Kelvin Giles sent me the following excerpt
from one of his manuals after reading the last post on the female athlete:
The following information
illustrates the differences between the male and female during these
ever-changing periods of maturation. It must be pointed out that these are
simply differences and in no way should anyone think that this means that we
treat the female athlete differently to the male athlete. They can train hard
and they can adapt to all the physical, psychological, technical and tactical
facets of their chosen sport. They can be exposed to and reach the highest
standards in attitude, commitment and discipline. The differences should be viewed
as being subtle and should be treated respectfully but not used as an excuse to
lower expectations. Without personalising this issue too much I have been
honoured to coach several world class female athletes to Olympic and World
Championship heights and in each case my approach was no different to that with
the male athlete. In each case their mental toughness, discipline, ability to
tolerate high intensity work and their total lack of complaint when things got
inconvenient and adverse were exemplary.
Go to Kelvin’s website
http://www.movementdynamics.com for more information. Also read the article on
his website about coaching Generation Y, it will make think.
