This in turn has allowed female participants better access to wider interdisciplinary teams beyond coaches, including strength and conditioning practitioners, Performance Analysts and medical staff to help achieve maximum performance potential.
Specifically, the role of a strength and conditioning coach has been identified as having an integral role in the holistic improvement of athletic performance through:
- maximising physiological potential
- minimising injury risk.
This is achieved through the application of evidence-informed approaches to the coaching practice and environment.
There is still a significant underrepresentation of female-focused research in sport science and sport medicine research, with only 35% of studies published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine including female participants.
This in turn limits strength and conditioning coaches’ access and ultimately their ability to apply evidence-informed approaches to their practice when coaching female participants.
The series aims to highlight and explore four of these challenges, providing practical solutions to support strength and conditioning coaches to optimise both physiological and psychological health, well-being, and athletic performance of female participants.