By Rachel Woodland, Lottie Wright & Sarah Evans

There needs to be more support for practitioners, coaches and others working in sport when it comes to better understanding women’s health.

That is the consensus across our Women’s High Performance Sport Community, from ongoing conversations to a recent mini survey conducted during our latest Community call, where the focus turned to education for staff.

We were joined by Dr Natalie Brown who is a Research Fellow working as part of a collaboration between Sport Wales and Swansea University with the Welsh Institute of Performance Science [WIPS].

Brown leads the Sport Wales Female Health & Performance Team, which has grown to seven members and is responsible for supporting all staff at Sport Wales in their journeys towards better understanding women’s health.

Brown’s own reasons for her specialism in women’s health stem from her time as a performance scientist with Welsh and British Swimming. She wanted to know more about what she didn’t know and to support the female athletes as best as possible to optimise their performance. It was an early nod to the relevance and interconnectedness of women’s health for practitioners.

Support for female athlete health at Sport Wales

In Brown’s time, Sport Wales’ approach to female athlete support has progressed from being wrapped around individuals to three areas of focus:

1. System level support
2. Individual athlete support (and support for practitioners too)
3. Sport-specific support

There are also three key themes that span everything Sport Wales do: athlete development, health & wellbeing, and athlete environment. Where once Brown worked alone, she now oversees a multidisciplinary team of seven, with specialisms in physiotherapy, physiology, medical, nutrition, strength & conditioning. The work has gone from focusing on the menstrual cycle to include puberty, relative energy deficiency and more to fully encompass female health support.

It is critical for those practitioners to be a good fit and Brown’s team was put together by grouping those who had an interest and the drive and motivation to work in this area of sport. Across the Welsh system, it enabled a network of voices to be created, rather than a single voice; making it more embedded and more natural.

The team work both in overseeing projects and research into specific areas of women’s health and in supporting the athletes, practitioners, coaches, and sports in applying knowledge to their performances. As Brown said, “we’ve got a knowledge development, but we’ve also got application and those two things run in parallel.”

Their efforts to speak to athletes help them to better understand areas where there was suitable support and where there was not. It enabled the sports science and medicine teams to adapt their athlete support. Concurrently, Brown and her colleagues captured all this information to help inform their progress.

Surveys to better understand ways of working

Seven years ago, Brown’s team circulated a survey for all of Sports Wales’s sports science practitioners. It asked:

1. Did practitioners have conversations about the menstrual cycle in their sports, with their athletes, with the coaches?
2. How confident are they talking about the topic?
3. What is their knowledge level?

The survey was circulated at a time before women’s health proliferated as a topic of interest. It identified gaps, highlighted the steps needed to effect change, and what practitioners were requesting. And so the team came together that now works within Sport Wales.

Having a dedicated Female Health & Performance Team allows planning around how to move forward in support of both female athletes and performance practitioners; and as staff members have changed, so Sport Wales has continued to survey its people. They continually assess people’s comfort levels discussing multiple topics within female health and the factors that influence that comfort.

Brown was also particularly interested in whether or not practitioners know where to go to seek further support. The figures are startling. “20 percent still say no, which is too big,” said Brown. That 20 percent is therefore part of her team’s plan. All practitioners need to know that the Female Health & Performance Team is there to support them, and also direct them to other resources and, just as importantly, emphasise that the whole of a team behind a sport need to have this information shared with them.

A more recent survey enabled Sport Wales to better understand how it can support its system’s network of coaches and practitioners. Indeed, there is a growing cohort that see the relevance of a female health lens in addressing issues such as injury risk and performance improvements. This information has helped Brown’s team ask for additional resources and support. It also helps build the full story and picture.

The emergence of a common practice

Sport Wales conducted the survey, put together a team, worked across its sports, and what has emerged are common practices that help to embed female health as a topic within the Welsh sport system.

For example, as Brown said, “across the three themes [see above] there are always at least two people from the team asking how does that apply from a female perspective? Have we considered XYZ from a female-specific angle?”

The current approach is praised for creating an open culture. The Female Health & Performance Team have worked with the sports to normalise conversations around women’s health and how it relates to performance.

Potentially the most interesting piece to emerge from their most recent survey was around knowledge improvement and how the team want to receive information. The two highest reported options were athlete stories & experiences and resources to read. This has led to a shift in how Brown and the team are supporting practitioners and prevented them from heading down the wrong route. It also means that Sport Wales can also think about how to use the stories and experiences to support wider practitioner development. For example, what would it look like for a new starter?

It’s standard practice for all Sport Wales projects to be evaluated as they happen, which means that check-ins keep the team challenged and relevant, as well as aligned to organisation’s wider aims. Their purpose and rationale remains clear.

Another positive consequence is that Welsh sports proactively approach Brown and her team to request help and support. There’s also now an induction for any athlete joining Great Britain’s World Class Programme. It looks across all areas of female health and includes screening from an MDT approach, which then means specific areas can be addressed for the individual, as well as from the perspective of their sport. The overall goal is to ensure that female health considerations aren’t an extra thing or a tick-box exercise that’s added on but are standard, truly embedded and normal practice for providing individual holistic support.

Compared with how things were done previously, one of the biggest changes for Brown has been planning ahead and thinking about how you upskill practitioners and how to engage with sports, as well as identifying which elements are sport-specific and require different support or consideration; and how to provide those resources for athletes, coaches, and practitioners. This is all with the key moment in mind: ‘the doing of it’.

In monthly meetings Brown’s team create scenarios and engage the practitioners in conversations around topics such as energy deficiency or puberty. It provides the space to address meaningful questions as part of the conversation, such as ‘how does that apply in practice?’ or ‘what does that mean?’ This space has potentially been the most impactful development, according to Brown.

Beyond the work that she and her team are completing, they’re linking in with the other parts of the Welsh network across other universities supporting WIPS and Sport Wales, as well as the other Home Nations of the UK. “So in terms of staying ahead of the curve, it’s always a challenge, especially with the pace at which female sport is currently moving.”

How to make female health a performance priority at your team:

• Invite people external from your female health and the performance team to come in and join the conversations, raising different questions.
• Balance individual needs versus sport specific challenges with whole system support.
• Specialist areas need to consider the female specifics as normal, for example nutrition is thought about with that lens too.
• If you’re working as a lone ranger in this space, consider how things are being embedded, knowledge is being passed on, and progress to creating a team is happening.
• Language is a really important area too. Don’t exclude anyone, but also correct. Underpinning language with evidence has been effective. Language can also be the key to confidence to talk about the topics and roll it out with athletes.
• Consider behaviour changes and the role of psychology in female health.
• Always provide the evidence of why behind knowledge, advice, support. Especially considering the volume of information, including misinformation, being shared around these topics at the moment.

A Data & Innovation podcast brought to you in collaboration with

When the US women’s national soccer team started tracking their menstrual cycles, it was seen as groundbreaking.

At least part of their success in claiming back to back World Cup titles in 2019 was attributed to the fact they could adjust individual training plans and nutrition based on the data.

Ellie Maybury was part of the USWNT backroom team that introduced this initiative and, more than half a decade on, tech support for female athletes doesn’t seem to have progressed as much as she’d have hoped. At least in soccer.

“A lot of the technology we have absorbed into the women’s game has come from the men’s game or men’s sports environments,” she tells the People Behind the Tech podcast.

“And maybe some of the processes and metrics that come with that get transferred as well.”

Maybury, who recently founded Soccer Herformance, a performance consultancy for female soccer players, is in the hotseat on episode two of this series.

She addressed the issues that hold back female high performance, from managing the lack of objective datapoints [4:50] and the importance of education for athletes who often misunderstand their own bodies through no fault of their own [26:20], to the need to take athletes on a journey while remaining honest about the limitations of research at the present time [17:00].

Check out episode one:

Paige Bueckers Proved Her ACL Injury Was Behind her at March Madness, but, as Andrea Hudy tells us, Questions Must Still Be Asked about the Injuries that Afflict Female Athletes

Joe Lemire LinkedIn | X

John Portch LinkedIn | X

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

A Human Performance article brought you by our Main Partners

By Luke Whitworth

In the modern landscape of high performance sport, we often here the phrase ‘everything that is managed is measured’.

Such is the desire to show impact and return on investment, we are indeed measuring much of what can be measured.

Nevertheless, it can be difficult to measure the impact of areas such as coach development work or, as discussed in a recent Virtual Roundtable for Leaders Performance Institute members, mental skills work.

A number of environments on the call were already in the process of measuring their mental skills work, some to a high success level, whereas others were closer to the start of their journey.

In any case, it is fair to say that there are no teams with all the answers, but here are some points to consider.

Measuring the success of your mental skills work

While it is easy to jump into the measuring process, it is important to first build some pre-requisites.

We can’t be trapped into the tendency to measure for measure’s sake. Have you defined and discussed what you are measuring and why? Is it and will it impact performance outcomes? On the roundtable, some members suggested positioning mental skills as a development tool to impact performance; it presents a more positive and forward-thinking narrative.

Make sure you are capturing the data and insights in a valid and reliable way. Also, make time to debrief and discuss results to understand how stake holders are interpreting data.

Does trust exist in the environment between staff, players and the coaches? When we think of the success of effective mental skills or sport psychology support, trust is a cornerstone of a well-functioning approach. Build up the trust before jumping into the measurement or else the data or insight you collate may lack purity. Involve the athletes early in the process as well – working with the athlete on a version of self-evaluation that can be trusted.

Additionally, how can you work through your coaches to get athlete buy-in while garnering their feedback on the athletes’ growth and improvement?

How to capture the impact of mental skills more effectively

Separate the process from the outcome. There is a combination of quantitative and qualitative data in all evaluations of outcome or impact.

One member shared that they combine goal-setting information gleaned from their athletes and ‘progress’ notes within their athlete management system. As part of this process, there have group evaluations centred around athlete makeup twice a year.

Athletes need to have personalised baselines and, therefore, baseline profiling can enable teams to identify the individual’s unique characteristics. Athlete profiling can entail a battery of behavioural observations and group debriefs, which allow you to crowdsource your staff members’ insights into the key areas in which you are trying to measure impact. Psychometric tests may also prove a useful tool. A member at the roundtable outlined how their organisation has started to ask their coaches to provide feedback and rate their mental skills programme.

If you can identify patterns, then your programmes will be much easier to scale. An organisation at the roundtable, an environment with a large number of multisport athletes, has developed a custom in-house tool that enables them to highlight performance gaps, opportunities and focus areas.

By Luke Whitworth & John Portch

Remember: innovation doesn’t necessarily mean the introduction of new technologies but can also be simple changes to existing methods.

In high performance sport, there is increasing pressure on expenditure and efficiency of resource, but innovating within a constrained budget isn’t about cutting costs indiscriminately, it’s about strategic allocation of resources.

The topic was discussed at length during a recent Leaders Virtual Roundtable and has long been on the agenda for members of the Leaders Performance Institute.

Here, we draw on those discussions to bring you six ways to sustain innovation on a budget.

1. Set realistic targets and align with strategic objectives

Prioritise initiatives that directly contribute to your mission and long-term success. You should evaluate existing projects and programmes rigorously. One programme whose members joined the roundtable spoke of the value of simple and consistent performance planning using a ‘plan, do, review’ approach. You can also set realistic timelines for identifying trends that enable you to cut through the white noise and better support internal decision making.

2. Leverage existing resources creatively

Evaluate your projects rigorously. An attendee at the roundtable explained they are looking into efficiencies around athlete monitoring and tracking. It speaks to the constant challenge of optimising the efficiency of data inputs, with several members highlighting the collaboration within their teams of different departments around data capture and assessment. It has led to a clearer way of leveraging information and influencing delivery across coaching and other elements of their programmes.

It calls to mind Richard Burden’s presentation at Leaders Meet: Driving Step Change in Female High Performance last September at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester. “What can you do with information that you already have?” he asked an audience of Leaders Performance Institute members. From his position as Co-Head of Female Athlete Health & Performance at the UK Sports Institute [UKSI], he discussed the notion of rethinking existing evidence and spoke of the UKSI’s drive to centralise all blood screens across the British high performance system. It enabled that information to be used in a more informed and impactful way for Great Britain’s athletes.

3. Measure, prioritise and adapt

You need to continuously monitor the impact of your innovation efforts. Use data to assess progress, adjust strategies, and reallocate resources as needed. This has been the approach in climbing, which is a new Olympic sport for Paris 2024. Budgets are small and creativity is a must. Representatives from the climbing world spoke on the roundtable about their key focus being the identification of impactful performance metrics and a more highly attuned understanding of the sport’s demands. It is important to identify projects that have the potential to create significant value or solve critical problems. The roundtable raised the question of coach development support, a “cornerstone enabler of our programme”, as one attendee put it, in environments where money is more constrained.

Similarly, an organisation in cricket on the roundtable spoke of the introduction of small-sided training matches. Though the training ground had to be modified, cricket is notorious for players in training environments inadvertently left standing around. By tweaking the design of training, players in that environment are better engaged.

4. Collaborate and share

Partner with other organisations, universities, or research institutions. Collaborative efforts can pool resources, share costs, and, ultimately, accelerate innovation. On the coach development question, an attendee at the roundtable spoke of collaborating with an academic institution with a speciality in that field. It requires less investment and all sides are reaping the rewards.

This approach has been of benefit to numerous organisations, including British Rowing, whom Burden spoke of during his presentation in Manchester. They worked with Manchester Metropolitan University and the UKSI to ask: how is the menstrual cycle influencing British Rowing’s ability to deliver training and what impact is it having on internal load, competition and the performance of athletes?

“It’s their question – it hasn’t come from research or a university – it’s come from the sport,” said Burden of the project. “We’re there to provide some of the research and innovation expertise to help them formulate the question and work out a path to answer it.”

5. Meet your people where they’re at

This goes for so much more than innovation. You have to tap into the creativity of your coaches, athletes and staff – they will often have valuable insights and ideas. Several roundtable attendees, particularly at talent pathway level, explained how they have taken steps to better engage and support their athletes, enabling them to thrive.

It called to mind the recent efforts of the Lawn Tennis Association [LTA]. Last year, Kate-Warne Holland, the Under-14 girls’ captain at the LTA, told the Leaders Performance Institute that UK pandemic restrictions compelled them to host the majority of competitions in the midlands of England where all players and coaches could travel with relative convenience. The LTA has kept these tournaments due to their transformative performance and development benefits.

“They were so valuable and they were encouraging the private coaches to be there and coach on court,” said Warne-Holland. “It provided an opportunity for the coaches to develop the players right in front of them. So they weren’t on a balcony, watching four matches, and then going home and working on it. We allowed and encouraged them to sit on court so they were able to impact on the player immediately.”

And it’s not just athletes. Performance programmes can be so much more effective when the leaders understand their people’s motivations and how they are doing away from the practice facility. Innovations can emerge from all quarters through the right levels of challenge and support.

6. Fail cheaply and learn fast

Instead of large-scale, resource-intensive projects, focus on failing cheaply in lower stakes environments and learning quickly. As a roundtable attendee suggested, you could have small cohorts of people testing and working on projects safe in the knowledge they have not been tasked with finding the ‘perfect’ solution prior to testing.

By John Portch

When Mike Anthony, the Head of High Performance at New Zealand Rugby, spoke at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne in February, the new All Blacks Head Coach, Scott Robertson, was sat in the audience.

Robertson then, just as now, had yet to take charge of a match. His first opportunities will come against England in a two-Test series in July, shortly after conclusion of the club rugby season.

“He’s got nine days to prepare for two Tests against England and, obviously, they can start their planning now, but they won’t get those athletes till then,” said Anthony with the tone of a person well-versed in the public scrutiny that greets the All Blacks and the New Zealand women’s national team, the Black Ferns, at every turn in their homeland.

“There’s an expectation on our teams in black that they should win everything all the time.”

This idea was prominent in the minds of New Zealand Rugby when, in 2022, the organisation launched its Strategy 2025. Their aim is for the Black Ferns to retain the Women’s World Cup in 2025 and the All Blacks to continue building towards winning the 2027 World Cup. It’s world domination, but not at all costs.

“There’s an expectation that we will continue to win, so while that’s really important to us, the way we win is critical,” added Anthony.

Strategy 2025 is New Zealand Rugby’s post-pandemic reset and, as their website states, a ‘launch pad to be bold in reimagining rugby – to look at every aspect of the game and ensure it is enjoyable, sustainable and well-positioned for any futures challenges’.

Here, the Leaders Performance Institute sets out what that looks like in practice.

The Rugby Way

As part of Strategy 2025, New Zealand Rugby is promoting Te Ara Ranga Tira, which translates from Māori as ‘The Rugby Way’. Anthony said: “This is how we want to operate as an organisation, not just within New Zealand Rugby but in rugby across the country.”

The Rugby Way sets out four guiding principles that are not just about how the game is played on the field but how it is represented, managed and integrated into the community.

1. Be welcoming (Te pou maioha): rugby is a game for all, regardless of backgrounds, beliefs or identity.
2. Be our best (Te pou hiranga): a striving for excellence on and off the field, driven by a belief that rugby can improve people’s lives.
3. Be passionate (Te pou ihilhi): a belief that rugby builds communities and fosters a lifelong love of the game.
4. Play fair (Te pou tika): this means acting with honesty and integrity at all times.

These all emphasise the importance of respect, unity, passion and fairness, which are fundamental to the spirit of rugby in New Zealand. Underneath those values are Strategy 2025’s four strategic pillars across the sport, namely:

1. Winning with mana: the bringing together of on and off-field support structures to allow for optimal performance.
2. Rugby at the heart of our communities: growing rugby at the grassroots level – its source of strength.
3. Loved game, loved brands: through increased understanding of fans and customers, creating elite sporting experiences and lifelong attachment to teams and brands.
4. Unleashing rugby’s commercial potential: seeking increased investment and developing a sustainable operating model for the future.

Anthony largely focused on the first in Melbourne – winning with mana.

What is ‘winning with mana’?

Strategy 2025 promotes the notion of ‘thriving people, thriving game’; and mana is central to that aspiration. It is a Māori concept encompassing honour, status and spiritual power – and it can only be earned. “It’s something bestowed on you,” said Anthony. ‘Winning with mana’ means winning in a way that enhances the mana of all those involved through actions on and off the field. “We want to be ruthless on the field; we want to be a team that’s feared and respected. But also off the field, that’s the humility piece; how we’re perceived.”

‘Winning with mana’ tends to manifest itself in five ways in New Zealand Rugby:

1. Smooth inductions and soft exits

New Zealand Rugby seeks to induct people in the right way while ensuring their connection to the team endures. Anthony cited the example of the New Zealand men’s rugby sevens, where the co-captains will routinely go out of their way to meet new young players – most just out of high school – at the airport. The other end of the cycle is just as important. Scott Robertson is set to lose players from his squad with more than 150 appearances between them. “How do you retain some of that DNA? What are some of the things you’re retaining in that environment?” Expect All Blacks and Black Ferns alumni to be part of the future picture.

2. Teams rooted in their community

While not all examples are so extreme or prominent, the All Blacks delivered on their commitment to their community following the flooding at Hawke’s Bay in February 2023. They participated in the clean-up efforts and provided both community and emotional support while raising public awareness.

3. Learning, stimulation and fun

While Anthony explained his view that true performance cultures are tough places in which to survive, there is a balance to be struck between learning, stimulation and fun. During a match week, the All Blacks’ schedule will be front-loaded, with intense work and analysis done on Mondays and Tuesdays, before giving way to opportunities to socialise, decompress and eat meals together ahead of the weekend.

4. Learning that goes beyond classroom

Anthony explained that recruits to rugby in New Zealand are not necessarily “students of the game.” It is an increasingly common observation across other sports too. They will do as they are told without necessarily seeking out information. As such, New Zealand Rugby has worked to manufacture more organic learning environments. Anthony is full of praise for the Auckland-based Blues in Super Rugby, who reacted to their empty analysis suite by starting to put laptops in their café. “Players could grab a coffee and something to eat and sit around and you’d just start to talk about the game.”

5. Family voices heard

A Rugby World Cup campaign can mean players spending up to ten weeks away from their loved ones. It is not conducive to stable home environments. New Zealand Rugby invites families into the team environment and sets out expectations and demands. The families can also feed back and, thanks to this process, they now spend a couple of nights inside the camp on each tour.

By Rachel Woodland and Lottie Wright

When Emma Springham was promoted to British Triathlon’s Olympic Pathway Coach in January 2023, her appointment was seen as a no-brainer inside the organisation.

“Emma was an exceptional coach who was a perfect fit for the role she applied for,” said Matt Jefferson, who serves as British Triathlon’s Head of Performance, People, and Culture Development.

“We didn’t compromise on having the right coach with the right athletes to meet a ‘quota’ or strategic aim,” he continued. “We took her development seriously, worked with her and supported her as a person and a coach.”

Many of you will know from experience that this is not always the case for women coaches and practitioners at numerous organisations across the high performance world.

Springham and Jefferson joined the Leaders Performance Institute for the April Women’s High Performance Community call so they could share their insights into equality of opportunity at British Triathlon.

Setting the scene

Triathlon is founded on equality – men and women compete in the same activities over the same distances. It’s also a relatively young sport, which frees it of the history and shackles that hinder some other sports.

Whilst there’s wider work happening at British Triathlon around participation, for the team approaching representation within coaching, their first step is to match the athletes that they’re working with.

A strand of the recently launched High Performing Coach Strategy is ‘to build a coaching workforce that is representative of the wider triathlon community.’

British Triathlon’s female coach mentoring programme

To action this, Michelle Hayden, British Triathlon’s Head of Coaching, led the creation of a female coach mentoring programme that used existing performance team members and those known to the organisation as mentors. The programme involved a series of engagements, with some access to high performance environments and coaches. It also included giving access to high performance coach development work, specifically during British Triathlon’s annual Performance Learning Week. A WhatsApp community for the group was created, as well as one for all the female coaches who applied.

British Triathlon requested applications to be submitted in a video format with applicants explaining a bit about themselves and why they felt the programme would support their development. Over 30 people applied, generating over six hours of video. British Triathlon watched each and every video so they could give each applicant feedback.

The videos also helped Jefferson gain an understanding of perceptions of high performance coaching and barriers to female coaches progressing within the sport; and people’s previous experiences revealed that part of making performance coaching roles attractive is to make sure they are fully understood.

‘Never compromise the person for performance’

Springham, Jefferson and the wider system have become increasingly aware of the potential barriers for women entering an elite environment. For example, three athletes on their programme took time out to have children during this shortened Olympic and Paralympic cycle. For coaches, there is the question of access and opportunity.

To address the question for coaches, British Triathlon, before they assume there is something wrong with the coach as an employee or prospective employee, will consider whether their jobs were attractive to women, and, if not, how do they make them more attractive? Considerations included:

• Acknowledging that the barriers can change; and subsequently being proactive in reassessing and reflecting on how to approach these in their environment.
• Discussions around role adverts – part-time working, flexibility, being more upfront about the requirements of a role. For example, swimming at specific times isn’t negotiable, hours worked outside fixed session times are very flexible.
• British Triathlon’s philosophy continues to reaffirm no one has been hired because of compromise in the expectations placed on the person earning the role, it is always the right coach, in the right place, at the right time.

Wider questions that British Triathlon have considered in their talent pathway relate to all environments:

• Is your organisation somewhere that everyone can find their place within? Do people belong there, how do you know and why do, or don’t, they?
• What could this look like in your sport or organisation if you didn’t have to fight the barriers presented by the history of the sport?

For example, Jefferson re-emphasised that Springham’s employment serves as a testament to the organisation’s commitment to supporting female pathway development.

The power of mentors and sponsors on female talent pathways

British Triathlon recognises that female coaches often lack the advocacy and networking opportunities afforded to their male counterparts. Jefferson strongly identified a barrier to this as women feeling uneasy about seeking out a career ‘sponsor’.

Recognising Springham’s dedication, British Triathlon believed it imperative to proactively facilitate opportunities for her, championing and supporting her journey to prevent her from having to forge ahead alone. This commitment stems from the understanding that showcasing exceptional female coaches as role models is pivotal for inspiring future generations. As Jefferson highlighted, “if they don’t see it, they can’t believe they can be it.”

It’s been important to work on the perceptions around a woman asking for help, this shouldn’t be seen as a negative. Providing support is integral to keeping people in the building once they have pushed open the door.

Both British Triathlon and Springham have been aware that a pragmatic approach and willingness to compromise in suitable areas is important to making it work too. Questions often asked include ‘what do you need?’ but when it’s new ground being broken, that can be difficult to answer. However, if the culture reinforces that there is support and an appetite to help make it work, it’s easier to collaborate to work out what is needed. The stories shared during the mentoring programme agenda helped to shape expectations and provide clarity to all sides.

As such, leaders who role model behaviours, such as leaving to pick up the children or openly talking about other family tasks to be completed, help, especially at British Triathlon where there are men taking this approach too.

Helping women coaches to fight impostor syndrome 

Springham candidly shared her thoughts around dealing with impostor syndrome, which is all too common in prospective female coaches in particular. She admitted that it might never go away, but that we can use it in the right way to remind ourselves of the work and successes that have been achieved to get to where we are. She has a support network that will help to remind her of this, and she will take five minutes out to remind herself if need be.

As Springham said, we have to train ourselves to think of the positives if the negatives creep in.

An exercise to consider: “Take five minutes to remind yourself through written word or in your head, the journey you’ve taken to get where you are. This rebuilds your confidence and resilience.”

Reflections

Jefferson highlighted the importance of not letting resources and funding be a barrier to change. Much of the programme that British Triathlon introduced didn’t cost anything, or didn’t cost very much, such as the WhatsApp group, or visits to elite environments. Jefferson and Springham suggested starting tangible initiatives to help every organisation to build communities organically, such as women’s support groups, coffee mornings, group chats, or community channels.

The community had the opportunity to ask the duo some questions on this topic and engage in meaningful discussions about their experiences in their own organisations, from the likes of UKSI to Scottish Golf.

British Triathlon encouraged the community to consider the following questions for their future development:

1. Is our organisation somewhere people can find a sense of belonging?”
2. “What do we want our organisation to look like in the future? What’s the tangible step we can take in that direction?”

You can read more about Springham’s journey and her involvement with the Women’s Performance Coaching Programme here.

Final thoughts

Representation matters: cultivate coaching teams that reflect the diversity of your community.

Supportive environments: foster cultures that prioritise work-life balance and support female coaches.

Combat imposter syndrome: looking inward as an organisation, regularly celebrate achievements and the journey to help bolster confidence and resilience.

Resourceful solutions: meaningful change doesn’t always require significant financial investment; prioritise simple, effective initiatives.

Community engagement: create spaces for open dialogue and reflection to drive meaningful progress.

By John Portch

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

In 2022, the Australian Institute of Sport [AIS] began to devise its High Performance 2032+ Sport Strategy. It launched at the end of that year and would align all peak bodies associated with Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports in a national high-performance strategy; more than 50 organisations united behind one vision, purpose and mission as Australia builds towards success at the 2032 Brisbane Games on home soil.

Yet six weeks into the development of the strategy, a cohort of Australian Paralympians, past, present and future, approached Matti Clements, the Executive General Manager of Performance at the AIS, and told her they would not commit to the strategy because they felt like an afterthought.

“Our system has been created around able-bodied athletes and they felt they were just a consideration once everything else had been done,” Clements told an audience at the 2023 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London. “For them to belong to this, they needed to see themselves as part of the strategy, so we made a very considered commitment to them to ensure inclusive design for all our programmes and frameworks.”

Coaches and their wellbeing were another common afterthought. “Athletes are at the centre of high performance, but it’s coach-led and coach-informed,” said Clements. If Australia is to find, develop and retain their best talent, then coach wellbeing is a prerequisite to performance.

It’s a topic addressed by the system’s Win Well Pledge (a component of the 2032+ Strategy), which aims to create an inclusive and sustainable high-performance sporting system that prioritises both performance and wellbeing.

“Our vision is really simple: we win well to inspire Australians,” Clements added. “People think it’s a) expensive; b) hard work; c) someone else’s responsibility – it’s none of those things – if we can all commit to it, we can all achieve it.”

The AIS has adopted an “ecological” wellbeing model that considers four sets of challenges: the individual, organisational, interpersonal and the wider Australian system. Here, we look at each in turn through a coaching lens.

The individual

Whatever the situation, the AIS is there to help every individual. For example, Australian coaches concerned about their mental wellbeing can use the AIS Mental Health Referral Network. It is a national service where athletes, coaches and high performance support staff can see a mental health professional for free confidential support. It was launched in 2018 primarily for athletes but is increasingly used by coaches. That said, coaches do not necessarily need help with their mental health. It could be a single parent with two children or a coach that needs help to improve their diet, nutrition and lifestyle.

The organisation

National governing bodies are increasingly aware of issues for coaches at home, or indeed abroad. They tend to be away for 16-18 weeks a year and, to compound matters, long haul flights invariably await them. That typical scenario comes with a sense of guilt because families are being left behind but coaches are excited travel and compete. As part of the redress, the national governing bodies of Australian sport started to involve families in discussions around coaching schedules.

The interpersonal

Conversations and connection are everything. Too often Australia’s coaches speak of being ill-equipped to manage the pressures of their role or the isolation they experience. Now, the national governing bodies arrange for coaches to meet and share challenges and experiences in facilitated forums. Bill Davoren, the AIS High Performance Coach Development Manager, who joined Clements onstage to discuss their strategy, spoke of a coach at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, who came under intense media scrutiny following adverse results for her athlete (who nevertheless went on to claim gold). He said: “That coach spoke openly about the support that she got from others through the connections and experiences that she had.”

The system

The system is Australian and, on one hand, that means doing things in a “uniquely Australian way,” as Clements put it, which also means calling upon the nation’s rich Indigenous culture in an effort to emphasise sharing, vulnerability and support. She added: “We have the longest living culture in the world, yet we are white and middle-class and we do not utilise the knowledge of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peers about passing on knowledge from generation to generation.”

By John Portch

Ben Baroody’s department at the Texas Rangers is unique in Major League Baseball: it is focused on both player and staff development.

As such, his job title appears to cover every base: Director of Leadership & Staff Development, Player Enrichment Programs, & Mind Health.

“It’s a little fancier in title than in execution,” Baroody told the Leaders Performance Podcast of his role in January. “I think it comes down to a big emphasis on personal growth and development.”

Other elements of his work have been covered elsewhere. Below, we focus on staff development, which is too often neglected across MLB, although the league is not alone in that regard.

“We coined the phrase holistic human development,” Baroody continued. “Our business model as an organisation is to go out and win baseball games and I think helping the individual grow and develop translates to on-field success as well.”

The Rangers’ approach to staff development raises three questions that all teams can ask themselves.

1. Do you have the right people in the decision-making room?

Baroody’s department stands alone in several regards but it is not an island. His team collaborates with other areas of baseball ops and the Rangers front office to ensure their staff development efforts resonate. “Most of the leadership on the baseball side have been players or coaches, so they understand the pressure,” he said, adding that they work together to establish priorities and emphases. “I collaborate with them on what kind of programmes we’re developing or what type of questions we are facilitating for individuals or group discussions knowing that their perspective on being a player or a being coach is priceless.”

2. How can you help people establish the right habits and routines?

Burning the candle at both ends is a road to nowhere. Baroody suggested focusing on the habits and routines that build in balance and self-care. “Being at the ballpark 14 hours a day probably doesn’t help if you’re burnt out by mid-season,” he said. He vividly recalled a time when he skated close to burnout. “On paper I may have been successful but my wellbeing may have been suffering. I didn’t have balance, I didn’t have the security, I was compromising a lot, but when I really dedicated and focused on my wellbeing it tapped into parts of me that I never knew I had.” How balance and self-care look depends on the person. “Every individual must find and determine that for themselves is when I’m at my best. What does it look like? What helps me be the best version I can be or what detracts from me showing up consistently? It comes down to what’s most important and how to prioritise [those things] and build a system in which you can stay consistent with them.”

3. Where can you help your staff to have the biggest impact?

Baroody said it is important for staff members to know the resonant and beneficial elements of their work so that they can have an “exponential impact on the players”. This does not happen automatically. The Rangers took their staff on a week-long development retreat in the off-season. It was, as Baroody explained, “about posing different questions and helping guys understand who they are what they do well and [then] lean into those items.” Each and every staff member could probably write a long list of areas where they could improve, but Baroody told them: “‘let’s focus on the ones that are critical to the impact of your role and responsibility rather than chasing every white rabbit in every opportunity’.”

Ben Baroody also features in our Performance Special Report Human Flourishing: a Snapshot of Wellbeing in the High Performance Landscape. He is joined by the AFL, Australian Institute of Sport and Harlequins to discuss wellbeing as the centrepiece of their performance planning.

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By Luke Whitworth, Sarah Evans & Rachel Woodland

What does your performance strategy look like for your female athletes?

There is sure to be an element that hones in on female athlete health, a topic that brought together members of the Leaders Performance Institute for a virtual roundtable at the end of February.

While there are gains being made in high performance environments across the world of sport, there are enduring challenges in addressing female athlete health that require more time, resource and expertise.

The first part of the group discussion highlighted five common areas of focus. They were:

1. Antenatal and maternity policy

Policy around pregnancy, particularly in the case of athletes, is an issue that came up in all quarters. One of the primary concerns is that policies are dependent on your context or sport. For example, it is proving challenging to implement a single, coherent policy across the multisport and multidiscipline Olympic or Paralympic system. One attendee made the point that a clear policy provides the basis for education within high performance environments.

2. RED-S

RED-S [relative energy deficiency in sport] is a condition that occurs when athletes do not get enough fuel to support their energy demands. Research has found that if RED-S isn’t treated sufficiently, there can be possible negative impacts on reproductive health, bone health, immunity, metabolism, cardiovascular and psychological health. Insights from the call outlined that the reason why RED-S is a large focus in many sports is the lack of education and expertise within teams to sufficiently support athletes. A number of attendees shared that they are implementing formal screening for RED-S across both female and male athletes – RED-S can also affect the male population – and formal education for both athletes and staff. As well as providing opportunities to learn about RED-S, this approach is beginning to create an environment where people feel more comfortable talking about the topic. Finally, it was not lost on the table that there’s an opportunity to work with younger age groups, to begin education early, especially as they go through puberty.

3. The impact of the menstrual cycle

There is an increasing amount of research into the impact of the menstrual cycle on performance output. People are investing time and resource in data collation to better understand athletes’ cycles. This enhanced understanding then informs athletes’ development programmes and provides better education opportunities for both athletes and, just as importantly, the staff that are responsible for the design and delivery of athlete development programmes.

4. Pelvic floor health

Conversations on female athlete health have tended to focus on the menstrual cycle, which is important, but pelvic floor health has often been overlooked, as some attendees admitted. There is an increase in high performance discussions around pelvic floor health but, given that it has rarely been a focus, some are starting at the bottom when it comes to those conversations and finding opportunities for education.

5. Breast health

While breast health was not discussed in such depth, it remains a cornerstone of female athlete health strategies. One attendee spoke of their environment investing time into bra fitting (taking an individualised approach) and, again, education.

Other factors that impact on female athlete health strategies

Firstly, without sufficient education, we aren’t upskilling everyone in our environments. Foundational health education for coaches and athletes is an important tool for raising awareness, improving understanding and helping people to recognise and act, both in a preventative and proactive manner. Also, we shouldn’t be blindsided by the idea of just focusing on athlete education at the upper end of the pathway. There is an opportunity to embed a clear education strategy throughout an entire pathway.

Secondly, entry screening should be a core component of our programmes in order to provide baseline data and insights where we can tailor opportunities for our athletes over time.

Thirdly, the importance of creating spaces for discussion. Some attendees shared that there are still challenges with pushback from other disciplines, notably coaches when it comes to female athlete health. With this challenge in mind, a number of sports shared how they are trying to create organic, open spaces for both athletes and staff to come together to engage in discussions around topics such as the above in order to make a positive impact.

Environmental and resource-based challenges in female athlete health

Environmental and resource-based challenges persist for female athlete health strategies. Those explored by the table in the second part of the discussion can be broadly divided into three areas:

1. Cultural misalignment

One trend is a lack of openness to engage in discussions around female athlete health in an environment due to insufficient education and alignment. A couple of different sports shared that despite a baseline understanding of the importance of female athlete health, there is still pushback around certain education resources and adapted training programmes. Whilst we were discussing some of the cultural challenges that still remain, it was also noted how improving engagement and breaking down communication barriers are also challenging, particularly in enabling a combination of knowledge and skills training for athletes and staff.

2. Education and guidance

One participant shared that the big question around education for them is how to make knowledge stick and how to know if we are being impactful. This is certainly relevant for athletes and staff, although it was noted that education in their environment is particularly important for staff. It is fair to say that there was an agreement that we are still searching for the best methods of education to make the most impact. As noted above, the wider notion of policy and guidance seems to be proving to be a challenge.

3. Resources and expertise

Many sports are still trying to build sport-specific guidance on female athlete health and best practice. Although research in this space is becoming more apparent, there is still a paucity of clear guidance available, especially due to the specific sporting contexts we are operating in. Another popular response was simply a lack of in-house expertise in our environments – some sports are looking for the right signposts and opportunities to bring experts in to provide continued professional development. Funding and financial challenges are also being felt – that to be ‘doing female athlete health well’, more research, guidance and, in some instances, financial support, is required. In some women’s sport, that opportunity isn’t currently present.

By Rachel Woodland

With more resource and focus on women’s talent pathways than ever before, how are we using the momentum generated to ensure that the optimal environments are being created to support more women in their quest to reach elite levels of performance?

We’ll be exploring this topic throughout the year, but took time at The Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne in early February to learn from the AFL [Australian Football League] and High Performance Sport New Zealand [HPSNZ].

Helene Wilson, the Women in High Performance Lead at High Performance Sport New Zealand, took to the stage at the Glasshouse alongside Tarkyn Lockyer, National Academy Manager & Coach at the AFL. Knitting together the conversation was moderator Sonya Thompson, the Head of National Development at Cricket Australia.

The current landscape

The AFL have set their sights on supporting athletes in their pathways so that, as Lockyer said, “when they get their opportunity [in the senior game] they can step in and thrive – and change the game.”

Given their purpose, the AFL’s pathway programme is developing athletes to be adaptable and malleable so that they will be prepared for any one of the 18 different club environments into which they may be drafted.

Whilst funding levels are the same for the men’s and women’s pathways, the structure of the programmes has focused on different elements. To this point in time, for example, the women’s pathway has had to cover gaps in knowledge when it comes performance support in areas such as recovery and preparation.

At HPSNZ, as Wilson told us, they’re supporting regionally-based teams who might include aspirational, podium, or team athletes. This, combined with other factors, means that across their programmes “how we get there has to be different.”

Specifically, when it comes to supporting women’s needs in the pathway to perform their best, the focus is holistic support. The reality is that the pathways are supporting the athletes in their pursuit of developing transferable skills as they can’t guarantee their athletic career will generate enough earnings.

Staff pathways

It’s important that we don’t neglect the importance of staff roles within pathways. The AFL, as Lockyer told us, are hopeful that there’ll be more opportunities for women in coaching in the future. Women coaches provide a different perspective, and the AFL don’t underestimate the importance of a well-rounded coaching body. This is true regardless of whether it’s the women’s or men’s programme.

As well as providing the opportunities, the support around the women coaches, once they are in their roles, needs to be put in place. “We have to set them up to be successful,” said Wilson, whose experiences teach us that women coaches tend to bring more emotional intelligence to their work. The staff as a collective need to each have their points of difference, especially as a head coach can’t be everything to everyone.

Wilson also reminded us that part of this is the education of the athletes too. For example, at the moment, numerous male athletes don’t know of many women who hold coaching positions. In addition to her primary duties at HPSNZ, Wilson holds the role of the New Zealand men’s netball team Head Coach too. She firmly believes that if you can apply your coaching practices in a different setting you’ll become a better coach. In coaching the men’s team, Wilson has witnessed how the men apply and execute the same skills differently, which requires a different approach from her as their coach.

Pathway frameworks

Regardless of who the staff are we need to provide clarity to the athlete and find ways to integrate, not duplicate, the different areas of expertise within the staffing team. We need everyone pulling in one direction, and that is the direction that is best for the player.

At the AFL, a formal instrument underpins this, through their athlete management system. Within the HPSNZ network, it’s important that there’s connection down and up the pathway to the national level. They also approach the emotional space first and help athletes navigate learning, so that they have had a brilliant learning opportunity even if it transpires that they aren’t good enough to progress through the pathway. Each athlete needs someone who’s providing personal and learning support, and at each transition the learning needs to be anticipated.

The AFL’s frameworks support fundamentals and creativity within the game as well as an environment of high support and high challenge – all whilst not forgetting that creating an atmosphere that is fun shouldn’t be overlooked.

Wilson shared how important it is to get repetitions of training and execution; and to learn through others and in playing up. We can learn so much, and gain so much, by playing with those who are at different points of the pathway. It’ll support athletes in their transition moments; and casual conversations are powerful in creating lasting motivation and establishing role models.

Both Wilson and Lockyer emphasised the importance of reducing the pressure to be perfect, and making sure there are structured play sessions within the programming. How can we stretch these talented athletes through creativity? Balancing progress with deliberately forcing them to fail. All whilst creating an environment that lets each athlete be themselves.

Future-focused

For Wilson, the dream is that we won’t be talking about women in high performance coaching. We’ll have diverse staff teams and aiming for points of difference through the coaching team. We need to have ways for athletes to stay in high performance sport outside of playing. We will get to 50:50 splits in funding in those roles, but that will come through equity not equality.

For Lockyer, the language will change to ‘one game, our game’ and the women’s league will be one of the competitions, not the women’s. The more rounded we can be as a team, with the diversity of thinking across the team, a better platform will be created for everyone.

To achieve this Wilson added that women have a responsibility to know, articulate and show their value; and it’ll take mentoring to achieve that aim.