Investigating male athletes' perceptions of female coaching: A case study of Field Hockey in the U.K

There is a lack of research surrounding women in coaching. Positive steps are being taken towards
understanding and challenging both women's sport and coaching. However, there are parts of women's
coaching that still lack critical attention and research. In particular, women coaching men is an under
researched area. Whilst men enjoy being able to coach both genders, and women are shown to be
equally capable, women still face barriers to coaching men. Some of these barriers have been explored
within research, such as hiring practices, but there is a lack of investigation around whether male players
would resist a female coach. Whilst women are breaking through the glass ceiling, they still face negative
comments, with abuse directed towards the hiring of a female hitting coach by the New York Yankees.
Field hockey is a co-gender sport, where British females have achieved more success than their male
counterparts in recent years at elite levels. This provides an exemplary space to critically explore male
behaviours towards female coaches and how they perceive them. This project will observe sessions run
by a male and a female coach, at a hockey club in the south east of England, over a three month period,
exploring how the same group of players interact with the coaches and following this up through detailed
interviews. This research will bring new knowledge to the topic, which could create more equal
opportunities for female coaches both in hockey and other sports settings, in turn further breaking
through the glass ceiling.