Dr Nicky Keay

Courses for Coaches, Athletes and Dancers

Coaching High Performing Female Athletes

Training as a High Performing Female Athlete

Training as a High Performing Female Dancer

Training as a High Performing Female Dancer-Team

Increasing numbers of women are participating in exercise and sport. However this has not been matched by female specific research, education and implementation of practical strategies to optimise female health and performance.

Does this matter? Absolutely as there are crucial physiological differences between females and males. To date the majority of clinical medicine, sport science and coaching strategies are based on a blueprint for men.

The result is that female athletes are at risk of not optimising their health and therefore unable to reach their personal full athletic potential.

The most obvious and important difference between men and women on a medical and physiological basis is that women have menstrual cycles, where there are considerable fluctuations of female hormones. So any discussion of exercise training, nutrition and recovery for female athletes has to factor in this fundamental physiological process.

I have developed a suite of courses to support female athletes and their coaches in their quest to optimise health and performance. These courses provide up-to-date, evidence-based information and practical strategies. The objective is to help female athletes become resilient and sustainable athletes in the long term, enabling each individual to to achieve her personal full potential.

There are 4 courses:

Course for coaches working with high performing female athletes from puberty and beyond, across all sports. This course is endorsed by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine. The course includes lectures, interviews with an Olympic coach and a former international female athlete, quizzes and resources. The material covers female physiology; practical strategies of training, nutrition and recovery to optimise health and performance; warning signs to look out for in the case of imbalances, with particular reference to relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). Successful completion of he course and reaching pass mark for the quizzes results in a certificate of completion. Link to coach course

Course for high performing female athletes covers female physiology from puberty onwards; training schedule strategies covering training load, nutrition and recovery; risk of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S): what to look out for and what to do. There are also interviews with an Olympic coach and a former international female athlete. Link to athlete course

Course for high performing female dancers with increasing demands of dance, this course provides dancers with a tool kit of information and practical strategies to meet these demands and dance to their best. Link to dancer course

Course for high performing female dancer-team with increasing demands of dance, this course provides a groups of dancers and their teacher/coach with a tool kit of information and practical strategies to meet these demands and for the whole class to dance to their best. Link to dancer, teacher, parent group course

References

N. Keay “Of Mice and Men” British Journal of Sport Medicine 2019