USA Weightlifting Partners with Coaching HER® to Expand Inclusive Coach Education

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COLORADO SPRINGS—USA Weightlifting today announced a new partnership with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Coaching HER ® is a coaching framework designed to reduce gender inequalities in sport by equipping coaches with strategies focused toward working with youth girls (U18). Through the partnership, USAW members will receive complimentary access to Coaching HER® Foundational Courses, which are six short, self-paced, digital learning experiences that help coaches recognize and reduce unconscious gender bias while building girl-centered environments that support participation, performance, and long-term success. Educational information also includes body-confident coaching and menstrual health education.  

 

This collaboration reinforces USA Weightlifting’s commitment to equipping coaches with the tools, knowledge, and strategies needed to better support athletes through long-term athlete development. The courses offered through this partnership are designed to complement USA Weightlifting’s existing coach education pathways (Level 1, Level 2, Elite Education), enhancing coaches’ ability to meet athletes’ needs across performance, health, and wellbeing.  

 

Coaching HER’s curriculum emphasizes practical, research informed strategies that help coaches: 

  • Highlight the benefits of sports for girls. Girls who play sports are 50% more likely to have a positive body image (Nike/One Win Leads to Another, 2020).
  • Explore common coaching beliefs and strategies to better support and retain girls. Less than half of coaches have training on gender equity, body image, or mental health (Canadian Women & Sport, 2022).
  • Identify barriers to participation. 70% of youth quit sports by age 13, most often due to lack of fun or exclusion (Project Play, 2022).
  • Look at how identity shapes girls’ sport experiences. Media representation of diverse athletes counters stereotypes and broadens belonging (Walker, 2019).
  • Focus on how care, competence, and choice shape motivation and confidence. Girls value progress and development as key drivers of motivation (Tucker Center Research Report, 2018).

 

 

“I’m excited for our coaches to use Coaching HER®’s data-driven approach to gain awareness of their biases and improve their coaching style to support female athletes,” Christina Drown, USAW’s Membership Services Manager and former Tucker Center Volunteer, said. 

 

Julia Falamas, Coach Development Lead for USA Weightlifting, shared: “Together with the Tucker Center, we’re helping normalize important conversations, and providing coaches with accessible tools they can readily apply.” 

 

Complimentary access to Coaching HER ® courses will be available to eligible USA Weightlifting members through the USA Weightlifting Learning Academy. Members can access the course content by logging into their Bars profile, clicking “Access USAW Learning Academy,” and then clicking on “Coaching Fundamentals: Coaching HER” on the dashboard.  

 

For more information about other specific initiatives specifically built for girls and women, visit USAW Women's Coaching Collective. 

 

About USA Weightlifting 

USA Weightlifting, a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), is the National Governing Body for the Olympic sport of weightlifting in the United States. The mission of USA Weightlifting is to grow and develop weightlifting to support lifelong participation and achieve Olympic podium success. For more information, visit usaweightlifting.org 

 

About Coaching HER: 

The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, in partnership with Nike, launched Coaching HER® in March 2023. To help keep girls playing, this free digital coaching training platform tackles a central issue in youth sports that negatively impacts girls’ experiences: when coaches show unconscious biases and stereotypes toward gender. Coaching HER® is comprised of six online modules that address the importance of sport for girls and the actions coaches can take to set girls up for success in sport. Learn more at www.coachingher.com.