{"id":8170,"date":"2022-03-08T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=8170"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:32:08","slug":"10-performance-lessons-from-women-in-sport-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/10-performance-lessons-from-women-in-sport-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Performance Lessons from Women in Sport and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 8 Mar 2022 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

10 Performance Lessons from Women in Sport and Beyond<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On International Women\u2019s Day, we reflect on the pivotal roles played by women across high performance sport.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

From the front offices to the locker rooms via the psychologist\u2019s couch, we bring you ten performance lessons from the Leaders Performance Institute vaults that continue to resonate today.<\/p>\n

1. Athletes need to feel a sense of belonging<\/strong><\/p>\n

The WNBA is renowned for its advocacy of social justice issues and one of the its leading lights, the Seattle Storm, have been at the vanguard under CEO and President Alisha Valavanis<\/a>. Backed by one of sports few all-female leadership groups in Force 10 Hoops LLC, the Storm has won three championships and made every effort to ensure the players find an inclusive, cohesive locker room where everyone is committed to representing the Storm\u2019s vest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with establishing personal relationships and building relationships on trust and connection so that players can share with us what their hopes are off the court,\u201d said Valavanis, speaking to the Leaders Performance Institute in 2020. \u201cThere\u2019s a real intentional effort to learn all about all of the individuals in our organisation and we certainly have conversations with players on how we can support them and make sure that everyone is clear what it means to be part of this organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Engage your athletes in their development<\/strong><\/p>\n

When athletes feel secure then you can empower them in both their personal development and the collective. \u201cI\u2019m a big believer in getting players to collaborate, present back, research, share with the group, present to the coaching group and vice versa,\u201d said Jess Thirlby<\/a>, the Head Coach of the England netball team on the Leaders Performance Podcast in 2020. \u201cIt\u2019s a good way for me to check understanding from the group and it helps inform how to set direction and invest my energy when I hear the playing group back and they\u2019ve demonstrated really sound understanding of themselves and the opposition and, not only that, but coming up with ways in which we\u2019re going to pit strengths against their weaknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Make space in your schedule for independent development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thirlby\u2019s emphasis on empowerment is matched by Lucy Skilbeck<\/a>, the Director of Actor Training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art [RADA]. \u201cOne of the things we\u2019re looking at is how we can develop a more facilitative relationship with the student and how we make more space within the timetable for the student\u2019s independent development,\u201d she told a Leaders Performance Institute Webinar in 2021. \u201cWe\u2019re also looking at how can we foster in them a greater sense of independence and understanding of themselves as artists and actors; as people who can make and create work as well as deliver other people\u2019s work. Pedagogically, how do we work with them to facilitate the growth of their individuality rather than a monocultural process?\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Take a step back<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paula Dunn<\/a> is the Head Coach of the Paralympic Programme at British Athletics. Ahead of the delayed Tokyo Games, where her team claimed 24 medals, she spoke of the perils of micromanaging. \u201cI thought I had to be in charge, I had to be tough, I had to work the longest hours, I had to have all the answers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s never good to have a decision made by one person, so I\u2019ve tried to work with my team, understanding what their motivations are, and just being honest when I just don\u2019t know something or if I\u2019ve had issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Is the athlete\u2019s real competition the challenge of fulfilling their potential?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anne Keothavong<\/a>, the Captain of the Great Britain Fed Cup tennis team, is engaged in the development of the nation\u2019s players and knows that no corners can be cut. As she told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2018, the challenges can differ from player to player. She said: \u201cEvery player represents a different case, depending on where they\u2019re ranked and how old they are, how long they\u2019ve been playing professionally, and what targets they need to hit. I\u2019m not involved on a day to day basis but when I see them in a training or competition environment I\u2019m looking out for whether they\u2019re improving, consistently working on those goals, and the other things they want to focus on to help make them a better tennis player.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Track athletic development through relevant tests<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best data can be linked to specific tests and Kate Weiss<\/a>, the Director of Sports Science at the Seattle Mariners, walked viewers through a hypothetical process with a pitcher at our February Webinar. \u201cWhen they come in, we\u2019re going to test range of motion, we\u2019re going to test movement capacity; how are they going to move in a general sense and a baseball-specific sense,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at the different components of strength, speed, power, we\u2019re going to look at body composition. All these different things that we know contribute to and help support what they do on the field. Then what we\u2019re going to do is look at the on-field data and link that back and go \u2018OK, maybe there\u2019s issues with their shoulder separation on the mound.\u2019 We\u2019re going to look through everything and go \u2018OK, is it coming from a range of motion issue? Is it coming from just a movement capacity issue?\u2019 Or if it\u2019s not those things maybe it\u2019s just a coaching issue that we have to work on and come up with specific drills.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. Data: spend less time capturing data and more time analysing and feeding back<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor data capture and analysis, we have a mantra at the EIS: \u2018we should spend less time capturing data and more time analysing and feeding back\u2019,\u201d said Julia Wells<\/a>, the Head of Performance Analysis at the English Institute of Sport. \u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s been rooted in us since the inception of our Performance Analysis team.\u201d She and her team supported Great Britain\u2019s athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Games and, as she told the Leaders Performance Institute in the aftermath, they prioritise harnessing the latest tech and relationships with the end users. \u201cThe software available now is immense,\u201d she added. \u201cThere\u2019s so much to choose from, which can be a challenge but we honed in on data visualisation and our ability to translate data into usable insights.\u201d<\/p>\n

8. Do not attempt to separate emotion from performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sports Psychologist Mia Stellberg<\/a> feels attempting to shut down emotions is counterproductive for athletes. \u201cThe more they can understand emotions, they can explain and understand what they are feeling or how that feeling came to occur is the first step,\u201d she told the Leaders Performance Podcast in 2021. \u201cWe can never control anything that we are not aware of. So you need to be aware of your emotions, sometimes this is the most tricky part of my work, to talk about emotions to young guys at age 20 who just want to rule the world, play and win the title! Then the second step is understanding how that feeling occurs or what needs to happen before it pops up, so if we want to prevent negative feelings we have to understand what happens before it comes so that we can learn how to control, how to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. Embrace risk, expand comfort zones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mental performance coach V\u00e9ronique Richard<\/a>, who has worked with Cirque du Soleil as well as a variety of sports organisations, attempts to cultivate \u2018risk-friendly\u2019 environments. \u201cRisk needs to be part of your environment,\u201d she told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2018. Richard strives to foster the conditions for enhanced skill development in the athletes and performance artists with whom she works. In short, she introduces an element of chaos. \u201cBy working through that mess, people actually increase their repertoires of thoughts and actions, which contributes to creativity,\u201d she said. \u201cFirst, I ask the athlete: \u2018what are you avoiding not because you\u2019re not skilled enough but because it makes you uncomfortable?\u2019 There\u2019s all sorts of things we don\u2019t do because of discomfort; it can be technical, tactical psychological, emotional, personal, ego and then, as a leader, your role is to find the right stimuli to bring the person to explore discomfort and bring people to work in this zone of discomfort; and if you manage that successfully you actually expand their zone of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

10. Do your athletes know where to turn for help?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2019, the Australian Institute of Sport established its Career & Education Practitioner referral network, as Matti Clements<\/a>, the acting CEO, explained in her former role as Deputy Director of Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement. \u201cThat is practitioners who can provide high level expertise on vocational pathways. It\u2019s referral-in and we\u2019ll cover the costs of all podium-plus-level athletes and coaches,\u201d she told an audience at Leaders Meet: Wellbeing. The AIS also provides help for the athlete wellbeing & engagement managers with the provision of a personal development programme. \u201cThis is so that we can ensure a level of risk management and skillset across those people. What we\u2019ve done is invite the whole system, including professional sports, into that education and we\u2019re creating community practice hubs so that they can actually have some peer support; it\u2019s led by us, but there\u2019s peer support there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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