On the 11th, Issy Coombes hosted a Female Athlete Health & Performance webinar via Zoom. The webinar was open to all wāhine and we're stoked that a good number of players attended the session. Issy covered 4 core aspects; training, recovery, personal life and mindset.  If you missed last night's Zoom, you can watch the webinar in full.

Issy hopes girls and women will come away from watching the webinar with “Having the fundamental idea that it’s about creating balance and working with your physiology rather than against it!”. Issy has played football for New Zealand at both age group and full National Team level and represented NZ at one U17’s World Cup and two U20’s World Cup as well as competing as a triathlete. Issy reflects, “It's all a learning curve, and you won’t move forward if you don’t learn, it's about patience and consistency.” 

Issy has been coaching athletes since 2019 and was recently part of the coaching set-up for the NZF U17’s Women’s camp. In the webinar, Issy takes us through the foundations of female physiology and will also delve into the impacts of the menstrual cycle. Topics that Issy covers include Energy Availability and Hormones & Physiology. Issy explains, “There’s lots more research being done into the menstrual cycle now, it has an impact on you at certain times of the month. It’s beneficial for women and girls to help understand that and put strategies in place to allow them to continue training and playing at a high level, alongside their cycle.” 

Issy has a host of free resources that she has offered to share within our female football community:

Young Female Athletes Guide to Optimal Health for Performance

Optimize & Energize Recipe Book - Snacks Collection

Issy is launching a book in the coming days,  ‘Optimising Female Athlete Health for Performance’. The book will be released on the 15th November so order yours today!

She loved hosting the webinar, "I would just like to thank you all again for attending the webinar! It really demonstrates your commitment to football and getting better every day."

Follow Issy on Instagram at @issycoombescoaching as this is where she posts most regularly and she is happy for anyone to DM her any questions they may have!