Professional life

I trained professionally as a Sport Psychologist Consultant (SPC) and worked for 10 years in elite sport, attending two Oympic games and working within a number of elite organisations and teams. My competitive nature drew me naturally towards elite sport, and I enjoyed working with like-minded people. The margins between success and failure in elite sport are miniscule, and it is a high pressure environment to work in. A major role of Sport Psychology work is educational, and mirrors that of a teaching professional. The SPC uses his or her skills to help raise the client’s awareness of how their thoughts, emotions and behaviours are impacting on their performance. Once a clear goal has been identified – e.g. control emotions pre-competition, improve coach-athlete communication – the SPC focuses on upskilling the coach/athlete in the mental strategies needed to tackle this goal, and establishes the markers by which success will be judged. These processes are greatly improved when the coach or athlete buys in to the work with the SPC, and even more so, when they take responsibility for identifying the problem and solution themselves. Ultimately, the effectiveness of this work is judged on how well these coping strategies or processes hold up under the greatest pressure (e.g. the major competition). I was successful as a practitioner. however this environment often conflicted with my values and beliefs (e.g. winning, outcome, 'dog-eat-dog' vs. learning, equality, caring). However, I found that by remaining  a dual-practitioner - teacher, researcher, practitioner - has helped to balance these different perspectives.  In my roles at Nottingham Forest Football Club and during my PhD at Loughborough University I was able to combine these roles, working as both a SPC and Teacher , sometimes with the same clients. This was difficult at first – as the student-athletes adjusted to the dual-role, but once I had established a structure for these different learning scenarios, the different roles complimented each other. In future roles, a number of skills have become transferable. While the environments differ, the role of the SPC and the teacher share much in common. For example, presenting to a range of different people – athletes, coaches, managers, peers, teams – has helped me feel comfortable standing in front of a group of students and being at ease with myself in a group. Furthermore, I place a very high value on the practical or applied aspects of learning, and thus I feel I can make a strong connection for the student between theory and practice, rather than being too theoretical in focus.  

In both environments, the true test of how effective the work has been comes when the athlete or student faces and successfully navigates obstacles away from their mentor or the formal training/education – e.g. in a work situation when presenting to a group for the student, or in the last 5 minutes of a key game for an athlete. It is for these reasons that I have always maintained a balance between my consulting – with Olympic and professional sport – and my teaching – at UK and NZ institutions. I am a dual professional, and have always maintained a balance between my teaching, consulting and researching. At times, I have been required to focus on one aspect more than others – e.g. while writing up my PhD, or in an Olympic year. My teaching began at the same time as my consulting. I took on one-off teaching responsibilities at Loughborough University, such as marking assessments and giving guest lectures. At Nottingham Forest Football Club and De Montfort University I took responsibility for delivering courses over an academic year, which required significantly greater investment. I enjoyed this regular contact and learned a huge amount in these experiences. In 2008 my teaching took a back seat while I focused on my consulting – leading into the London Olympic Games – and my research – as I finished my PhD.  I continued to take on guest lecturing opportunities, but didn’t return to teaching until I took a role with Otago Polytechnic. Since 2013, my role has grown significantly, and I am now full-time within the Institute of Sport & Adventure. This dual role has allowed me to transition back into teaching fairly naturally. However, it was also challenging learning to adjust to a new culture in New Zealand.