CSEP 2020 Online! Exercise Professionals Workshop Feature with Dr. Virginie Tremblay

August 22, 2020

There is a great line-up of Symposia to look forward to at CSEP 2020 Online: Strengthening our Performance; Keeping our Connections. We’ve interviewed each symposia chair to give you a preview of what to expect and how attending will benefit you.

In this feature we talk to Dr. Virginie Tremblay, Kinesiologist, Strength & Conditioning Coach, who is chairing the Exercise Professionals Workshop “The high performance environment for a female fitness coach ” at CSEP 2020.

What can CSEP certified members learn from attending the session you’re chairing that they can apply to their practice?

The participants will learn about the “behind the scenes” of tennis and how it is to work in a national tennis program; the management and the organization. We will go deeper in the physical aspect of the sport, the fitness requirements for tennis players, the pathway and development of young tennis players, and what it takes to be a good coach. I will also be showing the differences between development players and professional players, the team around the players, the travelling, and the challenges coaches face daily. Throughout this presentation, I will address the roles and impact of women fitness coaches in tennis, my personal experiences as a young woman in a man’s world, the difference between gender, and the future of women in high performance sports. The content of this presentation can be applied in other sports regardless of the level of the athletes.

What do you think makes this topic and the content unique to the CSEP conference?

Tennis continues to grow internationally, and the Canadian Tennis Federation has been able to develop more and more professional tennis players at the highest level. It is not easy to build a high-performance environment around the players considering the complex nature of this sport: physically, technically, tactically and mentally demanding. The high performance environment in many sports continues to be male dominated. For women coaches, it can be intimidating and challenging to break into the industry. So what can we do to change mentalities and stereotypes in order to bring more women in high performance sports?

CSEP 2020 will be 100% online this year; how do you think this will affect your session?

It is not the same thing to be in a conference room full of people compared to being in your living room in front of your computer. During my online presentation, I will not have the same connection with the audience, and I won’t be able to see people’s faces or reactions to the content. The absence of physical interactions could lead to less participation from people and less questions. However, I believe the structure of my presentation and the content of it will be delivered effectively online in a way that people will engage and have some take away points.