Every Body’s Different

Learnings from Coaching the Best Sport (and Athletes) in the World
By Nicole Ban – Canada Women’s Head Coach

Happy International Women’s Day! As one of the handful of women Head Coaches within World Paravolley, I am proud to be paving the way for future generations. This job is truly a blessing and for that, I am forever grateful. But as I have said before, I am not out here competing to be the best “female coach in the world”, I’m just simply trying to be the best I can be. Period.

I believe the future of sport is to see more women involved – coaching, participating, refereeing, announcing, administering, leading – and specifically, I hope to see an increase in disabled women in sport. Each and every woman who participates in sitting volleyball is creating change and showing the world WHAT IS POSSIBLE. I am incredibly proud to coach a group of strong, independent women who show up every day striving to be the best version of themselves, and then come back the next day to improve on that further.

“Here’s to strong women: May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”

– Unknown

Now to the title, yes, it is a play on words of “Everybody is Different” because I truly believe that when coaches approach sport knowing that each athlete is different, supporting and celebrating their uniqueness, more can be achieved by the collective.

As you likely know by now (I’m guessing you know, because you are here reading this), sitting volleyball athletes have varying disabilities and impairments. It’s what Para sport is all about, and we are here to celebrate it!

I played indoor volleyball in university and later at a semi-professional level. I then completed a Master of Coaching degree and had the opportunity to learn from some incredible mentors. Previously, I had only known the game of indoor volleyball and I thought I knew my path forward coaching. What I didn’t know was that during my master’s degree I would have the opportunity to coach sitting volleyball and that my whole (tiny, but whole) coaching world would be turned upside down… in the best way possible!

I took the cookie-cutter, stay inside the box, colour inside the lines approach to coaching that I once knew and threw it out the window. I didn’t know how much…