Houda grew up in the Netherlands and she first came into contact with kickboxing at the age of 11.
She soon found out that kickboxing was her passion, Houda trained hard and spend all her time in the gym, training 6 days a week. Due to her passion and perseverance, in 2005, Houda became the Dutch Youth Champion.
At university Houda choose to study Sports Management and Movement.
Houda was inspired as a young girl by her coach – and she wanted to be the inspiration for other young children.
With her knowledge and experience in top-class sports and her social-pedagogical background, Houda knows how to reach girls and get them moving – literally. By sharing her story, Houda makes young people feel relevant and that they are capable of more than they think.
Her mission is to give coaches the tools to make sports more accessible for girls. She believes it is important that every individual can play sports according to their own needs.
Houda is passionate about equality and diversity in sports and has worked with Nike on their “made to play campaign”. Nike's words are clear: children should play. Not just some kids, but all kids. Not just some girls, but all girls, including girls who wear hijab.
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Show notes
- Who is Houda
- Why sport is her life
- Coming from a sporty family
- Being inspired by Bruce Lee at 8 years old
- Getting into kickboxing at 11
- Falling in love with kickboxing
- Her journey in kickboxing
- Training for her first match
- Becoming the Dutch Youth Champion
- Becoming more confident
- Wanting to prove a girl could fight
- Starting to wear the hijab at 14
- Going to study sports at college
- Being the only girls wearing the hijab
- “It was not easy, but I had the power to do it”
- Wanting to keep going with the kickboxing
- Being in a car accident at 21
- Spending a lot of time in recovery
- Dealing with the first big disappointment in her life
- Having nothing else apart from sports
- Trying to figure out what to do next
- Working with young girls but wanting to inspire the whole family
- Wanting to make a big impact in the world
- Having her own personal development program
- Working towards lots of goals
- Wanting to change the representation of girls and women in the media
- Being a teacher of resilience
- Giving the children tools to help build resilience
- The power of being positive
- Wanting children to believe in themselves
- Teaching children how to say no
- Why you attitude is very important
- The power of having a growth mindset
- How to deal with negative thoughts
- Planting seeds in young minds
- Having people believe in you
- The pressure on girls to look/act a certain way
- Needing the help and support from others
- Wanting to educate other coaches
- Being inspired by her mum
- Being 1 of 6 children
- How her parents support her dream
- Working with Nike - Made to Play Campaign
- Creating a play book for coaches to use to help them work with girls who wear a hijab
- Starting a Youtube Channel
- The importance of smiling and having fun
- “Your start says nothing about your finish”
- "If you have a dream and you want to achieve your dream, then you need to work for it and believe in it”
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