Exploring the Learning Environment of Women Coaches

As authors Bettina Callary and Penny Werthner note, much has been written, certainly in the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching, about the barriers women face in developing and maintaining successful careers in coaching. What is far less explored is how the woman coach copes with, learns from, and adapts her various and unique life experiences in order to become a successful coach. If we accept that career success in coaching means working in a personally positive, creative environment while producing athletes who excel to the best of their ability, whatever the level, and who enjoy their athletic experience, then it becomes critical to understand all the factors that come into play to create this happy combination. Surely essential for inclusion are life experiences, a factor that is generally overlooked or dismissed when discussing coaching success.

While one coach’s life experiences, as presented in this article, may not be typical of all women coaches, sufficient evidence emerges to recommend, as the authors do, strategies that can be readily applied across the spectrum of sport in Canada and in tandem with the excellent foundation laid by the National Coaching Certification Program. In fact, taken together, life experiences, informal learning, and formal coach education are imperative to producing the successful coach as this article readily reveals.—Sheila Robertson

The views expressed in the articles of the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching are those of the authors and do not reflect the policies of the Coaching Association of Canada.