Have you coached both boys and girls?

Yes, I've coached both. Big difference. With girls there is so, so much more repetition. The game must be broken down because many just don't know any of the basic concepts of the game.

With boys many times you can discuss and implement more stragety and honing of skills, with girls you have to keep it very basic. In general, boys will play pick up games and free play between practices or games. With girls, they usually don't practice any on their own. You have to call team practices for the girls to work on their games, and it shows.

Sorry Brooke, don't agree. I live in a small community and we rarely, if ever have cuts for any of our athletic programs. Girls (and some boys) simply do not want to commit to the rigors of being a full time athlete. If they would go out, they'd play all the time so it has nothing to do with playing time. This is one of the falacies in Title IX. There just simply aren't enough women who want to participate in college athletics to mandate equality. It has backfired and hurt many men's programs, which wasn't the intent.

I read thes posts and the last two are interesting. I coach girls track and field and I have also played basketball. In the city where I coach we have lots of kids wanting to play but once you start to cut the girls (this is 8-12 grade) we see they start to drift off. The DO want to be part of the group until college and then yeah--it is a struggle to get enough girls to go out. Their interests do change and the sport sthey want to play changge too.

I am the president of a relatively small playing circuit and we have less teams in the boys older age divisions than in the girls consistently year after year. A big part of this is because of the demographics and economic backgrounds of the families in our area. Culture has a huge impact on what girls do and that can include our national culture as well as our local cultures. Let's face it our US Women's National team has a whole lot more success than our Men's. The challenge is to weed out the coaches that do not recognize the vast differences in approach to the female athlete versus the male athlete. Because girls don't need any help feeling bad about themselves these days. So as soon as a coach makes a girl feel bad she is GONE!

Boys think...'ball' and 'goal'. I have found that it is harder to get an exceptionally skilled male athlete to be a team player than it is an exceptionally skilled female athlete. Girls think..."okay, I know it goes in the goal but what are all the ways that I can get it there and how do I know when to use the different ways and how will everyone feel each way that I use". The first blog made it sound a little like girls are stupid. Although, I realize that wasn't the intent.

You need to valid that women are wired to analyze (like I am doing now:)). Knowing that, you can be very affective in teaching girls in layers. Giving them the language first. My daughter's coach gets caught in this all the time...he gives them an instruction using jargon that they don't understand...then he gets frustrated because they aren't 'getting it'. Boys have the main tool that helps them be successful built in...testastrone. As long as what you are telling them to put the ball in the net...they are going to get it. Girls need you to give them a base so they can use their analytical tools. Girls' teams need layered goals that are validated and recognized. This will push them to their full potential.

If more coaches (both male and female) realized the valuable tools that each gender has and how to help the athlete use those tools for success, we would see our level of competition naturally raise a few notches and hear more success stories of how sports taught our student-athletes what many are missing...how to be responsible and valuable citizens.