Saskia van Hintum and the role of women in elite sport
Feature
Johanna ‘Saskia’ van Hintum is the only female head coach at this year’s CEV EuroVolley Women. This is some sort of a privilege and a responsibility for the former Dutch national team player – but it shows that there is still some quite work to do to support female coaches and their efforts to be able to work at the highest level.
“I think it all starts with the clubs, as there are not so many opportunities for females to coach at a high level. If there is a positive development with the clubs, we may see more female coaches at the helm of national teams as well. You can see a positive trend, as there is already a number of female coaches working with junior and national teams.”
Van Hintum admits that it is a question of opportunities and trust above all: “Of course, you need to have the chance to work with top teams, but I think the younger females also need to have some examples and role models to look up to – who show that there is an opportunity for female coaches to succeed as well. To this extent, Lang Ping of China, who has had such a long and successful career, is definitely an example for all of us, but we can see a positive development in other team sports as well, such as basketball or soccer.”
A female coach may have some advantage, especially if she is to coach a women’s team: “As you would agree, it is no secret that men and women act and think differently. Therefore, I think as a woman, I can have a better understanding of what my players think, how they react to something, since we come from the same perspective and from the same place from an emotional standpoint. I think male and female coaches can complement each other very well though – because they have different skillsets and ways to interact with their players,” she continues.
Saskia’s very first coach, when she was only eight years old, was a female. She is the one who recognised her talent and decided she would play with a group of boys in order to nurture her skills and somehow accelerate her development.
“I am very grateful to her because she saw not only my technical skills but my competitive spirit as well – and my career would not have been the same without her impulse.”
Van Hintum started playing in the highest division of the Dutch national league at the young age of 15 – and her career continued with stints in Germany, Belgium and even in Italy. At some point, towards the end of her competitive days, she combined playing in Belgium with working with the youth and junior national team programmes in the Netherlands. A three-time Olympian (as a player in 1996 and as a coach / assistant coach in 2012 and 2016), she has a wealth of experience to share and has helped grow future Beach Volleyball stars in the Netherlands – such as Marleen van Iersel, Madelein Meppelink, Sanne Keizer, to name only a few.
She has coached the national team of Switzerland since January 2020 – but last year’s programme obviously did not go according to plan because of the pandemic. “The postponement of the EuroVolley qualifiers meant that we only played two friendly matches in 2020. We had a longer camp this year with more friendlies and I see a positive development. My girls shall take as much as they can from this experience, including tomorrow’s match with Italy, because these games help you see where you currently stand.”
Finally, speaking again of the role of women in elite sport, she adds,
“I see we have more and more female international referees also here at EuroVolley. Of course, working at an elite level can be very demanding, because it requires from you a great amount of flexibility, you need to travel a lot and spend time away from your home country and family, which is not that easy, especially for women who have kids. However, I believe that we are showing that there is a perspective for women in top sport and I hope that many more will be able to follow our example.”