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.
