Her Strength Coach Course
Most Girls Quit Sport During Puberty. Yours Doesn’t Have To.
By the end of adolescence, only one in three girls remain in sport. Her Strength is on a mission to give coaches, parents, and practitioners the knowledge to change that.
Stop Guessing. Start Supporting.
Most coach education stops at technique and training plans. It was never built for what actually happens to a girl’s body, performance, and confidence during adolescence.
The Her Strength Coach Course, led by Dr Julia Casadio, gives you the evidence-based framework to understand what’s really going on, and what to do about it.
Inside, you’ll discover:
- Why the drop in performance, motivation, or confidence you’re seeing usually isn’t a mindset problem, it’s a physiological one.
- How puberty, the menstrual cycle, and energy availability interact to shape training response, injury risk, and readiness.
- The Her Strength system: practical tools built by a five-expert team, so you know exactly what to say and do, not just what the research says.
You’ll go from working around your athletes’ development to working with it, building a program and a coaching relationship that keeps girls in sport instead of losing them.
This Course is Designed for:
Sport Coaches Who are seeing girls disengage, get injured, or quietly drop out during adolescence, and want to understand why.
Strength & Conditioning Coaches and Sport Scientists Who already train female athletes but want a framework built specifically for the adolescent stage, not adapted from adult or male-athlete programming.
Parents, Physiotherapists, and Practitioners Who are supporting a young female athlete day to day and want to understand what’s happening to her body and mind, and how to help.
Sound familiar?
- One of your best athletes has quietly lost her spark, and you’re not sure why.
- You’ve noticed a female athlete’s performance stall or dip and defaulted to “she needs to train harder,” without asking what her body is actually going through.
- You’re coaching mixed-experience groups and using the same program for every athlete, regardless of where they are in puberty.
- You’ve had a conversation about periods, body changes, or fuelling go badly, or avoided having it at all.
- You’re left wondering: is this a training issue, a growth issue, a nutrition issue, or something else entirely? And how would you even tell the difference?
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:
- Recognise the signs of puberty-related changes in training response, coordination, and injury risk, and adjust programming accordingly.
- Understand the menstrual cycle as a normal part of athletic development, and use it to inform load and recovery decisions rather than ignore it.
- Identify the early warning signs of low energy availability before they become a health or performance problem.
- Have confident, informed conversations with young female athletes and their parents about the changes they’re going through.
- Build training and recovery plans that respect where an athlete is developmentally, not just her age or year group.
- Support the psychological side of adolescence, so girls stay confident and connected to sport through its most vulnerable stretch.
Confident Coaching Awaits.
Give your athletes a coach who understands what they’re going through, not one who’s guessing or avoiding uncomfortable conversations.
Enroll today and unlock the full course, taught by five experts across six modules.
The course is delivered through 6 modules and 32 lessons, built by a five-expert team:
Module 1: Puberty and Sport — taught by Dr Julia Casadio
Module 2: The Menstrual Cycle — taught by Dr Julia Casadio
Module 3: Health Considerations for Young Female Athletes — taught by Dr Tanya Keogh
Module 4: Nutrition Optimisation — taught by Dr Sylvia Goedeke
Module 5: Training and Recovery Optimisation — taught by Shaun Paterson
Module 6: Psychological Considerations — taught by Rachel McLeod
This isn’t a course full of theory. Every module is built around practical tools and coach actions, so what you learn changes what you actually do on the field, in the gym, and in conversation.
Here’s what you’ll unlock in each module:
Module 1: Puberty and Sport · [5 lessons]
What’s actually happening to a girl’s body during adolescence, and why it matters for how she trains.
You’ll learn:
- Why peak height velocity (the fastest period of growth, typically between ages 10 and 14) changes coordination, injury risk, and training tolerance.
- How growth timing varies dramatically between individual athletes on the same team, and why “coach to the calendar year” doesn’t work.
- What early, on-time, and late maturers each need differently from your programming.
Module 2: The Menstrual Cycle · [6 lessons]
Why the cycle is a performance signal, not something to work around in silence.
You’ll learn:
- Why 66% of teen athletes say their cycle affects their performance, and why that makes it relevant to coaching, not just health.
- How to talk about the menstrual cycle with athletes in a way that’s normal, direct, and non-awkward.
- How cycle awareness can inform, not dictate, training and recovery decisions.
Module 3: Health Considerations for Young Female Athletes · [5 lessons]
The health risks that are preventable, if you know what to look for.
You’ll learn:
- How to recognise the early signs of low energy availability and its impact on bone health, hormonal function, and long-term performance.
- What a coach’s role is versus a medical practitioner’s, and when to refer out.
- How to build a training environment where athletes feel safe raising health concerns early.
Module 4: Nutrition Optimisation · [7 lessons]
Fuelling for a body that’s growing and training at the same time.
You’ll learn:
- Why underfuelling is common and often invisible in adolescent female athletes, even those who “eat fine.”
- How nutritional needs shift across puberty and the menstrual cycle.
- Practical, non-restrictive ways to talk about food and fuelling that support performance without creating anxiety around eating.
Module 5: Training and Recovery Optimisation · [5 lessons]
Programming that works with development, not against it.
You’ll learn:
- How to adjust load, intensity, and recovery based on maturation stage, not just age or ability level.
- Practical strength and conditioning approaches for the adolescent female athlete, with demonstrations you can use immediately.
- How to protect long-term athletic development while still meeting short-term performance demands.
Module 6: Psychological Considerations · [5 lessons]
Why she stays in sport, or why she quietly leaves it.
You’ll learn:
- How adolescent brain development shapes confidence, motivation, and decision-making under pressure.
- What actually drives female athletes to disengage or drop out, and how to intervene early.
- How to build a coaching relationship that keeps sport feeling safe and worth staying in.
This is just a taste of what’s inside
The full course gives you the complete framework, practical tools, and coach conversations you need to support adolescent female athletes with confidence.
About your instructors
Dr Julia Casadio
Founder, Her Strength — Olympic Sports Physiologist & Applied Researcher
Dr Julia Casadio is a sport physiologist and applied researcher who spent three Olympic cycles working with the New Zealand Olympic team, helping athletes win five medals at the Games.
Julia founded Her Strength after seeing, over and over, how little support existed for young female athletes navigating puberty inside high-performance systems, a gap she’d lived herself. As a competitive cross-country skier, she developed an eating disorder after a coach told her to “lean up,” and was ultimately forced out of the sport she loved.
That experience is why Her Strength exists: to make sure other coaches, parents, and practitioners have the knowledge she didn’t have access to at the time, so fewer girls have to leave sport the way she did. She built a team of five specialists in sports medicine, nutrition, strength & conditioning, and adolescent psychology, so the course treats the whole athlete, not just the physical side.
Dr Tanya Keogh
Sports Physician, General Practitioner
Acting medical director for several sports teams, with orthopaedic expertise. Teaches Module 3, bringing a clinical, real-world lens to the health risks coaches need to recognise and act on early.
Dr Sylvia Goedeke
Registered Dietitian, Female Nutrition Specialist
University lecturer with a PhD in female dietary needs, and runs her own practice working directly with young female athletes. Teaches Module 4, translating the nutrition science into what to actually say and do.
Shaun Paterson
Strength & Conditioning Coach, Athlete Development Specialist
20+ years of experience coaching athletes from youth to Olympic level, including extensive work with female athletes. Also a lecturer and applied researcher. Co-teaches Module 5 with hands-on video demonstrations.
Rachel McLeod
Sports Psychologist, Brain Development Specialist
Holds a Master’s in adolescent brain development and served as team psychologist for the 2024 NZ Youth Olympic Team. Teaches Module 6, connecting the psychology of adolescence to real coaching decisions.
When you enroll, you’ll receive:
- 6 modules, 32 lessons, taught by five experts across sport physiology, medicine, nutrition, strength & conditioning, and psychology.
- Practical, evidence-based frameworks you can apply immediately, not just theory.
- Short scenario-based practice quizzes so you’re ready to handle these conversations when they actually come up, not just understand them in theory.
- Guidance for having confident conversations with athletes and parents about puberty, the menstrual cycle, and fuelling.
- Tools for recognising early warning signs of low energy availability and related health risks.
- Training and recovery frameworks built specifically for the adolescent female athlete.
- Lifetime access to course materials, including all future updates.
“The course as a whole gave me a better appreciation of what is important to girls and how to interact with them. It will help me make my training more engaging and age-appropriate. It is really useful to understand the concepts of chronological age and biological age. The psychological modules and learning about effectively communicating are going to be important for keeping girls in sport when things get tough.”
— Sierra Ryland, Triathlon & Running Coach
“The course was very well delivered by different experts in each field, which made the learning experience more enjoyable. Having this in depth course that is full of current information from the knowledge base gives me the confidence to apply better interventions and ensure positive outcomes for my athletes.”
— Andrew Patterson, Cycling Coach
“Whether you’re looking to optimize your own training or better support women in sport, Her Strength delivers in spades. Julia brings an incredible depth of knowledge in women’s health and performance, blending science-backed principles with real-world application.”
— Tamara Knapman, Women & Girls Lead, Triathlon NZ
“I have even changed a few things inside my house with my own daughters. I feel more educated and equipped, and I’m excited to go back through my own notes and the workbook.”
— Betsy Maxfield, Parent & Mental Performance Coach
“Such great information. Not only as a coach, but also as a PE and health teacher, I found this very informative.”
— Anna-Marie Keighley, FIFA Referee & Coach
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to already work with elite athletes to take this course?
No. The frameworks apply at every level, club, school, academy, and elite. If you coach, train, treat, or parent an adolescent female athlete, this course applies to you.
Is this only for female coaches?
No. This course is built for anyone supporting adolescent female athletes, regardless of the coach’s own gender. Male coaches make up a large share of youth sport coaching, and this course is especially built with them in mind.
Do I need a medical or science background to understand this?
No. The course is designed for coaches and practitioners first. The science is explained clearly and translated into practical actions, not delivered as a textbook.
How much time does the course take?
The course is self-paced with lifetime access, broken into 32 short lessons across 6 modules. You can move through it at your own speed and revisit modules as needed.
Will this tell me how to talk to my athletes about sensitive topics like periods or body changes?
Yes. Several modules are built specifically around having these conversations confidently and without awkwardness, in a way that keeps athletes feeling safe rather than singled out.
What age range does this apply to?
This course is built for anyone coaching, training, or supporting adolescent female athletes, through puberty and the years surrounding it.
Pricing
Full course access: $299
Six modules, 32 lessons, five expert instructors, lifetime access.
