Baseball Victoria’s Women & Girls Coaching Workshop was a big hit, bringing women’s coaches and players together for a valuable day of leadership development and on-field sessions.
35 representatives from 18 clubs spent their Sunday at Melbourne Ballpark, learning how to better support women and girls through dedicated baseball coaching and training.
Made possible by the Change Our Game Community Activation Grants Program, the free workshop featured two special presentations from the Australian Institute of Sport, including an interactive session on building your personal coaching network with Michelle De Highden, High Performance Coach Development Senior Lead.
Olympian Katarina Paul and Paralympic Maria Strong were also on hand to discuss the importance of safe, inclusive environments for all athletes.
BV High Performance Staff Damian Shanahan and Keli’i “Zee” Zablan led a baseball classroom session before hitting the field with 2022 Victorian Women’s State Team and Victoria Aces Head Coach Samantha Hamilton.
The practical session gave coaches fresh ideas to add to their toolbox for prehab, warm-up, throwing, hitting, fielding, pitching, catching, and base running. Morgan Doty and Abbey McLellan of the Victoria Aces and Australian Emeralds joined in the on-field fun, helping out with drills.
Not only did the first Women & Girls Coaching Workshop have a strong turnout, but participants came away with new knowledge and greater confidence in their leadership potential.
Tess Warner from North Western Titans Baseball Club was pleased with the workshop and what she learned about coaching and inclusion.
“This workshop was a great way to bounce ideas off other members of the baseball community, to listen to different points of view and ideas on what they might do in their club to change up the fundamentals for their members,” Warner said.
“The information given by Zee and Shanas was insightful and informative. They encouraged us to trust in our own knowledge and guided us on how to implement this in our daily coaching. They also provided us with new coaching techniques to take back to our clubs.”
Warner left the workshop feeling inspired to try a different approach to warmups.
“Warmups can be hard for some and easy for others. and players don’t always get what they need out of it. But they showed a way you can change the approach to warmups,” Warner explained. “It became more inclusive to the players of all ages and abilities, and you still achieve the same outcome but in a more fun and challenging way.”
Tayla Weldon shared the sentiment, embracing the workshop’s takeaway lessons she can apply in her summer coaching debut as assistant women’s coach at Geelong.
“It was a great opportunity to network with other coaches and clubs with the same goal of growing women's baseball,” Weldon said. “A really enjoyable part of the day was the workshop with AIS coaching mentor, Michelle De Highden, who helped us reflect on our own coaching goals.”
“I was able to learn the most up to date theory and methods of baseball coaching and ask questions of the elite coaches who gave me practical ideas that I am looking forward to implementing back at the club.”
Sinead Byrne-Connell of Preston Baseball Club enjoyed the Coach of the Coaches from AIS presentation about having a support system and not being afraid to ask for advice.
“The standout point that I got from her presentation was to build your network and lean on your network. I believe we all have a tendency to rely on ourselves too much. I know I do for sure,” Byrne-Connell added. “The LGBTQIA+ inclusive section of the day was also fantastic and I was so pleased to know that Baseball Victoria wants to make LGBTQIA+ people feel accepted in baseball.”
Byrne-Connell left the workshop feeling inspired and eager to put new ideas to work at Preston Baseball Club.
“The workshop was an amazing experience and I’m so grateful to have been a part of it,” Byrne-Connell said. “Zee and Shanas were inspiring. They had an amazing ability to provoke ideas from the group and created an environment to share, learn and be vulnerable. They place emphasis on the style of coaching rather than numerous drills and the nitty gritty fundamentals.”
“The approach was to let the player work it out and self-correct. Assist the player via changing the circumstances, let them do it rather than overload them with a lot of information. I’ve already started using this approach in my coaching and have seen great results. The sessions have been more enjoyable for the players and myself.”
Baseball Victoria thanks Change Our Game for making the workshop possible and all the coaches, players, and guest speakers who participated in the event. Stay tuned for updates on future more workshops and women’s baseball initiatives.