Wednesday 6th September saw 17 female coaches from around the U.K come together to celebrate the importance of understanding their own personality traits in the very first of our “Embedding Confidence in Your Coaching” Training Days.
In partnership with the training and consulting company Sport and Beyond, the group of attending coaches were asked to complete an online Personal Profile Analysis Test before hand in order for the results to be discussed and evaluated throughout the day. The aim of this being for coaches to understand more about themselves, their strengths and how better to articulate them.
The morning was kicked off by 2004 Olympic Silver medallist Gail Emms, who was right at home at the National Badminton Centre having spent her career training at that very arena. Gail introduced the aims of the day and shared her own passion for supporting the development of female leaders and coaches in sport and working towards an increase of more female coaches in sport.
“I want more female coaches, I had one female coach throughout my whole career and she was the most crucial”
Attendees were then treated to a Q&A session with a panel of phenomenal sports women including UEFA Pro license Football Coach Lois Fidler, Olympic Rower Annie Vernon, former GB Assistant Hockey Coach and Rio Gold Medallist Karen Brown and Olympic Silver Medallist Gail Emms, who shared their own experiences as to how different levels of confidence have impacted their sporting careers.
Lead by FCN founder Vicky, questions where asked about each coaches definition of confidence and the need to be a confident leader in order to produce confident athletes:
“Confidence for me is really simple, it’s feeling good about what I am doing” – Karen Brown
“Rowing badly does not make you a bad rower, our performance was always in our control” – Annie Vernon
Olympian and GB 800m athlete Marilyn Okoro, who attended the day from a coaches point of view also joined the discussion sharing her own experiences of being an elite athlete and the tools she uses for remaining confident at the start of a race:
“I would say to myself ‘I’ve prepared for this, I trust my body, I trust my shape’ and that helped me get into my zone”
After a fantastic lunch hour in which all coaches networked and shared their own experiences of coaching successes and failures, the group was split into 4 groups depending upon the results of their PPA test. After a session explaining the theory of the tests and the importance of understanding ones own personality traits, Nic Woolner of Sport and Beyond went on to provide the groups with the tips and tools needed for better understanding the traits of dominance, influence, compliance and steadiness.
The group was asked “how can I use this knowledge to feel more confident as a coach” as Nic explained that her own behavioral trait ‘compliance’ allowed her to recognize she was intimidated by people who had ‘dominance’ traits. It allowed her to adapt her own behavior to get a better outcome of a situation.
“We aren’t trying to put people in a box, just to give you an understanding as to how you and your athletes may work”
Our other Sport and Beyond representative Nicky Horn followed on by making the attending coaches step out of their comfort zone with a card game forcing each coach to stand and reveal their own strengths and how that relates to the results of their behavioral traits.
To finish the day, coaches were asked to make a list and discuss which areas of their life they think they had a growth mindset and a fixed mindset – some interesting answers were revealed! Many coaches admitted that their mindeset changed depending on their current experiences and situations and how far out of their comfort zone they are.
All coaches had great fun connecting with each other and exploring their own traits which had been revealed by the PPA tests. Backed up by the information provided by Sport and Beyond, coaches left with a greater understanding of their own behaviours and armed with the ability to progress in their own coaching confidence!
“Today I learnt that I was a ‘High Influence’ character, which means I am a people person, love my efforts to be appreciated and my quest for perfection can bring out my persuasive and persistent nature! I throughoughly enjoyed learning in about my personality traits and how I can increase not only my confidence but also that of others simply by understanding what makes us rise to or shy away from the challenge! Such a great day meeting and connecting with fabulous people!”
Marilyn Okoro
“This conference not only let me understand my confidence and personality, but how I can positively interact with others by understanding their unique character. Going forward I can now apply my deeper understanding to all aspects of my coaching and teaching.”
Emma Harvey
The FCN would like to personally thank our special guests Lois, Karen, Gail and Annie for attending the day and getting involved not only in the panel but the activities throughout the day. It was a real treat for the attending coaches to be able to connect with coaches and sports women of such incredible experience and knowledge!
For more information on the training day and if you are interested in attending a similar event in the future, please get in touch!
