Coaching Girls – 4 Action Steps

Follow these four actions to foster a sport experience where every girl feels respected, included, and engaged.

Culture: Safe and Inclusive
It is a coaches’ responsibility to create and sustain a team culture where girls feel safe in the sport space. Do this by:

• Supporting Gender Related Challenges – consider gender-oriented challenges and advocate where needed (i.e. uniform colors and styles).
• Supporting the Spaces – ensure girls have a safe space – whether it’s equal field time or an area in the weight room where girls have priority.
• Using Inclusive Language – call players by their preferred names; avoid using “guys”.

Compete: Effort and Progress
Many girls come to our teams facing overwhelming amounts of stress in their lives. Building opportunities for safe, predictable stress can help build resilience. To do this, consider:

• Goals Motivate Girls – collaborate to set achievable goals with players on your team.
• Control the Controllables – focus on effort instead of results and identify progress made.
• Mistake Ritual – encourage girls to use a mistake ritual to mentally reset in the moment, but also learn from mistakes through reection.

Connection: Friends and Fun
The research is clear that connection with coaches and teammates is key to a positive experience for girls in sports. Develop connections using:

• Teambuilding – be intentional about bringing the team together early in the season through off the field activities, team-led conditioning, or teambuilding games.
• Girl Led Mentoring – use veteran athletes to mentor and connect with younger athletes.
• Winner’s Circle – bring the team together to give positive athlete to athlete feedback.

Collaboration: Voice and Choice
When girls have control over their experience, they feel more connected to their team. This is especially true for any girls who have experienced trauma. Provide opportunities to collaborate by:

• Giving Athletes Voice and Choice – give athletes the opportunity to voice their opinions about and/or
  choose certain activities, team mottos, etc.
• Talking Less, Listening More – start conversations with a question; listen to understand and not respond.
• Inviting Your Athletes’ Feedback – model to girls that their voices and opinions matter by encouraging them to speak up and provide feedback.