When Nigel Walker retired, his life felt rudderless. Although many retirees will be familiar with that feeling, Walker’s life change came earlier than most. The former rugby player and athlete retired from his sporting career aged 34 in February 1998, due to injury. He’d enjoyed success, representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the 110m hurdles at the 1984 Olympics, as a world indoor bronze medallist and European indoor bronze medallist, and then, from 1993 to 1998, as a rugby international for Wales. He’s now national director at the English Institute of Sport.
“For a period I felt empty,” he says. “I had trained for six days a week since I was 19, for the most part around a full-time job. It’s never too early to think about what life will look like after sport, since we don’t always get to choose when we retire – many careers are cut short. Having peace of mind about what comes next may well help the athlete to perform better in their chosen sport.”
Whether it’s retiring from a successful career or switching the focus of your working life, we all have to cope with changes in what we do and how we do it. But while the majority have time, space and support to think about these changes – as well as familiar routes to follow – for those who make a living from sport, such as Walker, that transition can be far more challenging and sudden. That’s why the Open University is now developing and seeking funding for a new, free online course, Life After Sport, aimed at helping athletes make that difficult change.
“Athletes retire 40 years before the rest of us. Some gymnasts, for example, will retire at the age of 18 or 19,” points out Ben Oakley, senior lecturer in sport and fitness at the OU and former national coach in windsurfing, who attended the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics. “It can be deeply disorientating if you don’t have the life experiences, skills and resources to manage it. As a sportsperson, you very much define yourself by your sport. You have to think about how that might change and how you might find your place in the world.”
Research is increasingly showing that there’s a great need for a programme such as Life After Sport. A recent survey (pdf) released by State of the Sport and conducted by the Professional Players’ Federation, found more than half of former professional sportspeople have had concerns about their mental or emotional wellbeing since retiring. And the government’s recent sport strategy, Sporting Future, urged sports bodies to take steps to improve the welfare of retiring athletes.
“At the OU, we’re incredibly proud of the diversity of courses we offer,” says Jhumar Johnson, its director of development. “The Life After Sport programme is yet another example of how the OU is responding to clearly identified needs within the community, creating content and courses that aim to benefit individuals and society – and make education as accessible and relevant as possible.”
Oakley agrees. “It’s been great to see government efforts to support the welfare and wellbeing of athletes. Similarly, we’ve seen a big shift recently in how mental health among athletes is portrayed and talked about in the media. The OU is definitely putting that duty of care into practice with Life After Sport. We want to have a positive impact on sports culture and its welfare practices to help young adults fulfil their potential.”
The free course will be delivered online as a badged open course, supported by face-to-face workshops. It will cover a range of challenges that athletes face: how to best present themselves in an unfamiliar workplace; how to highlight their considerable transferable skills, such as goal-setting and dedication; and the importance of trying different avenues to find out which field suits them. “Sportspeople need accessible, engaging online content with relevant visual stories that connect to their world,” says Oakley. “This course speaks to that need and will help give them the confidence and skills to explore a life beyond sport.”
The flexibility of OU study makes it perfect for athletes, Oakley points out. They can choose when and where they study: on the physio bench or over a coffee or at home. “You can also, within reason, adjust the pace at which you study, slowing down at busier times and speeding up in your off-season or while injured. You have the support of a personal tutor too, as well as an online community of fellow students you can engage with as much or as little as you wish.”
The course is not just aimed at the athletes themselves, but at their coaches and parents too, who can be instrumental in helping an athlete transition successfully. “The old school of coaching says that athletes who prepare for their future might be distracted from their sporting performance,” says Oakley. “In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that contented athletes who are active in pursuing their future options have a sense of balance – and they actually perform better, because they are happier. Athletes sacrifice a lot. We want to help them be successful for the rest of their lives.”
Walker is one of those success stories. He decided to study an MBA with the OU after asking trusted people in his life what qualification to take if he wanted to be a senior manager: all mentioned an MBA. It gave him the confidence to apply for senior positions, and he landed the role of head of sport at BBC Wales almost immediately on graduating.
He thinks the OU’s proposed Life After Sport course is vital. “Transition for athletes is incredibly important. It should not be a last-minute thing, but something that athletes prepare for throughout their competitive careers, since retirement is inevitable. Olympic and Paralympic athletes have performance lifestyle advisers allocated by the English Institute of Sport to prepare them for their transition, but not all sportspeople have that luxury. Without that guidance, more and more athletes will struggle to adapt, and suffer the sometimes tragic consequences.”
The Life After Sport course will be offered to athletes completely free of charge, and is entirely dependent on philanthropic donations. To find out more about supporting the OU’s fundraising efforts, visit giving.open.ac.uk
