The gendering of coaching from an athlete perspective: The case of Norwegian boxing

Introduction

Hedda and I make sure her head guard is fitted. Her fight is coming up. Hedda is 13 years old, and is preparing for her second boxing competition. She turns to me a bit anxious: ‘So you won’t be mad at me if I lose?’ ‘Of course not! I’m already so proud of all the training you’ve done to get here’, I reply and ask ‘are you nervous?’ She nods. I am nervous too. I have been boxing for 13 years and I know her situation well. But today it is Hedda’s fight.

A coach from another boxing gym approaches me, ‘Are you waiting for your coach? When are you supposed to fight?’. For a moment I think he is joking, but his face tells me something else. Calmly, I smile and answer: ‘I am her coach. Her fight is the next one’. ‘Oh, I didn’t know there were any female boxing coaches’. His reaction annoys me, but I was in fact the only female coach in a championship where about 30 girls were competing. My athletes were the only fighters with a woman in the corner.

This episode from an everyday situation in boxing ¹ reflects some of the experiences female coaches face as women and as minorities in coaching. Globally, women coaches represent a small minority (Pfister, 2013). It is therefore crucial to ask what interpretations are given to women’s role in the field of coaching? What gendered expectations does a female body as a situation ² imply among male and female athletes? For example, what does it mean for fighters to have a woman in the corner when they fight? This article focuses on such questions and engages in issues of the gendering of coaching. Our point of entry is an athlete perspective, since most former studies have taken a coach perspective (Norman, 2010b; Pfister, 2013; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). Our research question in this paper is more precisely: how do athletes perceive and experience men and women as coaches? Within this topic, we highlight three aspects: (a) which meanings of gender are reflected in the athletes’ experiences of male and female coaches; (b) how does the gender of the coach affect coach–athlete relationships; and (c) which gendered meanings are embedded in the athletes’ images of sound coaching? The study is based on qualitative interview data. Further, we will describe some insights of the current body of research in this field.

Feminist studies on coaching

Feminist studies in the field of coaching (e.g. Norman, 2008; Pfister, 2013; Redelius, 2002) indicate that female coaches often experience discrimination, and are assigned roles as caretakers and assistants for male coaches. Thus, expectations of female coaches are often shaped by gender stereotypes (Fasting and Pfister, 2000; LaVoi and Dutove, 2012; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). A typical stereotype is that female coaches are expected to be better communicators and have a more democratic leadership style than their male counterparts (Norman, 2010a; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016).

The research body discussing gender and coaching is dominated by quantitative studies (Hovden, 2014). Both the quantitative and qualitative studies mirror, however, a variety of theoretical approaches (e.g. Cunningham and Sagas, 2003; Norman, 2012; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). Studies on coaching (e.g. Greenleaf et al., 2001; Norman, 2010a, 2010b) suggest that some leadership strategies are more appreciated among the athletes than others are. For example, the most favoured coaching strategy is linked to ‘positive feedback’, which is reported as having the greatest endorsement independent of gender, age and skill level (Alfermann et al., 2005; Kidane and Reddy, 2013; Sullivan et al., 2012). Studies indicate that positive feedback and democratic leadership forms correlate positively with enhanced performance in both team and individual sports for men and women (e.g. Hays et al., 2007; Jowett and Cockerill, 2003; Moen et al., 2014; Surujlal and Dhurup, 2012; Yalcin, 2013). The main argument is that social support and intrapersonal relations are crucial for athletic success. On the other hand, authoritarian coaching strategies are found to be the least popular and correlate positively with reduced sporting performance (Bennett and Maneval, 1998; Jowett and Cockerill, 2003; Schliesman et al., 1994).

Studies on gender relations in coaching are mostly qualitative studies (Norman, 2010a; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). These studies are often concerned with how coaching is dominated by men, shaped by masculine connotations and gender stereotypes (Fasting and Pfister, 2000; Lyle, 2002; Norman, 2008, 2010a, 2010b, 2012). Little empirical attention has been given to the gendering of coaching, how meanings of gender affect coaching practices and how male dominance shapes the coaches as well as the athletes’ working conditions, their career paths and their images of sound coaching. As indicated, this study aims to gain knowledge about such aspects from an athlete perspective and we seeks to address this research gap by focusing on how Norwegian boxers conceive and experience the gendering of coaching.

Gender studies on boxing demonstrate how boxing is a traditional male sport and shaped by hegemonic masculinities (Gems, 2014; Gems and Pfister, 2014; Tjønndal, 2016a; Woodward, 2006). Even though women boxers are changing the notion that boxing is an exclusively male practice (e.g. Mennesson, 2000), studies indicate that women in boxing still experience discrimination because of their gender (Paradis, 2009; Tjønndal, 2016a, 2016b). This applies to athletes (Godoy-Pressland, 2015; Jennings and Cabrera Velazquez, 2015; Kipnis and Caudwell, 2015), as well as female leaders such as coaches, judges and referees (McCree, 2011, 2015; Tjønndal, 2016b). Similar gendered phenomena has also been found in other martial arts and combat sports such as kickboxing, mixed martial arts (MMA) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Spencer, 2012; Weaving, 2015).

Theoretical framework: Constructions of gender and the gendering of leadership

As a platform to discuss our findings, we present a theoretical framework, which mainly comprises two components: 1. the construction of gender as a cultural code; and 2. the gendering of leadership ideals. The first component is chosen to enable identifying meanings of gender by detecting constructions of gender in the athletes’ narratives. The second component informs an approach for analysing constructions of gendered leadership ideals and the gendered power relations embedded in such ideals.

Methodology

Participants

Through strategic sampling, we selected 12 Norwegian boxers as informants. We adopted a ‘maximum variation sampling’ strategy (Markula and Silk, 2011), with the following criteria for our sample: (a) both male and female boxers; (b) boxers from all geographical regions in Norway; (c) boxers from all International Boxing Association (AIBA) age groups. The sample consisted of seven female boxers and five male boxers, representing a wide spectrum of skills, experiences, geographical locations and local training environments. The high number of female athletes in the sample does not reflect the gender balance among Norwegian boxers though, with approximately 22% women and 78% men in 2014 (Tjønndal, 2016a). We chose to include a high number of women boxers in order to be able to visualize women’s experiences, which in many other studies are scarcely described. Moreover, the interviewees represented athletes of different age groups according to the AIBA classification system: Junior Boxers (aged 15–16), Youth Boxers (aged 17–18) and Elite Boxers (aged 19–40).

Table 1 provides an overview of the interviewees in all AIBA age groups. Of the Elite Boxers three women and two men were interviewed. Among the Youth Boxers, two women and two men were interviewed. Both of the men were 18 years old, while one of the women was 18 and the other one 17 years old. Lastly, of the Junior Boxers, two girls and one boy were interviewed (aged 15–16). Four of the 12 boxers interviewed were under the age of 18. For these youth athletes, parental consent was given prior to the interviews. The age of the boxers has been important to consider in the analysis and has a clear impact on the findings of this research. When reading the quotes and the stories of the youth athletes and their perspectives on gender and coaching, it is particularly important to remember that most coaches are older adults. While one can argue that there is always a somewhat unequal power relation between a coach and an athlete, this relation might have a greater effect on youth athletes. For instance, paternalistic views on male coaches might be more forthcoming among the youth boxers than the adult boxers.

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Table 1.

Characteristics of the interviewees.

Gender	AIBA classification	Number of interviewees	Pseudonyms
Female	Elite boxer	3	Hannah Rebecca Samantha
Male	Elite boxer	2	Ethan Blake
Female	Youth boxer	2	Mia Natalie
Male	Youth boxer	2	Andrew James
Female	Junior boxer	2	Grace Katie
Male	Junior boxer	1	Liam

The gendering of coaching

Not surprisingly most of the boxers acknowledged that they had primarily experienced coaching from men, but were open to being coached by women if they could contribute something new:

I have had male coaches mostly, but I feel that there are more men in boxing, so that is natural. I am very open, and I try to absorb anything new I can learn. If a woman has had a good career and tells me something that can improve my boxing, I listen. (Blake)

Both the male and the female boxers mentioned that extensive experience as well as a successful career were important factors for their trust in a coach’s competence. However, such characteristics seem to be particularly important for trusting female coaches:

If they are dedicated and ambitious, I trust a female coach with experience more than a male coach with a limited career in boxing. Personally, I have had experiences with two different female coaches in my boxing career so far, and they were both very good coaches. They both had long careers as amateur and professional boxers, and that makes me trust them. They have been in large international tournaments themselves…they have been where I want to go in the future. (Andrew)

Such perceptions correspond with previous research (Fasting et al., 2017; Hovden, 2012; Norman, 2010a, 2010b) which argues that female coaches need more formal education as well as higher athletic excellence than their male counterparts to be accepted equally and respected. The higher demands on women coaches are seen as compensation for the implications of being a woman in this masculine field (Hovden, 2012).

Another interesting opinion among the boxers was that they stated that female and male coaches developed different relationships to their athletes. They described female coaches as more gentle, open and accessible than their male counterparts. However, some of the male boxers were critical with regard to the efficiency of such leadership forms. These forms were attributed to an essential gender difference and perceived as a feminine approach:

Women have a more gentle and different approach to coaching. They have a softer tone, and for some boxers, that works. For me, it does not work. My coach, he is very strict and authoritative … I do not think a woman could have the same approach to coaching as him. (James)

I think that in some cases I do not respect them as much. Women coaches have less authority in the gym, and it is easier to have a close and friendly relationship with them. (Liam)

These voices mirror a typical attitude among the athletes. They conceive that women’s approaches show that women have less power and authority than male coaches. This indicates how gender is constructed as both an essential difference and a power relation (Haavind, 1994). The female coaches are only associated with given special and gendered leadership skills – skills which can be connoted to something gynocentric, complementary and subordinated (Brandser, 1996; Hovden, 2010).

Several of the athletes reported that they experienced that female coaches often adapted to a masculine role configuration in their coaching practices, because they were afraid of being seen as soft and weak. A role figuration that was interpreted as a female strategy:

Sometimes, I feel like female coaches act more masculine inside of the boxing gym, than outside of the gym. It is as if they put on a mask – they change their way of interacting with us (athletes). I think it might be because they are afraid of not being taken seriously as boxing coaches, or maybe women in boxing are just a bit more masculine than other women. (Rebecca)

I think that female coaches are afraid of being conceived as too soft or weak in the gym, because they are women. (Hannah)

These experiences from female athletes demonstrate, like other studies (Hovden, 2012; Norman, 2012), some of the ambivalences directed towards female coaches. It is on the one hand stated, given the dominant norms in the gym, that an adaptation to masculine behaviour is seen as necessary to gain respect and to be taken seriously. On the other hand, this behaviour is characterized as a defensive strategy and a mask women put on. This points to a double bind situation, which requires abilities to cope with contradictory expectations (Acker, 2009) and illustrates one of the dilemmas women face in arenas shaped by male dominance (Hjelseth and Hovden, 2014). In other words they have to cope with contradictory expectations where their gender simultaneously should matter and should not matter (Haavind, 1994). This double bind results in a situation where you can always blame the victim in one way or another. The boxers’ narratives also suggested how vulnerable and defensive women coaches seemed to be under such circumstances:

Many of the female coaches are afraid of giving feedback or criticizing the larger guys in the gym. (Ethan)

The women mostly coach girls, other women or youth and junior boys. You don’t see many female coaches working with elite men. (Blake)

In tournaments and competitions, you rarely see any fighters have women in the corner. At the national championship, I was the only boxer with a woman as my main coach in the corner… Sometimes there are women coaches in the corner, but they are just assisting the main coach, giving the boxer water, cleaning the mouth guard, those kind of things… they don’t actually do any coaching. When I fight, people always notice that my main coach is a woman. (Rebecca)

These voices illustrate how women coaches are not conceived as equals in their coaching practices, but rather the opposite. It shows how they constantly seem to be gender marked and ‘othered’, and behave as the subordinated gender (Beauvoir, 2000; Bourdieu, 2000; Haavind, 1994). Such circumstances place women coaches in a constantly ambiguous situation, where it becomes almost impossible for them to behave as equals (Bourdieu, 2000) and thus be viewed as serious and ambitious coaches (Norman, 2010a, 2010b; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). The boxers’ interpretations of their situation also indicate how women coaches in many respects becomes imprisoned in their female gender category (Hovden, 2010).

The interviewees also expressed how the gender of the coach might have significant impacts on their performances and careers. In the following we will expose more concretely how these notions seem to affect the coach–athlete dyads.

The gendering of coach–athlete dyads

The interviewees indicated how the gender composition of coach–athlete relationships (female coach – female athlete, female coach – male athlete, male coach – male athlete and male coach – female athlete) influenced their boxing career and the gender dynamics in the gym. The female boxers suggested that they often felt it easier to establish mutual trust and a closer bond to female coaches. Female coaches were seen to have a deeper understanding of the female boxers’ situation and feelings:

The male coaches always try to protect and take care of me. They always tell me things like: ‘Don’t hit too hard’ when I fight. Female coaches know that girls are not made of glass, because they have experienced what it’s like to be a female boxer, they know that women’s boxing is just as tough as men’s boxing. (Natalie)

In accordance with other studies (e.g. Hovden, 2000, 2012) such experiences indicate how female coaches more often share gendered experiences with their female athletes. Particularly in coach–athlete dyads involving male coaches, the boxers suggest a relationship shaped by paternalism. The youngest interviewees accentuated such characteristics and these had obviously gendered consequences:

I never argue with my coach, because I respect him too much. He is like a father to me and I do not want to contradict him. (Mia)

I feel very close to my coach, I have been training in his gym for five years now…He is like a family member, like a second father. (Natalie)

I would not say that I am friend with my coach… no, it is more like a father-son relationship. I really respect him…maybe more than I do my own parents! (Liam)

These voices express both positive, negative and ambivalent connotations associated with their experiences of paternalistic coaching relations. The athletes suggest on the one hand how a paternalistic relationship is often shaped by confidence and belonging, but on the other hand mirrors an authoritarian relationship, where the coach (as a father figure) possesses the power to define and control what is best for the athlete and her/his career. Research (Fundberg and Lagergren, 2015; Greenleaf et al., 2001; Hays et al., 2007) maintains, however, how athletes’ lack of self-determination in the coach–athlete relationship affects their career negatively in the long term, and this seems particularly to be the case for female athletes (Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). The female boxers reported how a paternalistic relationship included a protective attitude with the consequence that they felt treated like ‘girls’ and not as serious athletes:

Some male coaches are too nice, especially with young girls like me! I see it all the time. Girls who do not perform well in the ring, their coach tells them that they were good anyway, even though they really were not! It is not the same with the guys… they are more honest with them. (Mia)

One of the female interviewees, Katie, had also experienced how the power relations of a paternalistic relationship in a male coach/female athlete dyad can easily be misused:

In the gym I used to train in before, the coach … he yelled a lot, and he seemed stressed most of the time. But the next day he could be the nicest person ever. He was very unstable. You never knew what you were going to get… Later, I learned that he had been sexually harassing and assaulting half the girls in the gym. I dreaded going there. (Katie)

Such experiences illustrate how paternalistic and authoritarian leadership forms are grounded on asymmetric gender/power relations (Connell, 1995; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). As in this case, such relationships open up for normalizing and legitimizing certain types of harassment and misuse of gendered power (Fasting and Brackenridge, 2009). Such coach–athlete relationships are most often experienced by young, female athletes and indicate how interwoven meanings of gender and age affect their career development (Fasting and Sand, 2009; Hovden, 2000; Kilty, 2006). Our interviewees were also asked which leadership approaches they conceived as the most preferable, what skills and competences they associated with an ideal coach and in which ways they suggested that gender mattered in these images.

The gendering of sound leadership in coaching

The most common features among the boxers associated with sound leadership were the following: (a) extensive knowledge of the sport (physical, mental, tactical and technical knowledge of boxing); (b) mutual respect; (c) strategic competence; (d) communication skills; (e) fairness; and (f) the ability to create and maintain a good social environment. Talking about male coaches, the most typical attributes mentioned were decisiveness and tactical knowledge. The attributes associated with female coaches were communication skills, fairness and the ability to create and maintain a safe and good social environment in the gym as well as in competitions. This gendered profile, however, reflects in some respects, images of androcentric and gynocentric leadership ideals (Brandser, 1996; Hovden, 2010).

The boxers argued that a too autocratic leadership ideal, mostly associated with male coaches, could be problematic for their athletic and personal development. One of the male boxers reasoned in this way:

A good leader should never show that he is a leader by dictating others. He should treat you like an equal, but at the same time, he should command your respect. I do not like when coaches spend most of the training session yelling and telling you exactly what to do and how to do it… I prefer that the coach involves me in the planning of the training sessions. (Andrew)

The female boxers, especially, stressed that an open dialogue and a democratic leadership style were important for their achievements and well-being:

I used to have trouble communicating with my previous coach. He wanted me to box in a specific way, a certain technical style, which I felt did not suit me physically. I felt that I had no opportunity to speak my mind. He did not listen anyway… I was not happy with the situation. It is very important for me to have a coach that listens to me and takes my opinions seriously. (Samantha)

The boxers seem to consider leadership skills associated with femininity both as positive and decisive for sound career development. These views correspond with recent studies, where an autocratic leadership style is often mentioned as ineffective and not preferable (Enoksen et al., 2014; Koh et al., 2012; Koh and Wang, 2014; Sullivan et al., 2012; Yalcin, 2013). Democratic approaches are much more valued. In this regard, sound leadership images seem to be increasingly shaped by processes of feminization or demasculinization. From this point of departure it is both interesting and paradoxical that most of the boxers simultaneously considered female coaches exposing feminine attributes as less efficient and competent than their male counterparts. But why is there this paradox? Does it mean that the boxers do not respect and trust female coaches, just because they are women and because they attribute femininity only to women? Or, does it, in line with Connell (1995), indicate the opposite – that being a man gives someone authority and respect in sporting contexts? Anyway, if so, this understanding mirrors the dominant cultural coding of gender, where only women expose femininity and men masculinity (Beauvoir, 2000; Haavind, 1994).

Respect, trust and authority seemed to be recurring themes in the boxers’ images of sound leadership. One of the female boxers described her ‘ideal’ coach in this way:

It is someone who gives me both positive feedback and constructive criticism, someone I respect. A person I can trust and who makes me feel safe. Someone who challenges me in a way that makes me develop as a fighter. (Hannah)

Here, she highlights skills and competences connoted with both masculinity and femininity. However, the data material as a whole suggest that traits and skills associated with masculinity, such as authority, respect, decisiveness and strategic knowledge, are most often ranked above those associated with femininity. Feminine skills and competences are seen as valuable additions to masculine leadership skills, which are often understood as ‘the most necessary’ for athletic success. Thus, the profile of sound leadership in coaching seems to reflect a relative gender/power hierarchy (Haavind, 1994; Hovden, 2000).

Women’s engagement in coaching seems nevertheless to provide a more diverse and complex picture of the boxers’ images of sound coaching. The boxers emphasized the presence of both male and female coaches as the most preferable:

It is important for the social environment in the gym that there are both male and female coaches. It creates a completely different cohesion, you can relax more, and it is not so tough…I am very lucky to be a part of a boxing gym with both male and female coaches…Not many boxing gyms are lucky enough to have female coaches. (Grace)

The boxers accentuate, in line with other leadership studies (Channon, 2013), the importance of having a mixed-sex coaching environment. Gender-mixed leadership teams are assessed as being more productive, efficient and shaped by less stress and fewer power fights than homo-social teams (Teigen and Wägnerud, 2009; Terjesen et al., 2009). This situation, however, is mostly experienced in contexts where leadership practices are shaped by gender parity and gender equity. The current situation in Norwegian boxing does unfortunately not reflect such conditions (Tjønndal, 2016b; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016). Nevertheless, the boxers’ preferences for increased gender balance in this study may point to possibilities for future changes. Studies of organizational minorities (e.g. Dahlerup, 1988) suggest that to bring about cultural changes in male dominated contexts requires a minimum representation of one-third of the minority gender. Based on the status of female boxing coaches in Norway today (Tjønndal, 2016b; Tjønndal and Hovden, 2016) there is still a way to go before the boxers can take advantage of such circumstances.

Concluding remarks

This study suggests that the gendering of coaching has a significant impact on the boxers’ perceptions and expectations of sound coaching practices. We have in this paper identified how the boxers attribute gendered meanings to different forms of coaching practices. The boxers’ narratives indicate how expectations connected to male coaches, masculinity and male bodies were most often seen as normal, natural and gender neutral. For female coaches the opposite was often the case. This pattern mirrors how the cultural gender code still seems to shape dominant gender/power relationships in coaching.

Several findings reveal evident ambivalences and ambiguities towards female coaches, which entails a double bind. The boxers characterized female coaches as either too assertive or too soft, conflating assertiveness with masculinity and softness with femininity. This situation requires abilities to cope with contradictory gendered expectations. Thus female coaches can never act according to dominant expectations and are always associated with the gender difference, seen as either ‘too masculine’ or ‘too feminine’ (Hjelseth and Hovden, 2014). Such paradoxes suggest how gendered power relations often result in insoluble dilemmas for women in male dominated contexts (Acker, 2009; Bourdieu, 2000) and illustrate how the dominant coding of gender implicitly and explicitly makes female coaches prisoners of gender (Hovden, 2010).

The coach–athlete dyads point to a gendered pattern, where female athletes in particular acknowledge closer social bonds and trust with regard to female coaches. When the boxers talked about the paternalistic coach–athlete relationship, the picture is the opposite. Only male coaches were associated with paternalism. Such characteristics reveal some of the power and authority differences, linked to male and female gender in most sporting practices (Connell, 1995). Further, paternalism is often constructed as an intersected category, shaped by inequalities of both gender and age. As in this study, this construction allows for sexual harassment and exploitation, particularly of young female athletes (Fasting and Brackenridge, 2009).

The boxers described sound leadership in coaching as containing both masculine and feminine attributes. They also preferred a gender-mixed coaching environment. Here it may be relevant to ask if such preferences are caused by women’s increasing entry into coaching and boxing and thus contribute to change towards a de-masculinization of images of sound coaching. Such processes are, however, both complex and multifaceted, and can most probably not be explained by women’s entrance alone. It will, however, be crucial to gain more knowledge of such processes and to discover which practices and strategies turn out to be the most efficient in providing changes with regard to more gender balanced coaching practices.

Our study can represent a first step towards building this knowledge base. Through this study we have gained insights into how athletes conceive and assess men’s and women’s coaching practices in gender-mixed environments and how gendered power structures, like male dominance, affect women’s possibilities and the images of sound coaching. We think such insights are both important and relevant for sport organizations in their work to fulfil their aims towards a more democratic and gender equalized coaching environment. For example, our findings may represent expected knowledge that can be embedded in coach education programmes in Norway, since information about what gender diversity and gender/power relations in coaching means for the athletes performances and career paths is scarce. We think that some of the insights attained in this study may also represent valuable input for decision-makers in sports to enable them to identify what is of concern and what needs to be changed to obtain higher gender diversity in sport leadership.