Imagine you are a top female athlete, every athlete around you is the best at what they do, but still, every person in a position of power is a man. This is the reality for the majority of female athletes of all levels, across the world. The people who control every part of your athletic career have no understanding of the nuances of being a woman or a female athlete. The coaches, trainers, and managers of an all-female team can all be male and this can happen on all levels, from town soccer to the national teams. To have the people who control your sport and livelihood be different from you can be quite alienating. Mental health plays such a large part in athletic performance that being and feeling alone can actually worsen the performance of these female athletes when there are no women in power around them.
Every female athlete deserves to have a female coach. Female athletes and especially young female athletes need the emotional and mental stability that female coaches can provide. There is a level of understanding of the physiology and things that young female athletes go through that isn’t common for male coaches to have. Although it is not necessary for all female athletes to have a female coach, it can have a tremendously positive effect on their athletic careers and other aspects of their life.
The director of the Tucker Center of Women and Girls in Sports and author of the book “Women in Sports Coaching,” Dr. Nicole Lavoi states an eye-opening point in her book.“One hundred percent of male athletes have had a male coaching role model during their athletic careers, to their benefit; young women likewise need and deserve more same-sex role models.” Having someone to look up to and aspire to be like is extremely important and can influence who you become and for many young people, their first role model is their coach. Female coaches also are able to promote ideas about women in leadership roles. When young women and girls are more used to seeing women in positions of power, including coaching positions, women and girls are more likely to be able to see themselves in that position as well. Having more young female athletes feel like they can hold powerful positions would improve some of the cultures around what jobs women hold.
In athletics, there is a culture of disordered eating, not focussed solely on female athletes, but it does have a large effect on them. “Up to 45% of female athletes, and 19% of male athletes, struggle with an eating disorder” according to Eating Disorder Hope. The mindset being if an athlete is lighter they will be faster, more focused, and overall a better athlete and this is just not true. The mental health and stability of athletes greatly affect their physical health and performance, so when dangerous eating habits and ideas are not stopped it can lead to more issues. These are often not recognized by male coaches, who do not understand the implications of these the same way that female coaches (especially ones who have formerly been female athletes and faced similar things) do. The Boston Latin Academy Track and Field Coach Laura Wiatt thinks that “Eating disorders can be [hard]. With guys and girls. And that I, I like to promote and be upfront with food is fuel, and our bodies need it. So I try to talk about it every day, I try to, you know, like, even when you guys are around me. So like, you know, I think it’s, the more you talk about things, you bring them into the open, you make people feel safe, and, hopefully, learn.” She then talks about what she does to model healthy eating habits for her athletes. When she is running with us she will be open about eating and drinking after her workouts. She describes how she will always bring food for us at meet and electrolyte packets. “But I’ve seen many people have difficulty with body image and food, food issues that I just think that continuing to make it a safe space to talk about and really show you guys that eating is important and that eating less is not going to help you.” As a female athlete and a young woman in general there is a lot of pressure to uphold current beauty standards, many of which revolve around weight and those stressors can feel more present when as an athlete you spend your time being judged by how fast or well you can do something. And as you are being judged, you are in skin-tight sports clothing, which causes those emotions about the sport to become intertwined with who you are as a person.
Although some people and coaches may say that all coaches can achieve a certain level of understanding with education, that just further proves the point, most coaching positions for high school athletes do not require any training besides concussion information. Wiatt shared “As far as I know, there isn’t a basic training course for coaching at this level beyond the concussion protocol.” There is an understanding of periods, female anatomy, and female physiology that female coaches have from personal experience which makes them not have to do more work to understand. Many male coaches do put in the effort to understand what is different about female athletes’ physiology, and that makes them good coaches, but the male coaches who feel too uncomfortable about topics like periods, hormonal shifts, and other things that affect female athletes are far too common. Diogo Custodio, a British triathlon coach wrote in a blog post, “Perhaps some men are uncomfortable discussing these matters. Still, it is fundamental for a good coach working with female athletes to understand how physiology differs and affects their performance. This can be different from person to person. In fact, we would go as far as saying that if you can’t have that conversation, you shouldn’t be coaching female athletes.” It is not that female coaches cannot benefit from male coaches, it is that male coaches need to make it so that their coaching is benefitting their female athletes and that requires effort and sometimes uncomfortable conversations. If that is able to happen, great things can happen, but too frequently in athletics male coaches don’t make that effort.
With the support of a female coach, female athletes will become mentally stronger, and the coach’s understanding of physiology can make them hit new athletic heights. The benefits of seeing someone who shares key identity factors in a position of power can be To be a female athlete and have a female coach, who provides all of those things for you is a rare occurrence but is one that female athletes deserve to experience.
Boston Calling 23 standout performers
