structure
• Personal Relationships
• Passivity and Aggressiveness

27. Conclusions for now…
• Quantitatively just scratching the surface (more
balance in type of sport), level of collegiate play
not done yet
• Can/Will coaches learn to effectively integrate
and blend autocratic and democratic styles
despite their own preference?
• Are Coaches self-awareness of their
behaviors?
• Qualitatively – need more, need to hear more
from the athletes themselves
• Theme Development
• Triangulate data

28. Some Practical
Suggestions
• Have a positive coaching style
• Give constructive feedback
• Tell them when they do something right
• Yelling at them usually doesn’t
work…there is a continuum though
• Constant negative/punitive feedback
will cause them to tune you out!
• Be fair and consistent

29. • Ask them questions instead of
always pointing out their mistakes
(esp. team sports)
• Know their expectations early
• Ask them what motivates them
• Ask how they want to be coached

30. Using video tape as
feedback
• Know they are very critical of
themselves
• They know what they did wrong
(level)..again ask questions
• Only successful when used to point out
positives or team results
• Show them examples of excellent
performances instead

31. Encourage
• Praise them (notice them)
• Convince them of what they
CAN do
• Sell them on themselves
• Be the salesperson that helps
them perform up to their
potential

32. Let them have a SAY
• Ask their opinion
• Use their Feedback!!

33. Pressure Situations
• Don’t individualize pressure
• Put the pressure on the team not the
individual
• If she fails she let herself down, the
coach, the team…and she's devastated
• Others think you are showing
favoritism

34. Competition
• Females value effort, friendship, the
teamwork, individual improvement and
mutual gain
• Pitting them against teammates might
not work…discuss separating personal
feelings for teammates from
competition
• Teach them to compartmentalize their
lives and their feelings for teammates…

35. Practice
• They need to socialize before practice
• Let them talk and do social warm up drills
• Allow them to gossip during warm-up, stretching,
setting up
• Don’t take it that they aren’t focused
• Explain what you expect from them today
• Have incentives to inspire working hard and being
competitive
• They like and need competitive drills – don’t spend
countless hours in skills practice

36. Chart Results
• Verbally appreciate all roles
• Post performance charts that grade
effort, grades, heart, desire, honor roll,
nails and glue, not individual stats
• Discuss individual stats privately
• Post team stats

37. Teach them to Forget
• They blame themselves and get down
on themselves
• Coach should help raise self-esteem
and get her to forgive herself for poor
performance
• Coach should tell them why they are
pulled from a game, or why they aren't
getting PT
• Help them forget the negative by
focusing on what is + (or even past +