Chapter 5

It is in everyone’s interests for you to achieve your potential. Regardless of what happens, if you have behave with professionalism and integrity then you can always hold your head high. It is reasonable to believe that all others will behave with professionalism and integrity too.

Flawed performance cultures, poor coaching practices and poor leadership mean that bad things happen too. Dare I say it, sport has more than its fair share of people with darker personality traits. If you ‘fit their model’, these people may even help prosper. But there have been too many scandals in sport where the health, mental well-being and performance of athletes has suffered. We know many sports could do far better in this regard, but embedded cultural practices get in the way. Leaders, coaches and athletes simply don’t see the flaws because they’re normal and culturally ingrained.

You are part of the solution. There are people that can help you, but you must operate in your environment with your eyes wide open and not allow yourself to be treated in a disrespectful or abusive manner. Doing so is far from easy. There are powerful forces out there who will want you to stay quiet if you raise issues. There are vested interests in sport, where leaders want to maintain their funding streams, keep their jobs and protect ‘image’. Some do what they do in the genuine belief that it is the right thing to do and are simply blind to the issues. Others are simply covering their arses.

I typically work with athletes ‘outside the system’, because it gives us the autonomy to work without institutional constraints. That means everything needs to be paid for independently and we do not expect to be given anything. I’ve spent time in Kenya where athletes have very little apart from a desire to escape poverty, and lots of people ready to exploit them when they do. This means that I believe that it is an absolute privilege to be supported by a federation or NGB in which no one should feel entitled to being supported. In return, I believe that they should work to the highest levels of professionalism, ethics and integrity, doing their best to avoid ‘grey areas’. I want them to invest in great coaches and safe, non-abusive training environments. Until these are in place, ancillary services such as sports science are pointless. Good cultures enhance performance and develop winners. I’m open to helping any sporting organisation who asks for help in reviewing their performance culture.

Regardless of where you are on your journey, your need to learn to cope with training, competition and life stressors. Pushing the boundaries of human performance can be seriously detrimental to your health if things are not done well. Furthermore, some of the challenges you will face will be unpleasant and make you unhappy. This is a normal part of life. Poor performances, injury and loss of funding can happen at any moment and dealing with such adversity is fundamental to achieving success.

To reiterate: life is not fair, shit happens and the goalposts change. Accepting these laws will help you navigate your chosen path. What is not right, regardless of whether they are perceived to be normal or not, are cultures that are both damaging to your health and to your performance. Environments which allow poor coaching practice, mental abuse, physical abuse and harassment to exist are typically led by people without the willingness or skill to address these issues. We should make life for these people very difficult indeed.

Hopefully, I've written words that are helpful. I may have painted a rather negative picture of some aspects of sport. But training given by NGB's and other sporting bodies is usually too 'positive' and avoids elephants in the room. This is understandable. So, hopefully I've balanced that perspective out a little.

I hope you love sport and continue to stay in love with it as much as I am. If you reach the top, great, but if you don't, it's not the end of the world. Just use your passion to make a difference in another area of your life.

Outta here!