For some time, I’ve been a little sceptical when I see coaches from the men’s game cross over into the women’s game.
Sure, I want everyone to succeed and thrive in their respective environment. You have the successful coaches, Mick Bohan and Ephie Fitzgerald; the so-cringe-you-can’t-help-but-watch in Phil Neville; and the absolute disaster of coaches you see in the National Women’s Soccer League.
It felt like a win-win when Davy Fitzgerald was appointed as Cork camogie coach. Davy could take a step back while letting a manager manage and still be part of the squad.
There also was the idea that Fitzgerald’s spotlight could end up bringing camogie on in terms of promotion and marketing and new eyes to see whether the Clare man would fail.
Camogie found itself in the headlines for the wrong reasons as Fitzgerald and Clare joint-manager Conor Dolan were both sent off. This was Cork’s first outing and, annoyingly, the attention wasn’t really on the game, more the drama and craziness Fitzgerald brings.
The question that kept popping up in my mind during the announcement of Matthew Twomey’s team, the game itself over the weekend, and after the game is about coaches from the men’s game coming over to the women’s game.
Sinead Kissane wrote an incredible piece about the differences between coaching men and women. What really stood out was how taken aback each coach was with how their training regimens and style had to slightly change for a new audience.
We know women and men are 99 per cent identical make-up in theory, but that 1 per cent can control and change every cell in the body, from how we react to how we register sensations like pleasure and pain and thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts’s study about the six main differences in the brain highlight just how different men and women are.
For example, the female brain has a higher sensitivity to stress and conflict. Women also use different areas of the brain to solve problems, process language or experience and store strong emotions. On the other hand, men have larger processors in the more “primitive” areas of the brain that register fear and trigger aggression compared to women.
So, what does this mean from a coaching perspective?
In a study conducted by Dr Donna de Haan and presented to World Rowing, many coaches suggest that men are happy to do what they’re told, while women tend to ask more questions and are curious to learn the what, the how and the why.
The study also reveals that when certain coaches were questioned by women, who genuinely were just looking for the plan to be clearer, the coaches tended to think it was to challenge or question their integrity.
Coaches have to be adaptable, willing to learn and embrace the journey and identify different ways to stimulate and challenge female athletes without using the same template from the men’s game. According to so many crossover coaches, it’s the only way to thrive.
Biggest issue
Of course, when it comes to training female athletes, the biggest issue is female physiology and how a woman’s body works. Dr Stacy Sims has explained to various people within sport that women are not small men.
Every study looking at physiology, psychology, or coaching a team is usually based around a men’s team. The theories discovered in these studies would be applied to women’s teams without any actual evidence that it works.
With research finally catching up to the fact that women exist and participate in sport, it’s great to see these barriers finally broken down. It’s also great to see the vast majority of coaches who cross over tend to do it now for valid reasons rather than to build a platform to propel themselves back into the men’s game.
It will take some time for equality to exist between men and women in coaching so, until then, women’s teams and athletes have to make do with what’s already there. I’m sure 99.9 per cent of women in sport have great respect and bond with their coach and vice versa.
So, while everyone simmers down from the weekend of camogie that we witnessed, and while everyone accepts that two grown men shouldn’t be the headlines in the women’s game, the hope is that Davy Fitzgerald, along with other male coaches, can not only grow the game and develop their current team but also embellish their coaching style and bring new ideas to the table and refresh what’s already on the panel.
I hope it’s a success, Matthew Twomey is a very capable manager who has served his apprenticeship. Let’s just hope the camogie will make the headlines for the right reasons, and people will understand that women are not little men.
