Nine coaches with a passion for talent development from across the country were identified to take part in the program, giving them new skills to implement in their clubs.
Melbourne, Australia, 17 September 2024 | Nadia Dimattina
Three years ago, Laura Peart started coaching at Kooyong Tennis Club in Melbourne, with the goal to increase female participation in the sport.
“I think it’s so important to have female coaches for young girls, but also for young boys as well, for all kids – it breaks down a lot of stereotypes to have a female authority figure in the world of sport,” she said.
“I want to help be a person that makes kids fall in love with the sport. I was so lucky to have really great coaches when I first started who made me love it, and so I hope I can be that for other people.”
Peart is one of nine women coaches taking part in a new coaching initiative by Tennis Australia – the Emerging Talent Development Women’s Coach program, funded through the President’s Women in Coaching scholarship.
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“This program is so great, to have so many like-minded, talented, driven young women all in the same space, wanting to achieve the same end goals, working together, bouncing ideas off each other, coming from all parts of the country, bringing their own unique experiences, is so awesome, it’s so special to be a part of, and it means so much,” Peart said.
“Growing up I can only remember one female coach that I’ve ever had, and that’s a lot more than a lot of other girls have had. So it’s so cool that they are doing this.”
Belinda Colaneri, Tennis Australia’s Performance Coach Development Manager, is spearheading the program designed to connect and empower women coaches who are passionate about player development. The program aims to promote a viable coaching pathway, encouraging female coaches to pursue future Player Development coaching roles.
The program is part of Tennis Australia’s overarching Women and Girls Strategy – to support women coaches.
Currently, Tennis Australia has 1,124 women coach members, which has been an increase of 45 per cent in the number of women coaches since 2018.
However women are underrepresented in coaching at the high performance level in Australia, with 19 per cent of high-performance coaches being women.
“We have definitely seen an increase in female coaches in Australia, but the numbers in Player Development aren’t growing as steadily as we’d like. That’s why we’ve focused on gathering a group of likeminded coaches who could potentially be the next wave of Player Development coaches, who could one day coach our next Top 100 player,” Colaneri explained.
The women were able to reflect on their coaching philosophies during the workshops.
Shaye Faulkner is a Junior Development Coach from Queensland, recently starting a new business venture in the Sunshine Coast. She hopes to use the tools she learnt from the program to take her coaching and player development pathway at her business to the next level.
“My philosophy is really believe, pursue, perform, and you believe in yourself being able to achieve your goals and surrounding yourself with people that believe in you, pursue being discipline and turning up every day, having some grit and putting in the hard work. And I feel like if you get both of those things right, you’ll perform in whatever your goals are,” Faulkner said.
Meanwhile, Taegan White from South Australia has already noticed a shift in female participation at her club.
“I run the Ready to Rally pilot program and the No Limits girl squad, and we actually got a lot more girls playing tennis. They’ve never played tennis before, just coming out and just having a go, and then they’ve stayed for the last two terms,” White said.
“They’re really enjoying it and having that sense of social but also competitive play.”
The group of women were lucky enough to meet former world No.4, eight-time Grand slam winner and Australian Billie Jean King Cup captain Sam Stosur for a Q&A session.
Stosur hopes programs like this one can help the number of women coaching and participating in tennis to continue to grow.
“Just to get more and more numbers and more people enjoying the sport that I loved and still love and got so much out of, because there’s no reason why someone else can’t have that experience as well. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said.
The women coaches taking part in the program will be involved in monthly virtual sessions ahead of their next group workshop in November.
