Emotions

This past weekend, Serena Williams captured her fifth Wimbledon title. What started off as a rocky tournament turned into Williams exemplifying dominance in the sport of tennis. I am a huge fan of the Williams sisters, because of the perseverance, determination and grit they play with when they are on the court. Many people do not share my opinion in regards to being fans of the Williams. When I ask them to explain why they feel the way they do they usually reflect on how the sisters are rude when they play and bring up incidences from the past in which Serena let her temper dominate her court behavior.These discussions make me think about emotions and how females displaying their true feelings on the court, field, etc. can often times be misconstrued. Audiences will see emotions coming from a female athlete and look negatively upon it when the same demonstration if not worse is expressed by a male athlete all the time. Why do we as a society feel the need to look down upon a female who is just expressing their feelings in the heat of competition when male athletes do the same thing with common acceptence?This is a topic that bothers me to no end. Do not get me wrong, as a coach I want all my athletes to be under control; however, at times female athletes can not keep all their emotions in and may become demonstrative under the strain of competition. When Serena Williams gets angry and shows her true emotions on the court she is in the moment. Nobody is perfect, not a male or female athlete, and when they are playing for a huge title a situation might not go the way they want and may fire up their emotions. Put ourselves in their shoes and a majority of us would probably handle the situation the same way. Just because one is a female does not mean they need to keep their emotions stoic when they are playing in the moment. As opposed to looking at the gender or emotional control of the athlete in competition we should look at how the athlete is playing their chosen sport. When I look at an athlete like Serena Williams I see a person who plays for the love of the game and you can see this passion and intensity every time she steps onto the court.