25 New Level 2 Women Coaches from Free Course

A free coaching course for women has created 25 new Level 2 coaches in Victoria thanks to a grant from Change Our Game in partnership with Voleyball Victoria.

On Sunday 4 February, Volleyball Victoria hosted a free Level 2 Coaching Course presented by women, for women at MSAC.

Volleyball Victoria has long-identified a gender imbalance for women in leadership roles, in particular coaching positions across our affiliated associations and clubs.

25 women attended the full day course, which included two additional special guest presentations as well as both theory and practical volleyball coaching education. Gabby Seymour, Richmond AFLW Player and Change Our Game Ambassador spoke to the participants about the ongoing conversation addressing gender imbalance in sport from grassroots level to international competition. Participants were given access to research curated by Change Our Game, including a stark reality check by The Diversity Council of Australia that identified if no specific intervention is made to current practices and approaches on gender equity, that it would take Australian workplaces 177 years to reach gender equity. In the sporting context, it was also highlighted that despite near equal participation between men and women athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, there were just thirteen per cent of coaches who identified as female.  

Kelly Lean, former Australian Volleyroos Captain and Melbourne Vipers Captain and now a Professionalism and Leadership Consultant at the Australian Sports Commission canvassed the importance of enabling psychological safety within individuals in sport, in particular coaches and their respective athletes. All participants came away with a better understanding of psychological safety, many of whom admitted that they had felt its role on themselves as athletes but had never had it contextualised in a formal sense. After these engaging workshops, participants were then taken through the Volleyball Australia Level 2 Coaching Course delivered by Level 3 Associate Coach Amanda Davies. Despite the extreme heat outside, no one was deterred from being engaged throughout both the off-court planning and on-court delivery of the coaching sessions in what has been a very successful weekend for the future of our sport here in Victoria. 

The Volleyball Victoria community was incredibly fortunate to have both Gabby and Kelly involved in our Level 2 Coaching Course and we thank them both for their time and expertise on the weekend as additional contributors to the course delivery.