To celebrate International Women's Day, here is a blog written by our Lead Bikeability Instructor, Lydia Walker.
UK Coaching – Women into Higher Performance
In October 2019, myself and 14 other coaches from across the UK were inducted onto UK Coaching’s signature female only coaching programme. British Cycling had put me forward for the programme and after a lengthy interview process, I was accepted.
Women into High Performance, or WiHP, is all about supporting female coaches who have the potential to transition into high performance coaching. This included coming together for seminars, working with a coach developer and observing each others coaching. All the women came from a broad spectrum of sports including football, rugby, athletics, gymnastics, shooting, hockey and cycling.
During seminars we shared our own practices and reflected on our experiences to develop a better understanding of issues and challenges as a female coach, and how to positively overcome them. We were encouraged to do some self-reflection around ourselves, first as people, then as coaches. This is something I’d never done before but found it really beneficial in developing my own coaching style. I learned a lot from listening to other coaches and learning about their experiences in sport. I wanted to absorb as much advice from more experienced coaches as I could!
As part of the WiHP programme, British Cycling enabled me to shadow some of the Team GB coaches and participate in their private elite sessions. This allowed me to work with some of the junior riders on the Talent Pathway while they prepared for international competition.
We were also lucky enough to be joined for dinner by Penny Briscoe OBE, Paralympics GB Chef de Mission. Penny gave us an inspiring talk, taking us through her life from her work as a PE teacher to becoming the Director of Sport for Paralympics GB – and everything in-between.
