Women Leaders in Sport - WGCA

This month's theme is all about promoting women and girls in leadership roles within sport to create inclusive, sustainable clubs and communities in Scotland.

With this in mind, we thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase the fantastic participants and mentors part of our Women & Girls Coaching Academy (WGCA), who are key role models and leaders within our sport.

The Women & Girls Coaching Academy (WGCA) aim is to provide a dedicated space and support programme for females interested in coaching, with the aim of encouraging more women and girls to take up coaching roles.  Further to this, only 32% of Archery GB (AGB) licenced coaches in Scotland are women & girls, which compared to the national average of females being 51% is considerably lower. This suggests that females are underrepresented within coaching roles. 

The programme started back in August 2025 and has 11 participants supported by 5 mentors.  From here, the group completed Modules 1 to 4 of the AGB Session Coach Level 1 course, which were all online, running from October to December.  Meanwhile, mentors have been supporting participants with some in-person meetups and online/phone calls to discuss ideas and any challenges.  Coming into the new year, there have been some check-in calls to allow reflection and the chance to come together as a group.  The Mentor team have also been busy developing their mentoring skills, recently attending a sportscotland Mentoring workshop. A very thought-provoking session which focused on Knowing Ourselves, Our Purpose And The Why Behind Our Approach.   There are a further two mentor training workshops planned in April.

On Sunday 22^nd March, the participants completed their first in-person module, Using your Coaching Skills as part of the Level 1 Session Coach course, delivered by experienced duo Bill Mackay and Iain Wilson.  The group took advantage of shooting in the sunny weather, in the beautiful garden areas, within the grounds of Sight Scotland Veterans’ Linburn Centre in Wilkieston.

Yesterday evening, the group took part in a Fit for Girls session delivered online by sportscotland.  Fit for Girls is a national programme developed in partnership between sportscotland and the Youth Sport Trust. Since 2008, it has continually developed to meet the needs of girls and the sport and physical activity workforce in Scotland.  You can find out more here.

Lets hear from some the WGCA cohort on their experience so far:

1.      What have you enjoyed most about the WGCA?

Gillian Imrie, Penicuik Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Meeting other women and girls who enjoy the sport as much as I do and sharing experiences.’’

Jade Hendry, Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers (ASKA), WGCA Participant: ‘‘I really enjoyed that this was a safe space for women in a male dominated sport. It allowed for open conversations around some of the challenges we find in the sport, as women. And I loved the networking side of it, allowing us to tap into that sense of community’’

Charlotte Savage, Orkney Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘It’s been a great experience to get to know the other participants, hear about their experiences and learn from each other through shared issues and goals.’’

Carin Bergdahl, Lethen Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘The company of the coach-trainees learning with me.’’

Adelle Fleming, Lasswade Archery Club, WGCA Mentor: ‘‘Meeting in with mentee and sharing. Time set aside to do this’’

Sandie Graham, Monklands Archery Club, WGCA Mentor: ‘‘Connecting with other coaches’’

Sharon Pisani, St Andrews University Archery Club, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Firstly, I have enjoyed the coaching modules in general. They have been very influential in how I coach. More specifically to WGCA, I have really enjoyed the WhatsApp community group chat and knowing that many of the people in the group were at the same stage as I in this coaching journey. When I had previously looked at starting the coaching programme, I was confused as to which modules I needed to take, where and when. But through WGCA this was very well organised and explained, I could finally take this step in my coaching journey.’’

Naomi Thompson, Penicuik Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Getting to speak to other people on their coaching journey. Sharing ideas and experiences on how to make the sport more accessible for everyone.’’

2.      What ways has the programme benefitted you?

Gillian Imrie, Penicuik Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘It gave me a structure to work to and guidance on how to teach it.’’

Jade Hendry, Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers (ASKA), WGCA Participant: ‘‘Other than the obvious of improving my coaching skills, it has also benefitted my own practice hugely.’’

Charlotte Savage, Orkney Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘It has help broaden my understanding of the importance of supporting participants to grow and develop in their own way, or style that works for them and to give them a sense of empowerment.’’

Carin Bergdahl, Lethen Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘A good sounding-board for any questions and thoughts about skills and drills.  The subsidy didn't hurt either.’’

Adelle Fleming, Lasswade Archery Club, WGCA Mentor: ‘‘Developed skills and developed friendships’’

Sandie Graham, Monklands Archery Club, WGCA Mentor: ‘‘Connecting with others, learning new skills and discussing different ways of working.’’

Sharon Pisani, St Andrews University Archery Club, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Immediately, I gained confidence in my abilities to coach my university club. This has also benefitted the members with the novice team (all coached under my supervision/instruction) winning Gold at the Northern BUCS qualifiers. This was testament to the quality of coaching that I could offer after attending the taught modules. My mentor relationship through WGCA was very valuable as well. Firstly, it was good to see so many female mentors. Secondly, she was of great help, meeting up in-person at my club to discuss my progress and help out with challenges.’’

Naomi Thompson, Penicuik Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Improved confidence and understanding, which means I have been more willing to give input and advice to other archers.’’

3.      What would you say to anyone who is thinking of joining the programme in the future?

Gillian Imrie, Penicuik Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Go for it, you will learn lots about how to coach as well as learn about yourself along the way.’’

Jade Hendry, Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers (ASKA), WGCA Participant: ‘‘Absolutely do it!’’

Charlotte Savage, Orkney Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘I would 100% recommend taking part in the programme if you want to better understand coaching approaches as well as getting the chance to build relationships and support systems as part of a whole network of coaches and mentors.’’

Carin Bergdahl, Lethen Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Absolutely do!’’

Adelle Fleming, Lasswade Archery Club, WGCA Mentor: ‘‘You have absolutely nothing to lose and a lot to gain. It's pretty straightforward. As coach the mentoring skills program has been excellent and really enjoyable’’

Sandie Graham, Monklands Archery Club, WGCA Mentor: ‘‘It’s a good opportunity to learn new things and exchanges ideas with other women.’’

Sharon Pisani, St Andrews University Archery Club, WGCA Participant: ‘‘I would definitely recommend it - it is well-organised and support is available in many formats, from menotring, to easy assistance, to highlighting financial help. It is qonderful to have a group of people in the same position as you as there is a lot to learn from each other's experiences.’’

Naomi Thompson, Penicuik Archers, WGCA Participant: ‘‘Just do it I had been considering it for 10 years. Knowing it was a group of women, helped me to feel more comfortable participating and sharing experiences with the group.''

A big thank you to both the participants and mentors for their passion and commitment to the programme so far and for sharing their experiences so far, above.

Finally, a thank you to sportscotland with their support through Fit for Girls session, Mentoring Training Workshops and general ongoing support of the programme.