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An invited audience of around 90 female Women in Football members tuned in to listen as Chelsea Women FC manager Emma Hayes and sports broadcaster Eilidh Barbour joined forces to stage our first-ever live webinar.

Following an introduction by Women in Football board member Jo Tongue, Eilidh asked Emma a range of questions, including a selection from those coaches listening in.

Here we bring you a snippet of the conversation as Emma is asked about how her work as a coach has been impacted during the current situation.

EB: How has life in lockdown been for you?

EH: I think everyone will have such different experiences about this time; in fact I was talking to Karen Carney earlier and she always bangs on to me about the importance of recovery and getting time to breathe and I have only realised in this lockdown that it is the first break I have had since 2011. Because off seasons are not breaks, not a chance. That is where, I think, the most amount of reflection or putting in place what you are going to do for the following season happens. In fact if you do it then, you're too late. So there isn't really a massive recovery period and as everyone knows I gave birth in 2018 and went back to work after eight weeks and I've been in a coma ever since until this lockdown.

And I think about how exhausted I really was through that whole period and how much I really struggled to stay on top of my hormones, my energy levels and that was really, really tough. I think only now can I look at that and think 'Now I know why not too many coaches have babies' and that needs to change. Women in football, not being able to have children if they want one, I think we need to do more than that because it's all good and well saying "Oh, she's back at work after eight weeks" but I just found it so impossible to think "How do you take that time off as a manager? Do I leave my team with someone for 10 months and then come back?". It felt like it was an almost impossible situation if I were to stay in the job and I really, really wanted to stay in the job after giving birth and struggled in the first season

This season I made the right decisions to say "I'm going to control what I can control, so with sleep deprivation, I'm just going to get the nitty-gritty right to drive the team towards winning", which we were fortunate enough to win the trophy. And then the break came, the bags [pointing to her eyes] started disappearing, I started to relax and enjoy myself and I've learnt how to parent 24/7. There's having to contemplate coaching post-covid, life post-covid, the return to training post-covid and all of those elements along with the daily anxieties/calm and all the things that happen. So yes, I've adjusted, I've definitely adjusted and I think this is the calmest I have been for a while.

EB: I think adjustment is probably the perfect word for this time. Having taken that rest time, have you enjoyed this period in a way from a personal point of view, but perhaps not so much a coaching point of view?

EH: I've loved every minute of it and I'm not going to feel guilty about it and not because I don't work how I can, like my work is done on phone calls during the morning walk or now my sister will take him for an hour so I will get a slot to get a bit done. I try not to do things I can't do. There's no point in trying to work with a child on your lap, it's impossible. He's hitting the keyboard, he just wants to play so, you know what, push the work to one side. I've got an army of people who work with me, I'm fortunate, I shouldn't say that as someone who is spoilt but I am fortunate that I have an army of people working with me and that are supporting the team and I think this is the first time in my career I've been able to take a little bit of a back seat on the daily interactions with the players. We have a once a week zoom call with them, we had one today (Monday) at 1 o'clock where we just check in, see each other, and then throughout the week they are doing a whole host of different other things.

So yes, I've enjoyed it, no I don't feel guilty about it. I have reset. I think it has reset my thinking about the importance of wellbeing in such an industry that is so fast-paced. I'm just doing everything I can to stay well and stay healthy. Exercise, my God, I've back to exercising. I needed that more than anything else!

The video will appear in full on our website shortly.

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