The Life of a Varsity Girls Basketball Intern: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, BUT, some Women are from Mars, Part II

Different Audiences

Knowing your audience definitely helps, but sometimes, audiences are composed of members with different preferences and personalities that cannot be lumped into one box or formula!

Yes, there is some general truth to the statement, Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus, asserting that men and women are different, but sometimes, some of the girls I coach seem to be from MARS!

Recall the scenario in Part I, with the basketball player missing a wide open lay-up, where I broke down how I would generally handle the situation with a guy vs. a girl. I said that I would normally criticize a guy for his mistake, while encouraging a girl...Trying to apply that formula to each girl backfired once or twice.

Some of our varsity girls' respond differently! For example, one time, one of our forwards missed a lay-up, and I began clapping, saying "It's ok, you'll get it next time." She did not get pissed, but nicely told me to basically "stop B.S.-ing her." She told me that if she screws up, she wants to know it because it motivates her to play better when a coach criticizes her for mistakes.

I took her advice, and given my edgy sense of humor, have found creative ways to apply criticism to her. For example, after she shot the ball, and it was an "air-ball," hitting nothing and going out of bounds, I "encouraged" her, stating, "WOW! That was an NBA-caliber shot!"

For those who don't know what the acronym stands for besides "National Basketball Association," it also means "Nothing But Air."

Conclusions

From my observations of Coach Hamilton and my experiences, I have found that getting to know your players is one of the most important aspects of becoming an effective coach. Knowing your players can help you better understand them and treat them differently in different situations.

But, most importantly, I have learned that in coaching girls, as a coach, where I would normally criticize a guy several times for the same bone-headed mistakes until my corrections were entrenched in his brain, with most girls, sometimes, you just have to let it go and let them figure it out themselves.