The Learn 2 Lead program is empowering young women to develop the skills, confidence, and knowledge to contribute to, and have an equal voice in, their local tennis communities.
Sydney, Australia, 25 July 2024 | Nadia Dimattina
Hayley Dyer is a former world champion karate athlete.
“I studied martial arts when I was three years old and continued until I was eight,” she said.
“I got the opportunity in 2018 to go to the World Martial Arts Championships, and I came home with the world title in Team fighting and a third in the world in individual fighting. Then the following year, I became Australian Champion for my age group.”
Hayley was reaching the peak of her martial arts career when she badly injured her ankle – forcing her into a moon boot.
“It was definitely challenging. I was just at the height of my career and I was close to getting a black belt,” she explained. “But for the black belt, you had to run, I think, six kilometres, and I obviously couldn’t do that.”
Hayley’s mum, Naomi Dyer, said: “It was really devastating for her because the level of pain that she was in was enormous to start with, but then to deal with such a big decision at such a young age as to whether to have surgery or to actually retire from something she’d been so passionate about, it was quite a challenge for her to get through.”
Hayley made the difficult decision to retire from martial arts at the end of 2022. Instead of giving up on sport entirely, she decided to pick up the racquet for the first time, and transitioned to tennis.
Her coach, John Thompson, said he hasn’t seen anything quite like it in his coaching career.
“I’ve never had anyone like Hayley start tennis. And honestly, she could not move at all in any way. She would just be stationary on a tennis court for a half an hour of tennis session to start with once a week. That’s now turned into her being on a tennis court three or four times a week with us and loving the sport, which is the most important part.” he said.
The 17-year-old from Sydney is one of the recent graduates from the NSW Learn 2 Lead Program.
The program, being rolled out nationally, aims to engage young women aged 14 to 18 years within the sport to build their life and leadership skills.
The program has helped Hayley overcome the heartbreak of an injury and consequential end to her karate career, allowing her to focus on her leadership skills and continue pursuing tennis.
“Her confidence level from the start to now is just insane. She has got a passion for sport in general, but also learning,” Thompson said.
“For her to come from being in martial arts at a really elite level to starting at the very base level of tennis with not even being able to make contact with the tennis ball has been amazing.”
Naomi Dyer added: “I think because she was achieving so much in one sport and then to be an absolute beginner in another at the same time as managing this injury issue, I noticed that there was a huge dip in her confidence.
“Even after a few days of the Learn 2 Lead program, I noticed such an uplift and that that spark of confidence that she used to have was back already. And that’s continued to grow throughout the whole program.”
Hayley said she learnt that you don’t need to be loud to be a leader.
“I always had a goal of gaining more confidence and since I joined the Learn 2 Lead program I definitely have gotten more confident and I’m ready to take on new adventures now. I feel I’m more confident talking to people and talking to kids when I coach them,” she said.
Since Learn 2 Lead launched last year, 12 programs have been delivered across the country, with a total of more than 130 participants.
The program was co-designed with young women and is delivered over eight weeks. Topics covered during the face-to-face and online sessions include building connections with other participants in their state and local tennis community, confidence and resilience and public speaking.
Participants see leadership in action through Q&A sessions with guest speakers from the tennis and broader community.
Kelsey Lewis is Hayley’s mentor and also a former graduate of Tennis Australia’s other community leadership program – Women Leaders in Tennis.
“I was very, very lucky that she selected me as her mentor. It means a lot. I’m very passionate about female empowerment and working with young females to get better and develop,” Lewis said.
“I hope that she continues to push herself and to push the boundaries of what she thinks is possible. I hope she continues to get out of a comfort zone and push herself because there’s really no limit to what she can do.”
Former Grand Slam champion Casey Dellacqua leads the program in NSW and believes it is critical for our next generation of female leaders.
“It’s so important to have programs like Learn 2 Lead for future generations for young women in tennis,” Dellacqua said. “I know from my perspective had I had opportunities off the court, then no doubt it would have helped me stay in the game, have a passion and have a purpose.
“I hope that these young women decide to go back to the clubs, implement the action learning projects, and really continue that passion and see how rewarding it is to want to be, a volunteer or really make a difference within their community as a leader.
“I think they’ve got the skills, they’ve got the confidence now and now it’s just a matter of them going back to their clubs to just really take the lead and go in and put all the skills that they’ve learned into action.”