ENGLISH VERSION
Lets talk about women and coaching with Rebecca Grzybowski from Temple University in Philadelphia
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Rebecca Grzybowski is the head coach of Women ’ s Rowing at Temple University in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Lets have a look with her at the female coaching in the US .
Hello Rebecca and thank you for accepting to be interviewed . So can you start off by just giving us a brief history of your coaching career and how you got into it in the first place ?
I was always an athlete growing up--just recreational basketball , and I was a cross country and track athlete in high school--and then I always knew that I just loved being an athlete , kind of like connected with that part of me . And when I went to college , I picked my college first . I went to a pretty small liberal arts school in Massachusetts , and I actually met with the cross country coach and he said , “ we ' d love to have you . You ' re not fast enough , but there ' s always room for good people and good teammates .” Then I got home and started looking into college running and realized that they ran in those little bathing suit bottoms and I was like , “ No , no , not for me .” So I quickly transitioned to rowing . I graduated and I wanted to continue training at the national team level , so in order to do that I needed to learn how to scull ; I became a full time assistant coach at my college . I was able to stay there and keep training and A ) learn how to coach and B ) learn how to row at a really high level .
We are implementing the project Play to Train to increase female coaching through education . Throughout your career , have you ever taken specific trainings for coaching or done classes or seminars in order to learn how to change your coaching style ?
Definitely . I remember when I was in my first year coaching , my mom found out that US Rowing was doing a coaching certification , so she signed me up . I ' ve also been part of the Women ' s Coaches Academy , which is great . That was a really fantastic experience as a female coach , I think , to just go and have a lot of exposure to other female coaches in other sports and other divisions , and it just was a lot of , again , back to the values , the “ why ” we coach , and the motivation . just constantly trying to get better at what I do .