Life after Championship Sport - what happens next?

I was asked in September 2013 to deliver a talk at the SMART Way Forward conference about 'Life after Championship Sport - what happens next' - here is the outline of that talk.

We started by looking at the legacy of two well known Sports Professionals, Dame Kelly Holmes and Paul Gasgoine and the differences in what they had achieved after retirement. Dame Kelly with her foundation and Paul Gasgoine struggling with addictions.

When we look for facts and figures around this issue then we need to look to the United States, studies there have shown

·         The average career span for professional basketball, football, and baseball player is a mere 4.5 years, 3.2 years, and under five years, respectively

·         By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness, divorce and overspending.

·         Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.

So what's going on...?

There have been many studies have been done to track the emotions that people experience in the face of change.  The best known of these is Dr Elizabeth Kubler Ross (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist, a pioneer in Near-death studies and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model.  In this work she proposed the now famous Five Stages of Grief as a pattern of adjustment.  These five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In general, individuals experience most of these stages.

Her original work was done around grief, and has since been adapted to reflect responses to change in general.

When we retire it is a change and it may be unexpected through injury and it is when we can become more pessimistic in the choices we have available to us.

Kubler Ross Model

Once we had explored the model above we went onto look at 'Annie Page's Point of Transition' model which is part of a wider piece of work that I deliver around Change within Sport and Business. There are three areas of the model that we looked at.

Belief - Why we do what we do

“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.”

Christian D. Larson

Identity - Who we are

“First of all, what happens is, when you’re good at something, you spend a lot of time with it.  People identity you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.”

Mike Krzyzewski

Me in my Ultra runner Identity!

Purpose - Our Driver

“Winners are people with definite purpose in life.”

Denis Waitley

What seems to be currently happening at the moment is we wait until people are at their lowest before doing something.

Why leave it so late?

Making a decision before the change happens is much more powerful and long lasting, the dip into the Pessimistic part of the graph need not be so dramatic and the time it takes to move through the change curve is quicker – you will still go through it!

I was shocked by some of the information I found about suicide in professional sports people, addictions – drinking, gambling, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce...

In August 2013 there were 150 ex professional footballers in prison for drugs offences – mainly regarding drug distribution!

Kenny Samson, Arsenal – sleeping on a bench due to gambling addiction

So what can be done

Brian Moore writing in The Telegraph said:

“What also clearly emerges from anecdotal and empirical evidence is that those who cope best with the problems of sporting retirement are those who at least give some thought and planning to it before they bow out.”

and Brendan Batson said:

‘key to making the difficult move from the somewhat closed world of sport into the world of business, is preparation during your playing career’.

Looking to the future you can - Expand your identity, know your future purpose, understand what you believe.

You already have the skills to start doing this – the same as the ones you needed to succeed in sport...

Write up from SMART Way Forward after their conference in September 2013

Life after Championship sport – What happens next? – was presented by Annie Page, Director of Essentii and ‘Annie Page’s Point of Transition.  This was a very interesting and thought provoking workshop, which proved very popular with the Olympians and elite athletes / players who were attending.  Annie shared a brief insight into her ‘Point of transition’ model.  Having an identity is very important to everyone.  However, when you are a successful sportsman, sportswomen, celebrity or public figure – your self esteem and confidence is elevated to a level higher than normal.  Therefore, many people who have been privileged to be in this position, then find it very hard when they are no longer in the public eye.  Annie highlighted some excellent examples of sports people and businessmen who had made this transition successfully – however, it was shocking to see the statistics for how many sports people found it difficult once their careers had come to an end.  A great session, which highlighted the importance of self belief, acceptance, confidence and self control.  It was very popular with the performance coaches and managers in the audience.

Changing times...

Well it has been a busy year and I really haven't done as much blogging as I would have liked!

There have been a few changes over the year to what I offer and how I want to put it all out into the market and so I thought it would be good to let everyone know about them!

A couple of years ago I started working on my unique model 'Annie Page's Point of Transition'  a model for sports professionals looking for their what next.  After a year of testing, adapting and exploring with it I felt it was time to start discussing it with other people and test the market.  I was amazed by the response from athletes that I knew who loved it and from people in the business world who wanted to adapt it for themselves.  However it still felt like quite a different product to those that I offered under Essentii and after discussing it with a few trusted individuals I decided to launch it as me and not as Essentii.  This meant I could also separate out the speaking engagements and the books/ articles that I wanted to write into my own personal brand rather than the company.  This also means that in future as the company grows I can bring in more people to deliver that work and I can further establish my personal brand!

This year also saw myself and my good friend Lucy Hampton run our own NLP Practitioner Programme - 18 great days between May and November with a wonderful and fun group of people. This we have established under Clearly Essential and details can be found here - clearlyessential.co.uk

So with these changes in mind I have updated the company website and set up anniepage.co.uk.  There will be different twitter accounts with the @essentii company one moving much more towards NLP bias, coaching and training, leadership, communication, team building etc and leaving @anniepageuk as more about change and transition, research and articles into how change can effect us, talking engagements etc.

Over the next year the changes will start to be more marked and defined and it will still be me at the core of it all.

This blog will be one of the few places where all the worlds come together with pieces from the talks I have given, what the company is up to, and my running blog, so that people can see I do all the things I talk, coach and train, in all areas of my own life.  The integrity of walking the talk is important to me.

I hope you will enjoy exploring with me and that we continue to have fun as we go.

Business Coaching skills for Sports Coaches

I was very pleased to take part in the first UKA Coach Share Conference in October 2012 and have posted the transcript of my talk here. There were about 30 of us who all had 6 minutes to share our thoughts, views or specific techniques for other coaches and these are all available on the UKA Coach Share website for UKA Coaches.


Business Coaching skills for Sports Coaches

Good morning, my name is Annie Page and I am a Sports and Business Coach who works with individuals and teams on achieving their goals and I am here to talk to you about utilising business coaching skills as sports coaches.

 Before I start I would like you to think of a time when you struggled as a coach (or athlete) and what would have been the one piece of advice that would have been useful to you at that time. Take a moment to share it with the person next to you.... we will be coming back to this later.

Ok - I know from my own sports coaching experience how much more effective I can be working with athletes not just on their performance and technical ability but also with their beliefs about who they are and what they can do. Working with their own self talk and making sure I coach them from their point of view not mine.

The beliefs we hold are hugely impactful on what we do and how we do it - I'm sure you've all heard the quote by Henry Ford:

'Whether you think you can or you think you can't, either way you will be right'

 As coaches we need to work with athletes so they can move away from their own internal unhelpful self talk and be able to harness their strengths - which will help shift their thinking in order to be the best they can as individuals to give their best performance in competition through practice and training. So that we as coaches are being athlete centred not just around performance, but around their inner self talk and beliefs. When we do this we will see athletes who understand their own self talk, who they are as an athlete, what beliefs they hold that will help them and how to take control and change those that hinder them. We will hear ourselves communicating effectively, talking to athletes in their own way and utilising language as a powerful tool.

For example a runner I was working with kept stopping on the same hill - her technique was fine and the difference was what she was saying to herself, 'don't stop, don't stop' - our brain ignores the negative 'don't' and focuses on 'stop' the body does what its told and stops! We worked together and looked at what she did wanted to do - 'get to the top' - and changed the inner self talk to 'to the top, to the top' and now she runs that hill every time. She is also able to take that learning into other areas of her performance.

Athletes can feel the difference in a great performance compared to a good one and by working with them and their internal feelings of what 'great' means we can recreate those feelings before they go out into the field of play and they can go into the competition in 'great' mode.

When an athlete is in competition we need them to be in control and responsible for their performance. We all saw in the Olympics what can happen when a coach has too much responsibility for the performance - Holly Bleasdale being a great example of that. This can lead to people losing trust in themselves as an athlete and in us as a coach.

As coaches we have to manage ourselves in those moments and work with the athlete in practice and training so they can manage their own inner selves. The athlete is still the one who has to perform - they are the ones who need to understand how they can be in the best place mentally at that moment in time and we as coaches need to help them understand how they can do that.

What I'm saying is not that all coaches have to go through Business Coaching training, but to take from it the areas that we can utilise about how the mind can enhance or detract from performance and add it to the technique and performance coaching training that we do. To do this I believe it does need to become part of what we learn as we go through the coaching levels. In this way we will learn how to deliver our sessions for the athlete.

We also need to take responsibility for our learning and in the same way we plan and monitor our sessions we need to have reflective time about how we delivered it. In this way we can become coaches in the fullest meaning of the word, delivering training to enhance performance of the mind and the body.

In British cycling they looked at performance and thought that having 100% ability was only 80% of the performance - the other 20% came from Belief, Commitment and Focus and how these areas work for each individual athlete is where we need to develop as coaches in order to develop our athletes - understanding what is the difference that makes the difference.

Now take a moment to think back to the start and that one piece of advice that would have helped - how much of it is about how you feel and therefore how your mind reacts to it... Thank you for your time and attention. this morning and remember next time you think ' I don't want....' change it to think about what you 'do want....' and see what difference this can bring you.

Sports Coaches Conference Talk

Recently I was asked to do a talk about 'The basics of coaching effectively by recognising different learning styles' for a sports coaches conference organised by SMART Way Forward and held at Bisham Abbey - one of Sport Englands National Sports Centres. I had an amazing day meeting and networking with the other speakers and attendees who ranged from those who had Olympic medal success to those just starting on their sports coaching careers. My actual talk was an interactive session and lasted about an hour - Here I have put in just the main points and it takes just under 10 minutes!

How having a winning sports mindset can work in your business

The London 2012 Olympics was the first major sporting competition that I can recall that actually looked at how the mind can effect sports performance and talked about it so openly.  I thought this was great as coaching the mind is not just for when you have an issue it is very much about enhancing performance.  There were some great pieces on Sports Psychology and some great quotes from those that have been there and done it!

So what can we learn from these beliefs held by elite athletes that we can take into our own sporting or business arena.

'I don't own winning, I wanted to win' - Carl Lewis

'Top athletes perceive pressure as a privilege' - Tom Bates

'...pressure so high at that point, all things being equal it's the person who handles that moment and the pressure at that particular time best, that's going to have their best performance' - Michael Johnson

'I'm about to go to battle' - Michael Johnson

'Four years preparation for a few moments of action' - Matthew Syed

'Control the controllables' - Sir Matthew Pinsent

'You can only control how you perform' - Michael Johnson

'Thoughts become things and what we think affects the way we feel and the way we feel ultimately affects the way that we behave and ultimately in the sporting context - performance' - Tom Bates

'Find something that works for you' - Jonathan Edwards

'That minute difference between victory and defeat on the biggest stage of all is often to be found not in skill or effort but in the recesses of the mind' - Matthew Syed

Take a moment to think about a situation or activity you have coming up where you want to be at your best.  Pick a quote and think about your situation as if you hold that thought to be true - what does it tell you now about how you see and feel about the situation - what will you do differently?  What will you do the same?

Whether you are an athlete or in business, competing in any arena you needs to have mind and body working together and mental coaching techniques will help you achieve your goals and perform in the most competitive of environments.

The model below I use with athletes so they can see the different areas that coaching can work with - these are as relevant for business as they are for sport.

Now you may think overcoming injury is not very relevant to business but if someone feels injured this can have as devastating an effect on their work as an athlete being physically injured.

So what sports winning mentality will you have today?

How to Turn Inspiration into Participation....

With so many people feeling inspired by the Olympics you may be wondering where to start, so here is an extract from my e-book 'How to get off the Sofa and Start Running'.

Getting your mind in your run

"There are people who have no bodies, only heads. And many athletes have no heads, only bodies. A champion is a man who has trained his body and his mind"

- Coach Sam Dee The Olympian

However much your body might want to go for a run, if your mind isn’t interested it’s unlikely that you will get out the door.

We can be very good at talking ourselves out of doing something and so when you first start running it’s really good to think of some outcomes that you want to achieve.

You can break these down from your long term outcome and then smaller ones in order to keep you on track.

For instance a long term outcome maybe to take part in a race, do a particular time, fit into a particular pair of jeans.

Your short term outcomes can then be to run 3 times a week, to do a certain amount of mileage in a week, or spend a certain amount of time running each week.

Our brains work really well when it knows what we want to achieve and so if you have a good outcome in place this can help on those days it seems more tricky to get out the door!

To create a great outcome think about what you want to achieve and then build up a movie of it in your mind, what can you see happening when you have this outcome, what can you hear and how do you feel.  The more detail you can put into this visualisation the more compelling it becomes and the more likely you are to achieve it.

By building this vision at the beginning it can mean that on those odd days when you can’t be bothered you can bring this vision to the fore and it will help you get out the door.

I have a philosophy that on any given day running can be 10% physical and 90% mental.  If you are going to spend time training your body to do what you want it to do, surely the same thinking goes for training your brain!

And that’s not just for running…..

If you want to read the whole book which includes a 12 week plan you can order through:-

 Amazon -  http://amzn.to/howtogetoffthesofa or

The Endless Bookcase - http://www.theendlessbookcase.com/shop/products-page/ebooklet/how-to-get-off-the-sofa-and-start-running/

5 top tips for being mentally prepared when endurance cycling

Northampton Road Cycling Club have 6 members taking on the challenge of cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End over 9 days in August 2012 - here are 5 top tips I put together for them to prepare themselves mentally.

1. Before you start each day together or individually visualise the days cycling ahead - what will you

 - See

- Hear (both inside your head as well as externally i.e. what will you be saying to yourself)

- Feel (again both internally and externally)

and imagine how you will feel when you have accomplished that days cycling.

2. Acknowledge that there will be easy times and tough times.  Remember to enjoy the easy parts and knowing that there will be tough times means you can prepare mentally for them and they won't come as a big shock to the system!

3. Be careful of using the word don't.  i.e. 'don't stop' - our brain deletes the negative 'don't' and just understands the 'stopping' this is what it tells the body to do and you end up stopping!  Give yourself a positive mantra to repeat instead.

4. As cyclists you physically work as a team - make sure you also mentally work as a team.  Take it in turns to be navigator, cheerleader, the one who points out the amazing places you're cycling past!

5. Give yourself a pat on the back both mentally and physically at the end of each day - have a reward.

Most of all enjoy it!

If you want to find out more about their challenge then check out their website Northampton Road Cycling Club