Women's Football Coaching: Vicki Linton on Gender and High Performance
When I was 6, friends in my street were joining the local soccer team, so I went home and asked Mum if I could too. I was the only girl playing in the junior club and across the whole league. Credit t
[TITLE]WOMEN’S SOCCER IS KICKING GOALS
By Vicki Linton
When I was 6, friends in my street were joining the local soccer team, so I went home and asked Mum if I could too. I was the only girl playing in the junior club and across the whole league. Credit to Mum that she didn’t blink an eyelid and just signed me up and took me every week to training and games!
My Dad was English and an Arsenal fan and I remember him waking me up in the middle of the night to watch FA Cup finals. I think his passion for the game rubbed off on me, and when I was a bit older he coached my team for a couple of years.
When I was about 16, my state team coach, John Pentecost, planted the idea of coaching in me by suggesting that I would make a good coach one day. Perhaps he saw something in me, or it may have been a throwaway line to him, but to me it was significant. He coached me for two years and was a fatherly figure to the team with a serious, measured approach.
[H2]COACHING INFLUENCES
In 1995 at the age of 19, I went to the US to play college soccer, and my coach, Jim Rudy, was also a big influence on my coaching style. At that time, the US Women’s National team was dominating the world, and their head coach, Anson Dorrance, was very impressive. The Americans had a very competitive mentality and Anson had enabled that by creating what he called the ‘competitive cauldron’ – a training environment that almost gave women ‘permission’ to be competitive, and is credited as the basis for the unparalleled success of his teams. In the US, soccer is almost a women-first sport, so there are a lot of jobs and opportunities, but it is also very demanding. They’re used to being trained hard and working hard, as it’s a very competitive environment.
He was and still is the Head Coach at the University of North Carolina – a team that has won 21 National Championships and produced about 75% of players for the US National team. When I was coaching in the US in 2013-14, I was lucky enough to meet him and spend a couple of weeks with him and his program. It is great to see that even now in his 60’s, he still has a growth mindset, always wanting to improve. He explains this to his players as the ‘never-ending ascension’, meaning you can always improve.
Anissa Tann, the Australian captain at the time, was also one of my coaches and unofficially mentored me. I started my coaching courses while still playing and began coaching junior elite training programs under Football NSW. These programs sat underneath the state team programs at the time.
In 1997, I had suffered a groin injury which developed into back problems, so by the end of 1999, I retired and turned immediately to coaching. I became Anissa’s assistant coach for a state team, and helped with the NSW Academy program and the NSW Sapphires (the old women’s national league).
Anissa’s style is very unique. She was one of the leading players in Australia at the time, so had a different style of coaching relationship to John. She was very demanding and driven, and coached more by demonstration. Obviously, she had a lot of respect as well, given her playing experience, and we had learned a lot from playing and training with her. Overall, Anissa did a lot for women’s football in Australia.
[H2] EUROPE LEADS THE WAY
In 2003 I went to the UK for a women’s development role for the FA, which had both admin and coaching aspects. I had been doing school holiday coaching clinics for Paul Wade, former Socceroos captain, and met an English coach who gave me a recommendation. The UK had a very different culture and at the time, they didn’t think much of Australian football. And despite trying to improve it, they didn’t think too much of women in football either! So it It was quite a challenging role and it made me realise how different Australians think and how much we value our freedoms and egalitarian culture.
The England FA were starting to do a lot of good things in football development, which is reflected in their results now, with their women’s team 4th in the world, and just recently getting a crowd of 24,000 to a women’s FA Cup Final. They’ve put in a lot of hard work and done a great job. They’re also lucky to have a lot of government grants and Lottery funding to do what they’re doing.
In the last 10-15 years, the traditional football countries, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain and the Netherlands have put a lot of emphasis on women’s football. Germany has a large number of licensed female coaches who are mentored ex-players brought through their system. Their national league is now arguably the best in the world and France have two of the richest women’s teams in the world.
[H2] THE MATILDAS
From the UK I went to coach in Boston, USA, before returning to Australia to coach at club level and Sydney Grammar School. I completed my Master of Education (Coach Education) which helped prepare me for my role as the first NTC coach in Tasmania. From there I took a role in Victoria as well as Head Coach of Melbourne Victory W-League team.
I have now been working with the Matildas (Australian national team) as the assistant coach for the last 18 months. The national team is a different challenge to working with a day-in-day-out program. We had great preparation into the World Cup last year, training nearly full-time for 5 months. It’s also what we’re doing now in the lead up to the Rio Olympics. The Australian women’s team haven’t competed in the Olympics for 12 years and this will be my first Olympic Games.
There are now serious numbers interested in women’s football across the world, and we need to be able to market that and create corporate opportunities to advance the sport further. In Australia, what I see at the moment, is a groundswell of interest and support for the Matildas. It is phenomenal. Even the support for women sport overall is fantastic. There’s still gaps to be addressed and these are in the process of being addressed, but we’ve come a long way in that time.
[H2] MALE VS FEMALE TEAMS
Generally, it doesn’t matter whether the team is male or female, you just go and coach but there are some differences. For instance, the boys are naturally more competitive. They tend to rock up to training already competing with one another. You don’t have to encourage it. Boys teams tend to be quite hierarchical, they know who is stronger and weaker, and leadership is more dominant. It can be a problem to get them to work together. By contrast, the social cohesion of a girls’ team is more important and they will naturally work together better.
There are many similarities in coaching females and males and regardless of the gender or age group you are coaching. It is always important to know and understand what motivates each player and the best way for them to learn.
Some key things to consider when coaching female players are:
- they are generally coachable and want to learn
- they may need positive reinforcement to build their confidence
- they may take criticism personally
Team chemistry is also an important factor when coaching female teams. Social cohesion is crucial and if team chemistry is not built at the start of the season and monitored throughout, off-field issues can quickly affect on-field performance.
[H2] GETTING FEMALE COACHES INTO THE GAME
When I was in the US, I had the chance to sit in on a couple of forums looking at ways to increase the number of female coaches in the game and their retention. One key element from the research they presented was the importance of asking people to be involved. A simple question to a current player, “Have you considered coaching? I think you would be really good at that because of X,Y,Z,” plants the seed in their mind. Then it’s a matter of knowing where to direct them if they show an interest. If I look back on my own journey - that is exactly what happened to me.
To get more women into the coaching arena, we could be more strategic and invest more resources, such as by:
- Providing courses for women
- Using resources (pictures, videos, data) on coaching courses that relate to women and the women’s game
- opening up trainee positions within the talented player pathway
- providing mentoring to aspiring coaches
From the existing elite players, we could identify potential coaches and support and mentor their development by providing them with the opportunity to do entry level coaching courses and assisting them as they transition from playing to coaching, as Germany have done so successfully.
KEY TIP: Surround yourself with good people that you can learn from and who have a genuine interest in your development. Seek out jobs/roles that will challenge and develop you as a coach.