Natasha Watley describes her growing up as an only child of parents unfamiliar with softball and how having a girl in the neighborhood who played  softball had an impact on her.  She reveals that winning the Honda Cup was a huge statement that she was being recognized as a black woman for her talent, where being visible is so important. Natasha explains what a player should do when being recruited for college, the differences between college, Olympic and professional competition and making those transitions and what it takes to be a champion. She describes the culture shock of living in Japan for 12 years.  And we hear about the mission of the Natasha Watley Foundation that she  began after realizing that not all kids have opportunities. Her foundation helps girls choose healthy lifestyles; develop strong esteem and become leaders through participation and training in the sport of softball.
Host: Chris Voelz, CWSA Executive Director
Podcast length: 42 mins.
A co-production with the CWSA.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

This week’s guest is Chyloe Kurdas who is a passionate advocate for equality and women in sport, and was one of the forces behind the development of Australia’s national women’s professional AFL league, the AFLW. She worked as Victoria’s female football development manager and then as the director of the AFL’s National Female Academy. Before that, Shyloe played for Melbourne University as an elite football player in her own right, and was one of the first women to play football on the MCG. She’s also worked in AFL commentating and continues to do so. She is currently the Female Engagement Senior Manager for Golf Australia, where she is in charge of enhancing the engagement of women and girls in golf.
Duration: 45 mins
Hosts: Ella Smith & Georgina Mallon.
A co-production with Women Sport Australia
For complete shows notes and more information, links and resources as well as other conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.

Megan chats with Jennifer Charles, volunteer assistant coach for Tennessee women’s volleyball. Throughout her career, Jennifer has embraced growth, knowledge and always operates from a place of servant leadership. In this candid conversation she shares the impact, as a Black woman, of the past six months and how she is committed to action and change in bettering the landscape for those following in her footsteps.
Duration: 42 mins
Host: Megan Kahn
A co-production between WeCoach & WiSP Sports
For complete shows notes and more information, links and resources as well as other conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

On our weekly news show Chris Stafford is joined by Nancy Gillen from Inside the Games who has the top stories from around the world of women’s sport. This week’s guest is pro ice-hockey player and coach Zoe Hickel who has just taken up a new position as Assistant Coach at Ohio State Buckeyes Women’s Team in Columbus, Ohio.  As a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, Zoe has played in two International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championships winning gold in 2015 and 2016) and a Four Nations Cup winning in 2015. She also helped the Boston Pride win the Isobel Cup in the inaugural season of the National Women's Hockey League (2015-16) and played four seasons of professional hockey following her collegiate career. Before taking up her new role at Ohio State Zoe played for the Swedish team Linköping HC for the 2019-2020 season. Zoe shares how they are coping with training and maintaining moral while the team waits for the season to begin.
Stories we cover this week:
Amy Tinkler, British Gymnastics
Serena Williams/French Open
Tokyo 2020 sports director
Saudi Arabia golf
Joy Neville rugby
Women's football - US and AUS
Austria blind football
Podcast length: 58 mins
Subscribe to WiSP Sports or WiSP Sports Mum's the Word on your podcast app.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million plays and downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

On this week’s episode we feature another expert guest to dig deep into a subject that’s important during pregnancy and beyond – core and pelvic floor health with Celeste Goodson.  Celeste started her journey into health as a personal trainer, and after starting her own family quickly realized how neglected women’s core muscles and especially the pelvic floor was post-partum. When trying to get back into running Celeste spoke of feeling heavy and after a trip to the doctor, and a possible surgery on the cards, she took control of her core rehabilitation. Your core and pelvic floor have to deal with a lot of strain and stretching during pregnancy, so expecting them to bounce back with no effort is a fallacy that a lot of new mom’s realize once they start struggling.
Another fallacy is the idea that doing your “kegels” is all that you need to do to get your core back into shape after carrying a baby. Kegel muscles run from the pubic bone through to the sacrum, and controls incontinence and supports the bladder. In the words of Celeste, “they work like a hammock and need to respond like a trampoline” so after 40 weeks of carrying an ever increasing-in-weight fetus, it is no wonder that so many women have work to do on their core and pelvic floor post-partum.
The issues of a weakened core after birth can present itself in many ways including urinary incontinence (losing control of your bladder), fecal incontinence (same thing, but with your bowels) and pelvic organ prolapse (weak muscles leading to organs “dropping” onto the vagina). Other common concerns include pain with intercourse, over-active bladder and constipation. We learnt that ongoing core and pelvic floor damage might not present itself immediately post-partum and that it is never too late to start rehabilitating your core.
We also learnt that breastfeeding causes hormones to be released that can cause a little bit of laxity in the ligaments, but you can still strengthen the muscles before stopping breastfeeding.  Of particular interest to Pam; working on your pelvic floor and core strength can help with childbirth of a second child. When women specifically strengthen the core muscles, it can assist in labor length.  It is also a great thing to be thinking about whilst you are still pregnant.
Giving birth is a marathon, not a sprint (at least for most moms) and you’d be crazy to enter a marathon with no training. The idea of seeing labor as something you need to train for was discussed and definitely aligns with our hosts’ competitive natures. So hopefully this episode has given you some tools and things to think about when entering into pregnancy, or after having a baby.
Hosts: Sarah Newberry Moore & Pam Relph Jones
Podcast length: 40 mins
Subscribe to WiSP Sports or WiSP Sports Mum's the Word on your podcast app.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million plays and downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

On this episode Functional Medicine Practitioner, Dr Kirstin Lauritzen, covers our next nutrient highlight: Vitamin B12. You may have seen it named as cobalamin or methyl-cobalamin. Vitamin B12 is essential for a healthy nervous system, immune system and it’s used by almost every cell and tissue in the body. In this episode we talk about some of the most common symptoms or conditions associated with Vitamin B12, but we also discuss some of the current issues with testing for Vitamin B12. We cover alternative labs you can look into if you are concerned about your Vitamin B12 status, as well as different foods you can consume to increase your intake. Check out this episode of Sound Bites. Enjoy!
Host: Dr. Kirstin Lauritzen
Podcast length: 16 mins
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].
 
 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.

In this week’s episode’s first segment, Nicole outlines top level and interesting findings of the latest Women in College Coaching Report Card. And then later in the show she discusses with fellow #disruptHERS, Drs. Lough, Lebel and Pegoraro, the latest disruptions to the male model of sport. 
LaVoi, N. M., Boucher, C., & Sirek, G. (2020, August). Head coaches of women's collegiate teams: A comprehensive report on NCAA Division-I institutions, 2019-20. The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport.
Host: Dr. Nicole LaVoi
A co-production with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

In this week’s episode, Sarah and Pam were joined by two members of Team Scheidigger, the 2019 7th world ranked Canadian women’s curling team. Guests Kristie Moore and Cary-Ann McTaggart make up two of the four members of the team alongside sisters Casey Scheidigger and Jessie Haughian (who will also be guests in an upcoming episode). All four women on the team are mothers and this episode is a deep dive into the team dynamics in Team Scheidigger that allows them all to commit themselves to their sport and their families. 
Kristie shared her experience of going to the Olympic Games whilst pregnant—only the third women to have ever done it—and the attention she received. Cary-Anne is the newest member to become a mother, giving birth just a few months ago to her son Eddie. Cary-Anne shares her wonderful journey to motherhood, feeling supported by not only her family but also her team, and how important that all the team are on the same page when it comes to putting family first. And we also hear her birth story.
Although curling is a relatively low impact sport, there are still lots of challenges to consider when training and competing pregnant and we hear about their experiences of training through pregnancy. 
Having all members of the team having kids is a huge inspiration and example to women out there that it can be done.  Both Kristie and Cary-Anne freely discuss the importance of their support system in enabling them to continue competing. They also offer some top tips for active moms; for example, if you are planning to breast feed, get a good breast pump.  Being able to share the feeding for your little one gives you a lot more freedom. 
Hosts: Sarah Newberry-Moore & Pamela Relph-Jones
Podcast length: 50 mins.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Nancy Lieberman found her niche on the basketball court and describes how sports provided the stage for her to develop her values. She shares her early days playing in college and winning championships and the influence that Muhammad Ali, Billie Moore, and so many others had on her as she becomes a gatekeeper to the game.  Her journey takes her at a young age to the Olympics, and playing and coaching the pros in both the men’s and women’s  games. Nancy took her experiences from basketball courts and is sharing them with those who are less fortunate through her Nancy Lieberman Charities and Dream Courts. Hear how she has expanded the impact that basketball can have when  it is programmatically woven into STEM; Kids and Cops, USTA and other life  and livelihood lessons. She speaks to the racial inequities of today and offers a better way forward.
Host: Chris Voelz, CWSA Executive Director
Podcast length: 30 mins.
A co-production with the CWSA.
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

On this week’s episode Ella and Georgina chat with Gen Simmons who is currently the deputy chair of Women Sport Australia. She is also the current General Manager of Gymnastics Victoria, and has formerly worked for Netball Australia, Racing Victoria, and Melbourne Rebels Rugby Union. Gen shares her experience as a woman on the corporate side of sport, and how her career path has led her into sports administration and now into a leadership role as she prepares to take over the reins from Carol Fox as the next WSA President. Gen offers an update on the current work of the WSA and the issues facing women in sport across Australia not least of all in the fight for equality.
Duration: 36 mins
Hosts: Ella Smith & Georgina Mallon.
A co-production with Women Sport Australia
For complete shows notes and more information, links and resources as well as other conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at [email protected].

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.