Rebekah Hopper: Inspiring the next generation of female throwers
In the lead up to International Women’s Day 2025 on 8 March, we want to celebrate the inspirational women within our sport who act as role models to empower more girls to achieve their full potential. We caught up with Rebekah Hopper, a young female throws coach from Wigan at the England Age Group Indoor Championships to find out more about her journey into coaching and what she enjoys most.
Having been involved in athletics from a young age, Rebekah decided to qualify as a coach to help encourage and develop younger athletes.
“I've been doing athletics for 15 years. I started when I was eight and did a variety of events myself, but fell in love with the throws. I realised that there was a severe lack of throws coaches at the time, but especially younger female throws coaches.”
She recognised that this could be a barrier preventing some girls from getting into or continuing in the sport. She wanted to be the change and help accelerate action by empowering female throwers to enjoy the sport and achieve their potential.
“I was looking to be that positive role model for other young female throwers, but also other throwers in general, that I was looking for when I was young.
“I very much enjoyed the technical side both while throwing and then getting into coaching, so I went on to do my coaching qualifications. Now I coach a great group, so I just love coaching them. Everything I learn, everything that they achieve - it just feels amazing.”
Rebekah’s love for coaching stems from being able to help the athletes in her coaching group to develop and achieve their goals in the sport.
“My favourite thing about coaching is the athletes and the people in general. It’s getting to meet them, getting to see how they react and to see them achieve their dreams. I love being able to help just a little bit, whether that be with technique, support or whether they just need someone there. So I think that's definitely my favourite thing.”
She has recently been working with Yasmin Baker (Wigan & District) to transition from a glide to rotational technique in the shot put. The England Age Group Indoor Championships were the first major competition where Yasmin implemented the new technique with a 4kg shot. The first year U20 athlete had a brilliant competition finishing 3rd.
“Yasmin has put a lot of work into the new technique. She's thrown the discus, so she sort of knows the idea of a rotation, but it's a lot about confidence. She was confident in the glide, she could just throw it, whereas there’s a lot more technique in the rotation.”
Having switched to this new technique this season, the coach-athlete pair are putting no pressure on getting results, but are instead looking to grow in confidence using the rotational technique.
“I just think she's going to go from strength to strength. We’re also looking towards 13m to see if she can break that barrier. I think that's a big mental barrier as it's further than she's thrown with either technique. So, I think that's our aim for the season, but absolutely no pressure and looking forward to the next two other big years.”
Yasmin is on the England Athletics Youth Talent Programme, so both her and Rebekah have benefited from the support available throughout the year, as well as event specific coaching masterclasses. The pair are achieving great things in the female throwing circles and by acting as role models they can inspire more young female throwers to love the sport.