The lessons learned in sport are a great platform for kids to develop skills they can transfer to everyday life.
As a long-time sports coach/exercise professional, I see many positive, character traits being developed in the young athletes I coach every day. Commitment to a goal and to others, patience, discipline, resilience, work ethic and team work are evident daily. Sport participation in children is not simply about developing physical skills, but life skills too.
This got me thinking, what I have I learned in over 20 years of endurance sport and how have I applied these principles successfully to other areas of my life, particularly founding and growing my own business? On reflection, the major concept that has become clear to me through a lifetime of sport is this; if you have a vision, and are prepared to keep showing up, day after day and do the work required to achieve your goal, you WILL get there eventually. This can be quite a tedious process and it may take a lot of time, effort and resilience. However, I’ve found if you really want to do something, nothing beats consistent, dedicated work. At times it might not even feel like you are moving in the right direction, but then one day you find yourself exactly where you wanted to be and can say ‘I did it’!
The first major goal I ever set for myself was through sport and it took me a decade to achieve.
The Rottnest Channel Swim is a major annual event in Perth (where I grew up) and involves swimming a distance of 20km from Cottesloe Beach, Perth to Rottnest Island off the WA coast.
When I was a 10-year-old club swimmer, I decided a Rottnest Channel Solo crossing was something I really, REALLY wanted to do. However, I was 10. I would have to be patient and wait until I was a bit older to even attempt my goal.
This goal was always in the back of my mind as I kept showing up to swimming training day after day through my teenage years. I took baby steps, swimming my first ‘Swim Thru Perth’ (4.5km) at 15, then in the following years more 5km, 10km and a 15km event. I swam two ‘Rotto’ crossings as a team of four and one as a duo, before I finally attempted my first solo 20km crossing at age 19…… and then I didn’t even manage to complete the swim on my first go!
In horrendous conditions, the start of the Rottnest Channel Swim event that year was initially delayed, then called off, then eventually began an hour and a half late. After 7 hours & 45 minutes of swimming into a tough headwind/swell, I was forced to stop. I had swum 18 out of the 20km, but had been vomiting for the last two hours, my right shoulder was about three times the size of my left, my whole support crew was down and out (severe seasickness) and there was no way I’d reach the island before the reduced cut-off time elapsed. Not many swimmers made it all the way to Rottnest that day.
For me, it was a worthwhile lesson in patience and the realisation that you can prepare as best as you can, but you can’t control everything.
I was pretty gutted at not completing the crossing after thinking about it for 10 years, but again, a great lesson in resilience…..if at first you don’t succeed, then just try again. The following year (in more ‘normal’ conditions) I managed to complete the swim in spot on 6 hours. After working towards something for so long, to reach the day when you have finally ‘done it’ was quite surreal. The whole journey taught me that it’s extremely satisfying to finish something that has felt overwhelming at times.
In regards to starting my own business Team Hemley Training in 2011, it has been a similar process and I thank the lessons I learned through sport.
From the beginning of my business journey, I have focused on the vision of creating a full-time company that supports people to have positive experiences in sport, achieve athletically and maintain long-term, active lifestyles. I was not sure how long this would take, but like training for Rotto (and the many other endurance challenges I have since undertaken), I knew it was simply a matter of showing up day after day doing the things needed to make it happen, and I would eventually get there.
Like training for an endurance event, sometimes it felt like this goal was unachievable and I was getting nowhere.
Like building up from a 4.5km to a 20km swim I took baby steps; we began as a business in 2011, however I kept working full-time in 2011/12, then dropped down to four days a week of work in 2013, and finally three days a week in 2014. In September 2014, after more than a decade in the government sector, I was able to say good-bye to my ‘other’ job and could concentrate all my energies on my business full-time. We are now at a stage where we have grown to a point where we have employed staff members and service over 400 clients each school term. Each step of the journey has had its own significant challenges, however through the resilience developed from my participation in sport, I have been prepared to tackle them.
In conclusion, skills taught through sport are highly transferable and I see similar characteristics being developed in the athletes we coach every day as they break through their own personal barriers. I believe the future is bright for kids who grow up regularly participating in sport, no matter what direction they want to go.
And to those thinking of tackling an up-coming challenge, athletic or otherwise, I say go for it!! It is extremely satisfying developing a dream and having it come to fruition, and if it ends up taking a long time it is even more worthwhile when you finally get there.