Ensuring there is an accessible and supportive community for women coaches in Saskatchewan is essential, especially for Saskatoon freestyle ski coach, Lauren Ryan.
When first getting involved as a coach eight years ago, Ryan battled with imposter syndrome, struggling as a woman coach in a role and sport dominated by men.
“I held myself back in the first few years of my coaching, purely because I didn’t think I was capable of more than what I was already doing. And it wasn’t until the Women in Coaching Apprenticeship Program for the Canada Winter Games that I really took hold of my own development and I immersed myself,” shared Ryan.
Since being a part of the Women in Coaching Apprentice Program, Ryan has accelerated her coaching career, finding confidence as she continues to step into the role as a prominent high-performance coach in Saskatchewan and Western Canada.
On her journey, she has also continued to seek out different learning opportunities, which brought her to the Women in Coaching Mentorship Program offered in partnership with the Coaches Association of Saskatchewan and the Canadian Sport Centre Saskatchewan.
The program connects women coaches who are seeking guidance to other women coaches who have extensive experience in the field.
Participants took a coaching personality test to help align mentors with a mentee who share a similar coaching style and from there, Ryan was connected with Tina Chernoff, a high-performance artistic swimming coach who has guided two athletes to the Olympic Games.
Although Chernoff and Ryan coach drastically different sports, there is no lack of connection and support in their matching.
“We have very similar coaching philosophies I’d say. Although artistic swimming and freestyle skiing are very different, they do have lots of commonalities in terms of body movement and inversions. So, it was interesting to find all the similarities between our coaching, even though we coach different sports,” shared Ryan.
Over time, Ryan has discovered how to best absorb information while working with a mentor. She learns about their coaching philosophies and styles, what makes them unique and what things she can take from them to add to her own coaching toolbox.
But it is more than just Ryan who can learn through their partnership, as Chernoff asserts that there are even things to learn as a mentor.
“Lauren is a completely different generation than me and as we go through generations, coaching styles have to change. I could not coach the same way that I did 20 years ago now, because athletes are totally different,” said Chernoff. “She can teach me a different coaching style, as we all see different things.”
For Chernoff, programs like Women in Coaching Mentorship are valuable even for coaches who are involved in sport where women coaches and athletes are dominate, such as artistic swimming. She believes that it is important for women coaches to have access to women mentors who are willing to provide support without hesitation.
The non-competitive space created through the Women in Coaching Mentorship Program is the base to a very valuable community for Saskatchewan’s women coaches.
“When you are surrounded by a community of women in an industry where you already feel like you are a bit of an impostor, it just gives you the strength and the encouragement that you need to advocate for yourself,” said Ryan.
