Athletics Ireland Training Midlife Women Coaching Programme- Coaching Certificate

In November the first of its kind coaching certificate will launch with 50 coaches across the sports in partnership with The Well-HQ, Triathlon Ireland, Cycling Ireland and Swim Ireland.

Providing an environment in which mid-life women feel welcome is a no-brainer when it comes to sport.  The health benefits alone are undeniable, and the evidence is there to show that midlife women are keen to be active – yet just under a third of women drop off from physical activity during menopause (evidence from Women in Sport). 

Midlife women need to do more, want to do more but are not doing it as much as they should. 

We also know that to date no education has been provided to coaches on how best to support midlife women, even though the knowledge is out there putting it into practice can be the hard part.

Athletics Ireland are ready to change this narrative and start to equip our coaches with the knowledge, expertise and support they need to start to train midlife women well. We want to help educate and empower women so they can become active and use exercise as one of the solutions to help alleviate symptoms of many female health issues.  

If you are interested in participating, you can fill out the expression of interest form Training Midlife Women Coaching Programme- Expression of Interest

Applications are open to both men and women.

Over 3 months coaches will be working together to learn from Doctors, Exercise Physiologists, Coaches and Nutritionists on how best to support women through this life stage and will be covering a wide range of topics including (hormonal health, pelvic floor, training principles, nutrition, bras and clothing).

Course Content and Schedule:

November 3rd 2021 to February 9th 2022

12 Week programme, involving a biweekly 90-minute webinar from 8-9.30pm (online via zoom), covering the below modules:

1. Menopause 101 (3/11/21)
2. Pelvic Heath (16/11/21)
3. Facilities and Kit (1/12/22)
4. Nutrition (11/1/22)
5. Training Midlife Women (24/1/22)
6. Putting it all together (9/2/22)

The course fee is usually €470 per person, however each National Governing Body (NGB) are heavily subsidising the cost via Sport Ireland WIS funding, to offer successful candidates a place for just €70.

Applicant Requirements

• Athletics Ireland Membership
• Level 1 or above Teaching or Coaching qualification
• Up to date Safeguarding and Garda / NI Vetting
• Be aged 18yrs or over
• Must attend all 6 sessions
• Must actively coach/teach in their clubs/community

Co-Founder of The Well Baz Moffat says “This project is just the start of some exciting work going on in Ireland right now around supporting girls and women to do more sport and exercise.  The midlife woman is often ignored in many settings and they either find themselves hanging on to the 20-year-olds or doing very basic ‘dumbed’ down training sessions and not being coached.  I am really looking forward to working with these coaches to help them to understand this inevitable life stage and give them and evidence-based approach to working with midlife women which they can use in their clubs straight away.”

Dr. Bella Smith added ‘Exercise is key for managing the symptoms of all life stages in women.  The Midlife stage is a particularly vulnerable stage for women where they often meet physical, mental and emotional challenges and yet often feel unprepared for this inevitable stage with many unanswered questions. We want to change this. Through this course we want to educate coaches and those that support midlife women and equip them with the relevant knowledge and help them thrive through the midlife stage.’

Nora Stapleton, Sport Ireland Women in Sport Lead added, “The work being carried out by Sport Ireland under its Policy on Women in Sport crosses over many topics with supporting and increasing physical activity in women and girls a key target area. Sport Ireland have identified a need for better knowledge, research and support for midlife women when it comes to exercise and so we welcome the collaboration from the four sports in creating this programme for coaches.                                                             

About Baz Moffat, The Coach

Former Team GB rower Baz Moffat retired from the sport to launch a successful international consulting and coaching business. A prominent voice in the women’s health movement, Baz specialises in the pelvic floor - a pivotal yet vastly under-appreciated nucleus in the female body.

Baz’s expertise includes Pelvic floor, Prolapse, Urinary stress incontinence, Being active during the menopause, Constipation: bowel and bladder health, Being an elite female athlete (but not being trained as a woman) and Post-natal women returning to exercise.

Dr Bella Smith, The GP

Over 20 years an NHS GP, practice partner Dr Bella Smith is a women’s health advocate and an ambassador for The Eve Appeal. Under her moniker ‘The Digital GP’, Bella is a long-time media consultant, adding insight and opinion on women’s medical issues, the entrenched and harmful taboos in women’s health discourse, and reproductive health and wellbeing.

Bella’s expertise includes general women’s health, HRT, menopause, the menstrual cycle, contraception, pregnancy, Mental health, cancer: breast, gynaecological, family planning, Endometriosis

Dr. Emma Ross, The Scientist
In 2013, scientist, researcher and practitioner Dr Emma Ross joined the English Institute of Sport as Head of Physiology, leading the sports scientists supporting Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Emma is behind several breakthrough initiates that ensure active women - and their support teams - see the female in female athlete.

Emma’s expertise includes the menstrual cycle and training, breast support for health & performance, hormonal contraception and its effect on female physiology, female psychology in sport, relative energy deficiency in sport, culture in sport: how to build environments where women thrive, girls in sport maintaining participation and the data gap in research: most academic research uses men as subjects and then is just applied to women. 

Website- www.Thewell-q.com   Instagram- thewell_hq   Twitter- @thewellhq