In the coming school year, the HPA is going to allow more McMaster teams to use its space, free of charge
Created in 2021, the McMaster University High Performance Area was built to give varsity athletes a space to be coached for sport-specific workouts. The space houses an array of equipment including squat racks, Keiser units and a turf field.
The facility is a world-class space, bringing prestige to the university and, most importantly, helping the student athletes that attend McMaster to reach their full potential.
While the HPA has been up and running for the past two years, only teams within the U SPORTS league—including sports such as, swimming, wrestling, soccer and women’s rugby—were allowed to make use of the space without payment.
While the HPA has been up and running for the past two years, only teams within the U SPORTS league—including sports such as, swimming, wrestling, soccer and women’s rugby—were allowed to make use of the space without payment.
This set up left teams that participate in the Ontario University Athletics league, such as the baseball, fencing and golf teams, without a space to weightlift, train and be coached in the strength and conditioning field.
In the past, the only way for these teams to access the HPA was to pay out of pocket. Compounded with other payments these athletes need to make for their sport, such transportation and equipment fees, these costs have often not been reasonable for them to pay.
“Last year what we did was [OUA sports teams] paid per coach, so they only paid for the coach’s time. But really the students had to pay for a building in their own facility,” said manager of HPA and High Performance Programs Ben Bahrami.
This year, Bahrami opted to change this set up. As of this semester, OUA teams will be allowed to train in the HPA free of charge during specified open hours.
“I’ve proposed removing the team-specific training for any essentially teams that aren’t U SPORTS level and anyone that’s OUA, and some of our U Sports teams that just have a lot of class conflicts with their team times. Anyone in that category essentially comes in during open hours. This way they can have access more than the one or two hours they’re scheduled in,” said Bahrami.
The goal is to allow more athletes to use the space, help to maintain their health throughout the season and the offseason, and help them reach their goals.
“We want to provide a high enough product for students who came to McMaster to then go to the professional ranks or to play for a national team, so you have to provide that high level but also provide a basic program for someone that just wants to stay healthy and play sports for a few years,” said Bahrami.
“We want to provide a high enough product for students who came to McMaster to then go to the professional ranks or to play for a national team, so you have to provide that high level but also provide a basic program for someone that just wants to stay healthy and play sports for a few years,”
Ben Bahrami, HPA and High Performance Programs Manager
This change could bring some drawbacks, with the HPA space being a limited 3700 square feet and containing only 10 racks, which can lend itself to overcrowding.
“That's kind of the biggest challenge is balancing out the resources versus everything you want to do and everyone that wants to do X, Y and Z for their own development,” said Bahrami.
Ultimately though, this change will hopefully be a great step for McMaster sports moving forward as allowing more athletes to access high performance spaces will improve the student athlete experience and help teams and athletes reach their goals.
McMaster’s HPA welcomes Heather Harrigan as the second recruit through new internship program supporting gender equality in strength and conditioning
For the second year in a row, McMaster University’s High Performance Area has offered a female summer coaching internship. This paid summer internship looks to give female-identifying university graduates an opportunity to receive all-around training and education in the strength and conditioning field. The internship program is open to all female-identifying individuals who have completed a university or college degree in kinesiology or fitness and have one to two years experience in training and condition athletes.
This year Waterloo University Master of Kinesiology graduate Heather Harrigan was selected to participate in the internship program. The HPA’s Manager, Ben Baharmi, chose Harrigan in hopes of giving her the opportunity to learn from the team’s coaching staff and to provide female representation in the university training centre.
"You want to be able to represent the population that you’re servicing. When it’s a lot of [people of] the same gender, race, sexuality [and that] kind of thing, some people may not feel fully comfortable in that space as they could,” said Harrigan.
You want to be able to represent the population that you’re servicing. When it’s a lot of [people of] the same gender, race, sexuality [and that] kind of thing, some people may not feel fully comfortable in that space as they could.
Heather Harrigan, Intern, McMaster University High Performance Area
In many athletic departments, the coaching staff is predominately male. A study that looked at Division 1 athletics in the United States, found that 86.1 per cent of strength coaches identified as male. Even within McMaster’s HPA, the majority of the space’s strength coaches identify as male.
Baharmi identified the lack of female coaches in the strength and conditioning field, which led to the implementation of the summer internship.
The internship looks to address this issue, allowing McMaster athletes to see more meaningful representation among the coaching staff. It also allows for students to see a route to success off the field, but still in athletics.
"There's obviously female involvement through the [current] strength and conditioning program, but I think having an extra [female] role model throughout the summer time is amazing not only for the program but for the athletes as well,” said fourth-year Kinesiology student Bryanna Caldwell.
There’s obviously female involvement through the [current] strength and conditioning program, but I think having an extra [female] role model throughout the summer time is amazing not only for the program but for the athletes as well.
Bryanna Caldwell, fourth-year Kinesiology student, McMaster University
In addition to providing more meaningful representation to McMaster athletes, the internship looks to provide opportunities for the recipient to grow as a coach and gain invaluable experience through running sessions for athletes
"Something Ben [Baharami] said to me that I’ve heard other coaches say to me is that you start out and you think you know everything. Then you run a session and you think you know absolutely nothing. Then you start to get better and then you think you know nothing again. It’s really balancing that curve that there’s always more to learn but you do know your stuff,” said Harrigan.
Harrigan's experience in the HPA so far has also given her more optimism surrounding the strength and conditioning field and that change is possible in terms of gender equality. Her summer experience so far has also given her more confidence in her own abilities.
"I definitely feel like I was more pessimistic towards the field before starting here and being in an environment with a lot of male coaches. But [HPA coaches] are so inviting and so welcoming that they’ve completely changed my viewpoint on [gender equality within strength coaching] and to be more optimistic to not be so judgmental about myself,” said Harrigan.
Harrigan's arrival to the HPA seems to have been beneficial to herself, the coaching team, and the athletes who use the HPA. Through programs such as the HPA’s female summer coaching internship, McMaster is taking important steps towards a more gender diverse staff in its sports facilities.
