Rowing Ireland, Athletics Ireland, Boxing IABA, Cycling Ireland and Triathlon Ireland coaches came together on Sunday 6th November for the inaugural Women in Coaching Network Event at the Clayton Hotel, Liffey Valley. 

The collaborative event, organised by Women In Sport leads from the 5 sports was planned following overwhelming feedback from coaches on various NGB programmes as well as the Sport Ireland Coaching Research results that found that 86% of active female coaches who did not have a network wanted to participate in one. 

The event kicked off with a coffee and breakfast reception and then a series of talks and workshops to develop network skills and community coaching practices was led by the following speakers. Goodie bags were available to participants on arrival also.

Lisa Fallon 

Keynote speaker for the event, Lisa Fallon spoke on her experience in a life through sport and the power of having a network, especially as female coaches. Lisa is known for her illustrious career in soccer where she would have certainly broken down many barriers in order to succeed in achieving her goals.  

Hayley Harrison 

With over 40 years of experience in the coaching field – Hayley is an expert on all things coach development and it was a privilege to have her knowledge, experience and energy to bring the coaches together to get to know each other, themselves and their needs within the network in order to have concrete actionable items at the end of the workshop. Having worked with elite athletes such as Thomas Barr, Hayley has that knowledge of how to get the best from your athletes at the top level, but is also aware of the key role a network plays for women coaching at every level in sport. 

Dr Phil Kearney 

‘’The 4 C’s of Coaching to Optimise Athlete Development’’ 

Dr Phil Kearney is a leading expert in Ireland on motor skill acquisition and lecturers in the University of Limerick on both the undergraduate Sport Science degree and the Master of Coaching and is the co – founder of Movement and Skill Acquisition Ireland. His current main research areas include: 

(1)  Maturation and youth sport.

(2)  Coaches’ knowledge and practices.

(3)  Enhancing practice quality.

Phil led a session about the importance of planning teachable moments within training sessions in order to develop athlete’s abilities in 4 key areas (the 4 C’s). Coaches left with actionable ideas to work into their sessions with ideas from other coaches across the 5 sports. 

A variety of photos below depict some of the action on the day, we look forward to seeing how the coaches will now work together to support each other in their development and practice in order to ensure more female coaches thrive and enjoy sport and coaching for life. 

‘’When women come together with a collective intention, magic happens’’.