Coach seems to dislike me, need advice
Hi all, I'm looking for some advice in navigating a potentially touchy issue with my coach. I'm honestly feeling pretty shit about it right now, and I'm really losing motivation to train.
I've been training for about two years 3-4 times a week, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to train at a gym with a big women's program. Social anxiety and insecurity are struggles for me at the gym, but I've gradually felt more comfortable with the women who train regularly. I've never felt comfortable going to our coach for things aside from basic help with drilling though and she's always kept a sort of professional distance with me.
My coach has been growing increasingly standoffish with me in the past ~9 months, starting with a competition prep cycle at my gym last fall. Every comp cycle since then, I've felt that my coach kind of blows me off or seems irritated around me, and she'll often pair me with trial students, kids way smaller than me or I'm left in a group of three. I'm small and relatively inexperienced so this kind of thing isn't unusual, but it happened so much that I started to feel really isolated and anxious in class. The last comp cycle this spring, the partnering thing REALLY got to me and it continues to affect my attitude towards the gym since then. I've walked out of class twice in the past couple months because I've gotten so anxious about not having a partner and I probably give off a negative vibe at times.
This has recently culminated in my coach passing me up during grading (would've gotten my fourth stripe). I know this sounds pretentious, but my jiu jitsu has improved a lot in the past few months despite everything, so I'm pretty sure she's picked up on my attitude and didn't promote me for that reason. I'm honestly not that upset about not getting a stripe alone, but it does hurt that I'm the only woman passed up for stripes/promotion despite training regularly so I once again feel singled out. Hell, she gave out a few right in front of me! And hasn't said a word to me about why despite there being a good number of opportunities for her to talk to me (Which she hasn't done in a long time outside of drilling).
I'm not quite sure how to approach this. I really don't want to talk to her at all. I feel weird even going to class because everyone knows I was the only one passed up like that, and I don't know what to do. I'm aware a lot of my anxious behaviours can come off as rude (especially the one time I left class), and I'm absolutely mortified that she seems to have taken them that way. But my coach still rolls with me and tells me that I'm doing well afterwords (no specifics usually) so I honestly have no idea what's going on. I have had some great classes more recently too, so it's not all negativety all the time. Is this like a passive aggressive demand to talk to her? To tell me to just leave the gym?
Really would like a sanity check here or some guidance on what to do, I feel like I'm being gaslit with this back and forth vibe I get from my coach. I'm embarrassed to even be typing this out. Yes I'm seeing someone for anxiety but I would like some advice from women that train on how to navigate a gym environment like this. Did I completely blow it? Should I even do anything? How can I (or should I) bring this up at the gym?
Posted Jul 4, 2025, 1:31 AM UTC