Saskia van Hintum – A trailblazer and role model for female coaches

When it comes to female coaches working at the highest level in international Volleyball, Saskia van Hintum has been a real trailblazer in many ways. We did catch up with her back in 2021 while she was at the helm of Team Switzerland – the only female coach to hold such a position among the 24 teams involved in CEV EuroVolley Women. We have reconvened for another chat where she had the opportunity to elaborate even further on the challenges she has faced and the opportunities that she has been able to seize throughout a highly successful career. Her journey is an inspiration for other female coaches wishing to follow in her footsteps. 

Van Hintum has recently returned to indoor Volleyball after spending two years working with a group of Beach Volleyball teams from Germany. “That job meant that I had to travel the world quite extensively and I felt the need for some more stability also in my private life. I did work with both men’s and women’s teams at the same time and at Beach Volleyball events, other coaches would approach me and show their surprise at how many teams I was working with,” she recounts. 

The 1996 Olympian for the Netherlands is currently based in Stuttgart where she coaches promising youngsters who shall feed the rosters of elite club Allianz MTV as well as Germany’s U18 and U20 national teams. “I always follow my heart, and this sounded like an interesting challenge at this point in my career. I do like the job, and I enjoy the challenge. I am supposed to help develop these young players so that they become the best version of themselves that they can be, not only in Volleyball, as I think that what they take are skills and tools that they can use also in ‘real life’ once their involvement in the sport will end. I like the feeling that I have moved to another project where my contribution can make a difference,” she reveals. 

Whether she has been working with males or females, in Volleyball or Beach Volleyball, Saskia has always stuck with some key principles and her philosophy: “I think an open and transparent communication with the players is always the name of the game. I am a very open person and I always encourage my players to be open with me as well. I wish for the players to have the feeling that they can approach me and talk to me without any sort of inhibitions. This has applied also to the male players I have been working with, even though you quite naturally would assume that they are less likely to open up and show their emotions, or reveal any sort of fragility, doubts, or weaknesses. This is how we – the coach and the players – can grow together.” 

Next to communication, Saskia emphasizes the importance of adaptability: “Adjusting to the people you work with or the environment you find yourself in is just equally as important. I think I have proven this already throughout my career. I am not afraid of taking up any challenges – I go all in and try to make the best of every opportunity,” she continues. 

Coaching seems to be in her genes, since her father was a soccer coach, and she enjoyed her first such experience at the age of 15 when she was asked to help and mentor a group of 12-year-old players. “My first real experience, however, came years later with the Dutch youth national team. We won the 8 Nations tournament and with that, I could prove to myself and to others as well that my approach was right and that it could bear fruit.” 

Even though she had a first long stint working as a Beach Volleyball coach from 2006 to 2012, Saskia acknowledges that the perspectives for female coaches to emerge and work at the highest level have not been and still are not that bright. “Even though you can see quite a few female coaches in North America working with college teams and in the newly established professional league, and Canada right now has a female head coach with three kids, the sight of a female elite coach in Europe remains rare, even though some progress has been achieved if we look at those working with youth and junior teams. I think that organisations such as FIVB and CEV shall help stimulate and promote the involvement of female coaches because their rise to the top has taken far too long already and it does not seem to happen organically,” she says. “We may start by asking National Federations to involve at least one female coach in their national team programmes, or to get assistants to work with their head coaches so that they understand what that type of job means and requires. I think female coaches very much need opportunities and a platform where they can show and prove themselves, their skills and their ability to coach at the highest level just as their male counterparts do.” 

Saskia invites her fellow coaches to remain humble and to take little steps to evolve and improve. “I have been lucky enough to spend some time with coaches from other sports at the Papendal centre run by the Dutch Olympic Committee. I have learned quite a lot from a colleague working in wheelchair basketball, for instance. Regardless of the sport, at the end of the day, we are all confronted with the same challenges, the same pressure which goes with competitive sport,” she says. “After so many years, personally, I feel very lucky and privileged because for me this is and remains a hobby. The very same day it will feel as a job, I think I will realise that time has come for me to retire and look for something else. I have always worked with all my heart and looking back, even though there have been highs and lows, I would not do anything differently. For now, I would invite other female coaches to believe in themselves, to seize any opportunity and to always do what they love to do.”