Difference between coaching boys and girls – part two
We’ll skip the intro here. If you want that explanation, see this post . Let’s get right to it.
Yesterday I was using a blackboard to create a list of factors that can affect a play. I didn’t have chalk at first so I’d written the list on a piece of paper as the team called out different answers. Then when the chalk got there (thank you Pat Foley for finding it) I tried to quickly transfer the answers to the board.
As you might expect, most of the handwriting was pretty sloppy and hasty. But then, I continued to write, one of the girls said, “Look at that. It’s a perfect U.” I looked up and sure enough it was. Several of them commented on the high quality of the U, a brief discussion ensued, and all I could do was smile and shake my head.
Only girls would notice something like that.
Incidentally, they also could not get over how much my hastily scribbled “g”s looked like “s”s. Oh well. At least they liked the U.
Posted on December 20, 2010, in Coaching, General Thoughts. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 
From coaching girls…Participated in a White Santa gift exchange Christmas. I ended up with a tarzan looking vest. So for fun I put it on. Faster than Stephanie can pitch, she took a picture, uploaded it to her facebook, and texted EVERY softball player contact she had. Yes, I have have had quite a few comments from them.
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Rick, that sounds like fun! You’ll have to send or show me that photo too. It’s funny what girls find interesting. They like to know you’re a real person. I doubt a boy would’ve taken the photo, much less passed it along to everyone he knew via Facebook.
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Things I have picked up here and there. You get buy in from boys when they respect you. You get buy in from girls when they believe you care about them. Boys can hate each other and play well together on a team. Girls not so much.Chew out a boy in front of the rest of the team and his buddies are laughing and razzing him about it later. Girls will close ranks around the team mate that got chewed out and you will be on the outside wondering how you became a jerk.
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Mark, you are so right on that score. I have found the exact same things. Especially the last two. And girls can hate each other for all kinds of reasons that boys would never fathom. I once had half a team not talking to the other half on the morning of a tournament because one player room had more pillows than the other one and wouldn’t share, or something like that. That was the end of player rooms at tournaments for me. This past summer I couldn’t make it to one of our team’s tournaments, and another guy filled in for me. He made a comment to a girl about not running out a popup, but apparently did it harshly. What you said happened exactly – the girls closed ranks around the girl and it was a rough weekend. Coaching girls is like handling nitroglycerin — very powerful, but you better know what you’re doing or it can blow up in your face quickly.
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