Attitudes And Practices Of Elite Strength Coaches Towards Sex-specific Needs In International Women's Rugby Union

PURPOSE:To explore the attitudes towards sex-specific needs in elite level coaches. Optimal physical performance is a product of specific and tailored training. Anatomical and physiological differences between the sexes posits a unique challenge in the physical preparation of athletes. A knowledge gap exists in relation to sex-specific differences in physical preparation that arguably has resulted in practitioners relying predominantly upon empirical evidence collected in male subjects for reference when devising interventions for female athletes. To date, no research has explored the attitudes and practices of elite level coaches towards the need, if any, of sex-specific differences in the physical preparation of international rugby players. METHODS:Eight lead strength coaches from the top thirteen ranked international teams participated in semi-structured interviews (mean duration 59; SD = 15 min) to discuss their experiences, attitudes and practices of coaching elite female rugby players compared to males. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the responses. RESULTS:The thematic analysis resulted in the identification of higher order themes: developmental stage of women’s rugby, physical preparation, interpersonal approach, barriers to buy-in and education. Additional subthemes were created to facilitate organisation and presentation of data, and to aid both cohesiveness of reporting and publicising of results. CONCLUSIONS: Participants provided various and sometimes conflicting attitudes towards sex-related differences. The majority of participants stated consideration of sex-differences when devising physical preparation interventions related to training experience, rather than physiological differences.