WCBB coaching issues from SI

[UcMiami]

In looking for the SI WCBB preview I stumbled on this article that got me thinking - they are basically saying that coaching problems in WCBB stand out when looking across genders and sports:
http://www.si.com/college-basketbal...aches-womens-basketball-illinois-matt-bollant

I have a few thoughts of my own:
1. The 'everybody gets a trophy theory' of kids sports may exacerbate this issue in all sports across genders - at some point winning, skill, and talent has to come into the equation, and for someone who has gotten lots of praise for participating but doesn't have what it takes to really succeed, that is going to come as a shock. The later in life that occurs, the more devastating it may be to the psyche.

2. Specific to gender the 'participation' aspect of sport has been a part of the majority of women's teams for a long time and it is only relatively recently that actual performance has become that important. And basketball is leading that change as the most visible and commercially viable of the women's team sports. With the transition from 'participation' to 'performance' it is not happening everywhere at the same rate so the chance for that shock of discovering 'your best is not good enough' is happening more often and mostly in the transition from HS to college - it happens academically all the time, bright kids who skated through unchallenging HS courses get to college and find out that real scholarship takes work they were not prepared to do. The same happens to athletically talented kids - ask Stewart if her HS effort was enough to get her through her freshman year! And she had a pretty good HS coach, a lot of these women starred on 'participation' teams in HS. As Geno says sarcastically - 'Thats Ok honey, we'll get them next time.'

3. There are still a number of athletic departments at the college level including in the major conferences that really don't care what their women's team records are -there are a number of coaches that muddle along in mediocrity with a job for as long as they want as long as they don't make waves. But salaries have boomed in WCBB and there are more and more places that want results for the money they are spending, and there are more programs that are transitioning from a 'participation' criterium to a 'performance' criterium. With that comes added pressure on coaches that may not handle it as well as one would hope.

4. Women's athletes really do have a different approach to team sports than their male counterparts - they are more invested in team than in individual as a generalization, so the dynamic of the team becomes more important. A male athlete is more likely to ignore a marginalized teammate being treated 'harshly' as long as they themselves are doing well.

5. I think coaching gender may play into this some as well. We are still not a completely enlightened society, and a percentage of the population still responds better to male authority figures than female ones and this is true across gender. Women's basketball has I suspect the highest percentage of female head coaches of any women's team sport (certainly the most pressurized), so there is likely some vestige of this gender issue at play. I don't see it as that big an influence, but when you are still talking about relatively small percentages of programs with issues, even a few additional problems can make numbers look more significant.

6. Not sure about this, but I think the majority of mistreatment issue to come to light in men's sports have been the result of 'outsiders' - that most of the male athletes didn't actually initiate things, but video of a coach punching a player on the sideline, or of a practice situation comes to light and initiates the investigation. Women seem to be more willing to speak up and not just accept mistreatment as part of a right of passage (or some other 'macho' explanation.)

 

[Millenial23]

Regarding points 1-2 somewhat, I've more or less grown up in the "everyone's special/unique" era, and am guilty of spreading it myself when I was a teenager working at Girl Scout camp, which gave out wacky awards - a different one for each girl - every week. A lot of you seem to think this is a problem (and I'm not denying or agreeing whether it is), so I'm curious to hear from other posters what alternatives/suggestions or even life experiences are about what to do instead of that. In other words, how do you still encourage kids to have fun, participate, do their best, but to not go so far that they falsely think they are, say, good enough to get into college on athletic scholarship (or any other example)? How do you be realistic with them without hurting feelings? How was growing up before this concept came around?

On another similar note, I think some of it might also be parenting... I remember when I played softball as a teenager, some of the parents were super serious about it! It's almost as if parents want to relive sports through their kids, and want their kid to be the star since maybe they themselves don't/can't play anymore. (I know it's natural to want your kids to succeed, just think some go a bit overboard.)

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Regarding points 1-2 somewhat, I've more or less grown up in the "everyone's special/unique" era, and am guilty of spreading it myself when I was a teenager working at Girl Scout camp, which gave out wacky awards - a different one for each girl - every week. A lot of you seem to think this is a problem (and I'm not denying or agreeing whether it is), so I'm curious to hear from other posters what alternatives/suggestions or even life experiences are about what to do instead of that. In other words, how do you still encourage kids to have fun, participate, do their best, but to not go so far that they falsely think they are, say, good enough to get into college on athletic scholarship (or any other example)? How do you be realistic with them without hurting feelings? How was growing up before this concept came around?

On another similar note, I think some of it might also be parenting... I remember when I played softball as a teenager, some of the parents were super serious about it! It's almost as if parents want to relive sports through their kids, and want their kid to be the star since maybe they themselves don't/can't play anymore. (I know it's natural to want your kids to succeed, just think some go a bit overboard.)

I think your key line is "be realistic with them without hurting feelings". Growing up in an earlier era involved plenty of hurt feelings and bruised egos at times. But then there were folks (especially parents or friends) that made you feel "ok" because you failed at something. If anything, I think there is more pressure on youth to succeed, in general more pressure by parents on the kids to succeed, and an acceptance of the 15th place trophy as a validation of success.

I'm no expert, my wife and I were not blessed with children. But - I have never lacked confidence in myself in spite of being, for example, a colossal failure at phys. ed in my school days and a bit picked-on by the tough kids in general (now days, I would probably be considered a nerd). I went to boy scout camp one year and I had a miserable time. So? Wasn't fatal. Set the record for fastest pinned in gym class wrestling - lived through it, and was trying again the next gym class. My parents recognized that some things were not my forte; my gym teacher senior year found a niche for me in class where I had some success, I had friends.

Maybe other folks can explain it better.

 

[UcMiami]

Millenial - Good questions that a lot of people are struggling to answer. I grew up in an earlier time when winners won and losers lost, and while I lost a lot, I never felt it was a blow to my self esteem. I succeeded at other things and generally I had a strong family environment and love. So maybe I was just lucky.
But I also feel that nothing in life is completely fair and balanced, and children recognize that from a very early age and have to learn to handle it - some kids have nicer clothes or the latest toys, and others have less. Some get to go out for meals or on trips, or have a nicer house, or a cooler family car, or ... Some are born average looking, some are ugly some are beautiful, some have great singing voices others are tone deaf. Some can throw a baseball, others can play a musical instrument, and still others can do complex math calculations in their head.
We have no problem with the idea that school work is graded, but for some reason we have taken athletic competition and decided it should not be graded. Why in this one area do we feel the need to reward participation and not effort and results? And in not being discriminating in requirements of skill, you are in some ways cheating those who can excel. And as adults you can create worse situations in the dynamic amongst the children themselves who do recognize what is going on.

 

[DaddyChoc]

I dont mind the "participation award" but the Champion's trophies will be big as heck along with some other perks (dinner, jackets, caps, picture in local paper etc.)... while everyone else would get a "I Participated in DaddyChoc Summer League Skiing Tournament" piece of paper.

I see no problem acknowledging those who took part in the activity with a souvenir... but the winners will be spoiled

 

[DobbsRover2]

Interesting SI piece. I wouldn't get hung up on the "everyone deserves a trophy" theories, as most people learn not to put much stock in little prizes. But "everyone deserves encouragement" is vital to sports, and is one that has helped fuel some amazing successes in my own running sport.

What was insightful was the part about the huge numbers on the rosters of some WCBB teams that help balance the gender equality load from the football teams, a sneaky practice that is also used by some schools that have minimal or no men's cross country teams but giant women's XC teams, though most members never really compete in any meets. While for XC the big women's squads are not really any issue for the athletes who use it as a social jogging squad, you can see how on a WCBB team with 17 or so members the situation could get nasty and claustrophobic, with huge amounts of effort going into very little reward. That could well lead to frustrated abusive coaches and frustrated bitter athletes. Geno has kept his squads small and has given a number of players a quick transfer avenue to find playing time if they get squeezed at UConn, but WCBB programs at football oriented schools are under a lot more pressure.

And there are probably dozens of more issues that lead to the WCBB athletes' high unhappiness level, including limited resources for their teams and the fact that often promises are made to snag an athlete and then the opportunities do not live up to expectations. Definitely a subject deserving a big fact-finding research investigation.