Free Discussion as a kick off event
of the WCA 2015

WCA 2015 started in the free space room. In this room, the participants were divided into several groups and discussed their interests.

After this ice-break activity, all lecturers, support staff and the participants, who were going to spend 3 days together moved to the main conference room and introduced themselves. Dr. Etsuko Ogasawara, Executive Director of JCRWS and Ms. Natsue Koikawa, Associate Director of JCRWS who were hosting the Academy greeted everyone enthusiastically.

What Coaching Qualifications are Required?
Five Responsibilities Coaches Need to Learn

Ms. Bjornsrud explained the roles of coaches. Women coaches especially had an important job, being a role model and responsibility towards young girls under their guidance. In addition, Ms. Bjornsrud talked about necessity of qualifications required of coaches and five responsibilities coaches need to learn.

She closed the session by introducing the activity called “Coaching Tree”. It was an opportunity for each partcipant to show their appreciation to people who influenced them to be a coach. The session was very warm as reflected by Ms. Bjornsrud personality.

Female Athlete Triad,
What Should Coaches Know?

Female Athlete Triad (FAT) has three common conditions that female athletes and their coaches should know about. Ms. Koikawa presented a basic knowledge of FAT and the most recent information on treatments and prevention of the three conditions. She also highlighted that coaches should understand the importance of educating female athletes and providing information to them.

Sport Nutrition:
Supporting Athletes to Have Optimal Athletic Life

Dr. Suzuki talked about the importance of supporting athletes by providing good nutrition to maintain their optimal athlete’s life. She spoke enthusiastically that supporting athlete’s nutrition is an important factor in athlete management. It was not only providing daily dietary menu, but also including conditioning, body composition, water and supplement intake, and eating habits during sickness. She also pointed out that athlete’s body sometime became “very efficient” or even “too efficient” metabolically that called for attention in sport nutrition. Dr. Suzuki’s lecture was easy to follow and fun, and engaging for the audience.

Intereractive Round Table Session
in a Relaxed Atmosphere

A round table session was held after dinner in a relaxed atmosphere. Ms. Miyajima who facilitated the session began by asking some questions related to the participants’ positions and circumstances. The participants started to talk about their own stories. Regarding a question from a coach who was uncertain about her future direction,the answer was provided by the other participants. Some other questions, such as coaching methods, the lecturers answered. It was a very collective round table session.

Developing Coaching Philosophy

Why is it important for coaches to plan their own careers? Dr. Arai led the workshop that encouraged each participant to develop a coaching philosophy. In addition, the participants set up long-term goals and identified barriers, then categorized them. Lastly, they created action plans to pursue their goals.

Adaptive and Natural Styles

The participants took Japanese version of “CoachDISC Profile” prior to this academy. In this session, they brought the results that indicated their behavioral characteristics and learned more about adaptive and natural styles of their behavior.

Ms. Hanson explained that DISC could reveal differences between behavioral styles and these differences could cause conflicts. She stressed different values among team members should be respected and valued in the team culture. As each coach has a unique behavior style each athlete has her own behavioral style as well. It is important for coaches to recognize and understand their athletes’ behavioral styles and mechanisms in order to gain the best benefits in team dynamics. CoachDISC was introduced for the first time in Japan and would be great resource for those coaches who participated in this session.

Work-life Balance at Each Stage of Life

Work-life balance is to strike a balance between work, family, friends, and yourself at each life stage. It also aims to improve one’s life satisfaction. Ms. Kudo recognized the importance of this issue from her experiences with her clients.

In order for female coaches who have experienced pregnancy and childbirth to pursue their careers, it is very important to receive support from their partners and co-workers at each life stage. To receive support fully, female coaches should expand their professional networking. Ms. Kudo explained the qualification for leaders and the importance of leadership training for women, and eventually these female leaders would be good role models for the next generation.

Relaying My Experiences to the Next Generation

Japan won the last FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup. Ms. Takakura was the first female head coach of the team. This year, Japanese women’s soccer team won the AFC U19 and qualified for the U20 Women’s World Cup in 2016. Along with these victories, Ms. Takakura and Ms. Kobayashi exlained that the women’s team followed “Japan’s Way” which was the motto created by Japan Football Association (JFA) for both men and women’s team. Under “Japan’s Way”, they built the teams focusing on team strengths. They trained young players calmly and passionately.

Ms. Takakura and Ms. Kobayashi shared their stories. “When we played soccer, there were very few female players. Today, our generation is leading women’s soccer in Japan. We want to relay our experiences to the next generation, then we hope you will pass your experiences on to the following generation”.

Theories and Practices
– A New Approach to Leadership

Lecturer
Dr. Etsuko Ogasawara, Executive Director, Japanese Center for Research on Women in Sport (JCRWS)

Leadership is not about innate ability, but is a behavior style. Dr. Ogasawara started her lecture off with the scholastic history of leadership; the theory of leadership influencing and motivating people and organizations to pursue their goals. The participants learned leadership theories and models and took the survey called “Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS)” to compare their results to the DISC program reviewed previously.



Lecturer
Ms. Kaori Yamaguchi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Sports and health Science, University of Tsukuba

A leader needs preparedness. To be a leader, ask yourself “Why do I want to be a coach? ” Ms. Yamaguchi explained that coaches needed to think logically and have good communication skills, specifically when they speak to athletes. Coaches need to give the sense of confidence to their athletes and be able to explain the reasons logically. Coaches should be consistent with what they are saying therefore they need to keep learning. Ms. Yamaguchi was active in promoting the implementation of “female head coaches at all levels of women’s sports” at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic. She emphasized that female coaches should stand up and promote change within the field of sports for themselves. To achieve this goal, each coach should be independent, seeking a higher position within her organization. Ms. Yamaguchi’s lecture gave encouragement to the participants.

Movements of the World and Japan, New Movement of the World,
and New Action in Japan

Dr. Ogasawara talked about three issues in Women in Sport: 1) Movements of the World and Japan; 2) New Movement of the World; and 3) New Action in Japan. She provided a history of women in sport, including a world movement and improvements that had been done in the past. In order to develop a continuous support system for female athletes, it is critical to change organizational culture in sporting organizations and create new sport culture where women could fully engage in sport. Dr. Ogasawara emphasized it would be very important to train female coaches to be good leaders with different views and thoughts. Therefore, good education and a new style of management needed to be developed.

Toward Diversity Management in Sport

Victory is the highest priority in high performance sports. Therefore, some other issues,such as gender gap (e.g., opportunities, wages, and work conditions), sexual harassment, sexual minorities, and physical punishment, are often ignored. Ms. Bjornsrud and Dr. Yamaguchi pointed out a need for diversity management in sport so that a variety people could become more engaged in sports. They highlighted the issue of sexual minorities and delivered the workshop called “Coming out Star”. It was an opportunity for the participants to do self-reflection and explore their relationships with others.

“Women Head Coaches for All Women’s Sports”,
“Karuizawa Declaration” was Spontaneously Issued

As group work, the participants discussed and presented what they could do in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic. Followed by presenting the group goals, each individual also presented her own goals, which were related to her own environment. The participants determined that they would work hard to accomplish goals with their peers who shared the same vision and purposes.

“Karuizawa Declaration” spontaneously issued and adopted. The all participants, lecturers, and staff signed it.

Ms. Maki Tsukada was Awarded the Best Coach
Issued the Certificate for Completion to the all Participants Supportive and Encouraging Finale

In the beginning of closing ceremony, peer coaches elected the best coach of the academy. The first best coach award was given to Ms. Maki Tsukada. Ms. Tsukada, was completely surprised and unable to move, the participants created the arch to send her to the podium. Ms. Tsukada received the memorial plaque and made a speech.

Next, the video about the process of the academy for the past three days with the peer participants and lecturers showed. Then, the certificate for completion was given to each participant. It was very touching moment.

Last, Dr. Ogasawara (JCRWS) who hosted the academy sent the strong messages to the participants who expected to play major roles in the field of sports in Japan. The participants, lecturers, and staff were united, to become one-team. They promised to keep exchanging information and working together. This first academy in 2015 made a great finish.