00:02I think for me, I wanted to stay involved in my chosen sport and so I thought, oh, I'll have
00:08a go at coaching, who knows how that'll go. But it's ended up obviously very well. So yeah, I think
00:15just being part of the athletes and having that experience as an athlete and then hopefully sharing that and building
00:23on it was probably something that I was looking forward to.
00:25How did you find the transition from elite athlete to coach?
00:30I think the transition between athlete and coach was really tough and I think a lot of athletes have had
00:36that experience as well. Just even going from an athlete to a regular life or a different profession has been
00:43really, really hard when you're really good at something and then you go, you've got to almost start all over
00:48again.
00:48But I had a lot of help. I had a lot of mentors and a lot of opportunities which came
00:54my way, which was fantastic.
00:56We've been looking at women coaches. We know across the board in high performance sport, there aren't that many.
01:01Have you seen it change much over the years you've been involved in coaching?
01:05I've seen a lot of change over the years for me and for women's coaching more than anything.
01:11I think there's so many more opportunities to get involved and there's ways in which they've identified why the women
01:18are not staying in those roles or are not progressing to the high performance.
01:23And so it's been really good to see that infrastructure and also the investment into women's coaching to bring more
01:30coaches through and to get them to that next level and how they support them and the opportunities that have
01:37been available. It's been fantastic.
01:39We know there is a very low number of coaches with disability, particularly in the high performance environment. Why do
01:45you think that might be the case?
01:46It's unfortunate that there are, you know, very low numbers of coaches with disabilities. I'd like to encourage more of
01:52them to take advantage of the different opportunities, share, learn, talk to each other, talk to the coaches that are
02:00involved and how you can become involved.
02:03If that's your journey, you know, you can figure it out. But yeah, it's unfortunate that there aren't as many.
02:08I'm not sure of all the barriers that exist.
02:12I suppose I've negotiated quite a lot myself, but there are more people there now that can help.
02:19I think some of the barriers were definitely identifying what you could or couldn't do or how the workarounds would
02:25work and also talking with your national sporting organisation and how you can get past them or what help you
02:32might need and then you can just be as effective as any other coach.
02:35So I think it's about communication more than anything and being open to not just looking at something, oh, I
02:41can't do that. No, how can you do it?
02:43How can we make it work for you and so that you can progress as a coach?
02:47For you working with para-athletes throughout your career, what value does that bring when you have a coach with
02:52lived experience to then pass it on to the next generation?
02:57I'd like to think that my athletes and a lot of athletes really appreciate the coaches with lived experience and
03:04especially a lot of the para-athletes as well.
03:06I don't have to explain a lot of things or I don't have to – they already know that I
03:11know how they're feeling or what they need because I've been there and I've done that.
03:16But, you know, things evolve all the time so I need to keep learning as well.
03:19But I really do think a lot of the athletes do appreciate that the understanding is already there.
03:25Thank you very much, everyone.
03:28You
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