Igniting HER Potential

Unlocking HER Potential: A New Playbook for Coaching Female Athletes

Julie Hatfield-Still has spent her career helping coaches understand what drives performance in girls’ sports — and what holds it back. In her recent webinar with Scott Garvis,“Unlocking HER Potential,” she called for a complete rethinking of how coaches lead female athletes.

Her message was clear: traditional methods don’t always work for girls. They can increase the risk of injury, fuel burnout, and push athletes out of sports altogether. The path forward, Hatfield-Still said, starts with understanding how girls learn, communicate, and connect — and building systems that help them thrive.

Chapters:

1. Rethinking the Playbook

2. The Pillars of Purposeful Coaching

3. Redefining Mental Toughness

4. Coaching with Intention

5. Building Cultures That Belong

6. A Higher Standard

Rethinking the Playbook

Girls’ sports have grown rapidly in recent years, but that growth has exposed some troubling gaps. Female athletes are six to eight times more likely to suffer ACL injuries than boys. They’re also more likely to drop out by age 14, often because of low confidence or poor coaching experiences. Anxiety and burnout rates are significantly higher too.

These numbers point to a deeper issue. Most coaching models were built around male physiology and psychology. When those same methods are applied to girls, they often miss the mark.

Hatfield-Still highlighted several outdated patterns that persist in many programs:

1. Yelling and demanding more tends to shut girls down rather than push them forward.
2. Discouraging questions makes athletes feel disconnected from the learning process.
3. Treating everyone the same ignores how differently athletes respond to feedback.
4. Equating toughness with silence teaches girls to internalize pressure instead of managing it.

As she put it, coaching girls effectively requires more from leaders — not less.

The Pillars of Purposeful Coaching

Hatfield-Still framed her approach around four core pillars that guide how coaches can build better relationships and stronger teams.

1. Connection

Girls perform at their best when they feel seen and valued. Connection creates trust, and trust opens the door to risk-taking, resilience, and communication.

2. Communication

Tone and delivery matter as much as the words themselves. How a coach says something — or even how they look when they say it — shapes how feedback is received.

3. Clarity

Clear expectations and defined roles help athletes understand where they fit. Ambiguity leads to hesitation, and hesitation leads to performance gaps.

4. Consistency

Girls are quick to notice when standards or energy fluctuate. Consistency in behavior, accountability, and communication builds confidence and stability.

Redefining Mental Toughness

For decades, mental toughness was framed as emotional suppression — ignore the noise, don’t show weakness, push through everything. Hatfield-Still challenged that definition.

“Toughness isn’t how hard you hit,” she said. “It’s how well you adapt without getting derailed.”

She described modern toughness as a blend of emotional awareness, adaptability, and discipline — the ability to manage setbacks without losing focus. For girls, that begins with teaching self-awareness and giving them tools to regulate stress, not bury it.

Coaching with Intention

Physical training is only part of the equation. Coaches also need to understand the biological and developmental differences that shape how girls move and train.

Hatfield-Still emphasized the importance of addressing biomechanics, hormonal cycles, and exposure to strength training. Many girls begin weight training later than boys, putting them at higher risk for injury. Educating coaches on these differences can prevent long-term setbacks and improve performance.

She pointed to CoachingHer.com as a valuable resource for evidence-based tools that help coaches adapt their methods for female athletes.

Building Cultures That Belong

Girls often describe their best teams as families — places where they feel connected, understood, and supported. Hatfield-Still encouraged coaches to nurture that sense of belonging.

Collaboration creates space for shared success and shared accountability. Mistakes become learning opportunities instead of labels. Representation also plays a critical role: when girls see women in leadership positions, they begin to picture themselves in those roles too.

As Hatfield-Still put it, “Girls need to see themselves in their leaders if they ever want to become one.”

A Higher Standard

Hatfield-Still closed her presentation with a simple truth: coaching girls differently doesn’t lower expectations. It raises them.

Leading female athletes effectively takes empathy, consistency, and self-awareness — from the coach as much as the players. It requires the courage to listen, the discipline to adapt, and the humility to lead with understanding.

For today’s coaches, that’s the real work.