Support Networks

Providing and Promoting Support Networks

An overriding finding from the Sport Ireland Women in Coaching report was the need to better develop coaching networks. Whilst 70% of active female coaches who responded to the survey identified that they had an effective coaching network to assist them, of those who did not, 86% indicated they would like one.

58% of active female coaches indicated that they would like to observe other coaches in their sport and felt that not being part of a coaching network hampered their advancement opportunities. 

The coaches identified the following as benefits of a coaching network:

• Offers support to coaches and enable shared learning.
• Helpful for new female coaches or mentors in enabling them to build and develop positive relationships with others who have key experience and expertise.
• Elite level female coaches described how they can feel isolated in their development and would benefit from a network of similar coaches for support and learning.

Access to Coaching Groups/Networks

Coaches benefit greatly from having support networks around them. Women value having access to support; this can either be one to one or in a group environment, within their own sport, or with other sports. Ways to develop women could be through access to online (or in-person) coaching groups or networks, conferences, forums, mentoring, shadowing, co-coaching and direct contact by the NGB or club. These can be mixed gender

but the feedback suggests that female only networks yield a greater sense of support without judgement.

Female coaches believe they can open up more, discuss coaching challenges and provide information to one another more comfortably when it is a female only group. However, that doesn’t mean they should be restricted from mixed gender networks or events. A combination seems to be the best approach.

Who benefits from a coaching network?

• Coaches from targeted leagues/competitions.
• Coaching networks and support structures in clubs, whereby the club coaches support and learn from one another.
• Anyone which is part of a coaching network benefits from a sense of support from their sport or organisation who set up and invited them into the network.
• High Performance Coaches (or those earmarked to progress).
• Coaches from different sports who get the chance to network together