Coach & Player Female Athlete Development
Women’s rugby union, league and touch participation has had massive growth in the last few years which is amazing to see, but the whole sports system was designed by men, for men and it just isn’t set up for girls and women to THRIVE.
When I watch girls play every weekend whether in their local club, on TV in the PWR league or in the internationals, I know that those athletes are doing that in spite of the system being unsupportive of their unique characteristics rather than because the system around them did everything to help enhance their performance (within context) and their well-being.
If you’re reading this, I already know that you, whether as a head coach, a player or a parent already want to do more, hopefully you expect more and want to know where to access that.
‘Women’s health is about PERFORMANCE not about quiet conversations held in closed rooms between women and hoping and praying that things work out. If you want to get the best out of yourself as an athlete, or your players as a coach you HAVE to be working on women’s health as a holistic, performance based approach. No more one-off menstrual health workshops, this is systemic change.
Do you recognise any of these case scenarios (which have actually happened, names changed):
Lily is a powerful forward who is invaluable in defence. She needs to work on her fitness with consistent sessions and she is aiming for that with her coach, however she misses 1 to 2 sessions every month with “period issues”. Her coach is willing to support her and have open conversations but he doesn’t know what to suggest. Her mum thinks it’s something she has to accept as that was her experience too.
Does Lily have to just put up with it and do what she can, when she can? Or can more be done?
Phoebe is a great all rounder, playing centre and a really promising and ambitious player with her coach prepared to support her to reach her potential. She got a relatively minor injury in her lower leg which doesn’t quite stop her playing but means she often stops during training sessions and matches because of the pain. The team physio can’t put a finger on a diagnosis and Phoebe can’t shake the injury all season. She gets quite despondent about it and her mental health suffers as a result. She randomly mentions to one of the coaching team that she doesn’t have regular periods, they’re about every 3-6 months and have been since they started 2 years ago. That coach doesn’t know what to do with that information and so nothing happens.
Phoebe struggles with keeping up in her rugby and worries her ambitions to play professionally are pointless now. Do you know what’s going on here? It’s a complex one!
Milly is a back with great promise, if you can just harness her potential. She does county athletics and is in a dance team. She’s often exhausted for evening training sessions and finds it hard to concentrate and go all in. But when she’s playing a match and get’s the ball, she’s unstoppable.
Exhaustion is really common for student athletes, but is it inevitable?
If we want to see a whole squad of exciting players like Lily, Phoebe and Milly on the pitch, we need to be aware of what to look for, recognise what intervention is needed, support the player and parent to make it realistic in their unique circumstances and monitor or follow up to ensure it’s working.
Each one of the players has a menstrual health and fuelling issue which won’t be solved by a one off workshop because they think this is normal and nothing can be done - it can and in each of these cases, these players are now thriving through easy, highly impactful interventions.
What can I offer your team?
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Through my work supporting coaches I know that you are motivated to learn, super keen to find ways to enhance your players performance and want any intervention to be an easy fit that is genuinely effective in making a difference to what matters most to you:
maximising athlete availability
getting consistent performances
reducing injury risk
helping your athletes to thrive for the long term
The work I’ve done with every rugby team has shown that that’s possible through:
fundamental coach education
understanding the ecosystem you work in to manage expectation and take realistic action
support of all stakeholders to maximise buy-in: parents + players
If you want this for your team you have the following options:
Four x 30 minute coach + parent + player education workshops spread through the year to provide a fundamental base education. Workshops are: Menstrual Cycle 101; Injury Risk Reduction; Fuelling the Student Athlete; The High-Performing & Resilient Athlete.
It is very important that this work is not treated as a one-off so all 4 sessions makes for the most complete, supportive and effective intervention if you only have the resources for this option - £150 per workshop.
Workshop + identified player consults - using the structure above I can come to your club, deliver a 30 minute workshop and then stay on site for 1 more hour to talk with players and/or parents who might need some individual attention - this has been essential in a number of cases so far for players who either don’t realise there’s an issue or don’t think it’s much of a problem. These players were at risk of long term health issues and had problems that meant they missed sessions and were regularly injured - £200 per workshop/consult session.
Consultation with relevant coaching and support staff to develop a strategy to integrate female athlete health within your specific system - contact time, resources, personnel knowledge and availability and where your problem areas are. This could be a one-off (£800 for the visit plus a detailed report), or it could be an initial visit with a number of follow-ups to help integrate the strategy into your system (£300 for initial visit, £150 for each one after that).
Any in person work is subject to reasonable travel costs in addition to the stated fees.
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As a player (or parent of a youth player) you want to know that all that effort you’re putting in is placing you in the best position to gain the most rewards (relevant to your ambition).
But where do you turn if something feels a little off?
you have heavy or very painful periods that stop you from playing or going all in when you train
you have big gaps between your periods OR they haven’t started before you get to age 16
you are getting really tired when you train and aren’t recovering well
you are getting regularly injured and have no idea why
You can get past all these issues - you don’t have to “just put up with it”. Each of these issues are also serious red flags and need an intervention to prevent you at best stalling in reaching your potential, and at worst at risk of longer term health consequences.
Work with me 1-1 for a whole year and it will transform how you approach training, how you recover and how you develop as a student athlete.
Use the contact form below to get in touch and find out more.
Contact
meadowskathryn@gmail.com
07879 452 624
The Studio at Field House
End of Nursery Lane
Wivelsfield Green,
Sussex. RH17 7RB
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