Two members of the SHEcoaches cohort have recently travelled abroad with England squads to add to their skills and experience and gain additional insight into top-level coaching.

Emma Harradine went to Sarajevo with the England women’s squad and Head Coach John Murphy for the European Team Qualification Event, at which the England team qualified for the European Championships later this year.

Meanwhile, Eva Toth went to Portugal with members of the GB Training Squad and coaches for a training camp.

Emma said: “It was a fantastic week which surpassed all expectations, and I couldn’t ask for any more. I learned so much there.

“It was a valuable insight not only into coaching at international level but also how best to manage players, how to get the best out of them, how to manage them whether they’ve won or lost, to motivate them and just shows the importance of the coach knowing their players so well.

“It was a great week and I really hope I can get more opportunities like that in the future.”

Eva said: “It was a really intense week with some well-organised and high-quality sessions.

“What made this camp even more special were the amazing coaches there, they gave personal attention to each player, helping them with their serves, their footwork, their game strategies and everybody worked very hard, they stayed focused, they improved a lot.

“It was very inspiring to see how their confidence grew but the most impressive thing was they were so focused and even on the last session they were full of energy.

“Overall, this was a very good experience, I learned a lot from the other coaches and I really hope that our kids enjoyed this as well.”

Listen to their reflections in full in the below video.

What is SHEcoaches?

SHEcoaches is supported by SportsAid, which has invested £20,000 through its Backing The Best initiative to fully fund it for two years.

The key aims of the programme are to:

• Build a pool of female coach mentors
• Build a community of practice for female coaches supporting pathway activity
• Produce the next generation of female coaches at the talent and national team level 
• Provide increased opportunities for female coaches
• Provide pathway exit opportunities for female players to progress into coaching from diverse backgrounds and coaching in low socioeconomic areas to engage in the talent and performance system
• Spot female coaches with potential and support them to develop the necessary skills to coach at a high- performance level
• Provide talent ID opportunities for girls – supported by an all-female coaching team