Transcript
ROBBIE SIMPSON:
When you're living your dream, making a living from sport, you kind of feel invincible. Sport has been the focus for probably your whole life, and you don't spend too much time thinking about what happens next. But when that reality comes to an end, whether it be through injury, a contract not being renewed, or just because you're getting older, for a lot of people, there is no plan in place for what comes next. And that's a really scary situation to be in.
Only around 30% of professional sportspeople actually choose when they retire. And when you think at any one time there are 17,500 professional sportspeople in the UK, that basically means that there are 12,000 sportspeople where retirement will come before they really expect it.
TOM POYNTON:
Out of nowhere, the click of a finger, and my life turned upside down. And I lost my father, and ultimately on that day I lost my career because that's what stopped me. And at that point, you feel invincible. You feel like you're immortal. You feel like you've not got a care in the world. It's a fantastic position to be in, to be a professional sportsman, but careers are over so quickly. And from a cricketing context, it doesn't support you for the rest of your life, and often, the guys have done nothing to prepare for it.
MELISSIA PETTY:
If someone had told me six years ago that at 27 I'd be retired and trying to look for a job and to prepare myself for it, I would have laughed at them, because you never think that it's going to be your last day on the golf course or your last day on a football field. And I think sometimes if someone had given me the advice I now know, which would be to always prepare yourself and always make sure that you've got a backup plan and a second option.
ROBBIE SIMPSON:
When you've focused on one thing for so long, it can be really hard to find a new identity outside of sport. And research has shown that around half the people who retire from sport face real difficulties when they stop competing-- financial worries, employment issues, of course, mental health issues, and much more. And there's been far too many cases of sportsmen who try and take their own lives after they retire. And it's not just in football. It's in all sports.
So I've set up LAPS to try and address these issues and to help sportspeople plan, prepare for, and find new careers after sport. Sportspeople have so much to offer outside sport. In fact, even Sir Richard Branson wrote an article about the benefits of hiring sportspeople and even gave a mention to LAPS at the end. There's been loads of research in this area, and we've spoken to lots of organizations and academics who are well aware of the qualities that elite athletes have to offer.
PROF MICHAEL DICKMANN:
Sportspeople are attractive to organizations because they've shown from a young age, normally, that they have a goal and they're willing to pursue it, even though it means great personal sacrifices. They are able to basically be resilient, to survive when they don't have success. They pick themselves up and go at it again.
MATT HUGHAN:
Sportspeople, they bring that kind of hard work ethic, which I think we're looking for. They're not afraid to get stuck in. They work together as a team really well, and one of our key core behaviors is about all being one team, chipping in for each other and making sure the job gets done no matter what. I think that sportspeople generally bring those transferable skill sets or more behaviors into the business, which we tend to recruit for over a skill set, for example.
DR MARK SLASKI:
They have incredible focus, and they must think about the task in hand and specifically not let anything get in the way of the objectives that they're trying to achieve. When they are setting themselves an objective, setting themselves a task, there are things that they can't do, things that they have to give up in order to follow that dream.
ROBBIE SIMPSON:
Sportspeople often demonstrate specific personality traits. They're actually well suited to other careers.
CLAIRE BENNETT:
I was always looking, always, for that continuing improvement and that has meant that I've taken that through to my work life. And that means that I'm constantly thinking about how I can be a better performing person and a more well-rounded person in the work place.