Report from Hannah McCutcheon, RPAYC Youth Development & Centreboard Sailor
On Saturday the 7th of October, I was lucky enough to represent RPAYC at a SheSails Leadership workshop, hosted by RSYS and Australian Sailing. This workshop is part of a government grant that has been given to Australian Sailing, in order for them to promote young females in all aspects of sailing. The other half of this grant has gone towards a 50% discount for all instructor and officials courses for females, through ‘Her Sport Her Way’.
This workshop was run by Carol Fox, who was the first ever female paid lifeguard in Australia. She has a background in educational workshops, as well as a book about confident communication in leadership. Carol taught us about different types of people and how they process information, and how we can best deal with that in a coaching setting, as well as problem solving in a team-based environment. One of my favourite things that I learnt was the ‘power pose’ which can be used to help boost your confidence when entering a tricky situation or when you are nervous. This stance can be useful when presenting an idea to a group of people, or during any other type of public speech, such as in school or the workplace. It will also come in handy on a match racing start line! It was also wonderful to meet many likeminded other young girls from across NSW, and learn about their different clubs, and how they were going to implement the lessons from the workshop, into their own sailing.
I would like to thank the RPAYC and the YD program for giving me this amazing opportunity, RSYS and Australian sailing for hosting, and all other participating clubs, that were willing to invest in their up-and-coming female athletes and leaders, and promote the future of sailing and leadership.
