Hi Sniper,
Having coached both female and male teams, I can attempt to answer your questions as best as I can. Please note that what I state is not meant to offend or upset, it is merely what did and didn’t work for me and my group.
1) I ran pre-season in two parts due mainly to the start of the regular season not being until April. Part 1 was pre-xmas starting late November, not compulsory and totally heavily skills based along with the odd indoor education session built around what they/we wanted to achieve, rules of the game etc. The girls were honest and grouping with their fitness so I knew we could take care of that in the new year. Part 2 of pre-season in the new year was a continuing of skills, skills, skills with added conditioning. Important to make it as much fun as possible.
2) We trained twice a week, Wednesday and Friday with some Saturday morning sessions during the pre-season. My moto was less talk and more action. It was obvious the team didn’t want a coach who just talks and talks. Get the footy in their hands and on their boots and educate. What you might think is fine with the boys needs to be explained a little more for the girls. This was/is a positive and gets you thinking as a coach because they just wanted to learn so much so quickly. We either had the ground to ourselves or trained after the men. Although there was interest from both some women and men there was never any real willingness to train or even warm up together.
3) Adding on from question 2), when you broke down the skill set of the men of up to 3 levels then considered the 4 or 5 levels of the women with the greatest respect, it was an absolute no brainer to not train together unless we had a great social function including some table tennis, darts etc. The range of skill set meant some nights you would act more as a manager than a coach to make sure the players gained something from each night.
4) With the women I coached training on a Friday, the attendance was still high. You would get some level of negativity however we adapted and fought through it with the team often getting together after training somewhere for dinner especially with many games on a Sunday.
I hope the above helps. It’s definitely hard work but a lot of fun along the way. Get everyone on the same page, allow for differing opinions and views making sure the team knows which direction you and your club want to head to.
