Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[TEXT ON SCREEN: Nekoda Smythe-Davis is a judo Commonwealth champion and World Championships Silver and Bronze medallist. Nekoda is a #More2Me champion.]
NEKODA SMYTHE-DAVIS:
It's really tough when you're a sports person, an elite athlete. It takes up all of your time, and it's all you ever think about. As soon as you wake up in the morning, it's I've got to go training. I've got to eat right. I've got to rest right. So it is difficult. But I find for me personally that if I just did sport, I'd probably go stir crazy. I have to do other things.
In judo, we work in Olympic cycles. And I would say for the Rio cycle, everything was new. Everything was the first time I was preparing for the Olympics. So all I could think about was going to the Olympics. All I could think about was preparing right, and I found it very hard to switch off. I didn't really do that much outside of judo in the Rio cycle. And you become really obsessive, and some of those behaviors aren't always healthy.
[TEXT ON SCREEN: After Rio 2016, along with support from her EIS Performance Lifestyle advisor, Nekoda decidely to actively plan for life after sport...]
NEKODA SMYTHE-DAVIS:
Obviously, I'm getting older, and I'm more experienced. And I decided that if I was going to go on this journey again and try and qualify for the Olympics, this possibly could be my last. And I started to think about life after sport. What do I do when I finish in Tokyo? Where do I go next?
After Rio, I was potentially thinking of starting university and we spoke about the pros and cons of taking on a course and whether I'd have enough time. And we actually decided that maybe if I leveled up in my judo course and did the level three, then it puts me in a really good position. After Tokyo, I could actually do the level four, which is a degree-- which is amazing. I don't have to go to uni for three or four years. I can actually get a degree another way.
So I'm just a "yes" person. If someone says, do you want to come along and do this thing? Do a talk to this school, or to an army base, or wherever it is, I just go, yeah, OK. I'll do it. And I found that I've just been broadening my experiences over this cycle.
[TEXT ON SCREEN: What would your advice be to other elite athletes?]
NEKODA SMYTHE-DAVIS:
My advice would be that when an opportunity comes your way and you have to take a half a Saturday off or maybe it's an evening after training and you know you might be tired, I would say just every so often, just try one of them. It might seem really annoying and pointless at the time, but you can actually start to actually find another niche outside of your sport-- something that you actually are really good at.
I never knew that I could be good at motivating other people or speaking in front - I always thought I was camera shy - I couldn't speak in front of people. But I would say that you'd be surprised about what you can discover about yourself when you try other things.
[TEXT ON SCREEN: Why are you supporting the #More2Me campaign?]
NEKODA SMYTHE-DAVIS:
The reality is that one day, you're not going to be doing this. You're not going to be traveling around the world and winning big medals and feeling the emotions that you're feeling now.
And it's so important that I don't have that feeling of I'm scared to quit. I'm scared to stop. I'm scared to retire because I have nothing else afterwards. And it's really given me that peace of mind that I can just enjoy this journey up until it stops. Because I know that I'm already putting things in place so that when I do finish, I'm not going to be in no-man's land. I know where I'm going from there.
[TEXT ON SCREEN: Nekoda is currently in full time training. She has completed her Level 3 coaching certificate. She regularly gives motivational talks and speeches in her spare time. And has recently become a dog owner! #More2Me. For more information go to: https://www.eis2win.co.uk/service/performance-lifestyle/]