Mindset
18 Thoughts Before You Work in Professional or Elite Sport
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
– Steve Jobs
I recently posted a few times socially on the realities of working in professional or elite sports.
It hit a nerve with many. I could tell that the readers, some of whom are still in professional sports, recognized the challenges and wanted to say the same thing, but it’s hard to say when you are in it.
I get it.
This full-contact sports business world isn’t quite what one would expect.
So if you’re deciding if you want to work in professional or elite sport, here are some things to think about before you take the plunge.
1 – Do you know WHY?
If you’re doing it because of the cache and the flex, then stop right now. It’s not a good reason.
Professional or elite sports do have a real cache, no doubt, and you will experience many of the perks of being in it. Travel, great hotels (not always), great food (not always), and many cool connections and experiences, but these things become a part of the day-to-day and soon wash into the background of your daily reality.
Unless you know your why, and you understand how it will express itself in such an environment, then you might be sadly disappointed.
Professional and elite sports are not as innovative as one would expect. The reality is that at the highest levels of sports, there is less room, ironically, for risk. So if you are an innovator, or you wish to create change, be warned, this world is highly traditional and slow to move.
But at the same time, it is also a world of following the leader. So you will find yourself in situations where you are doing some things you don’t want to do, just because everyone else is doing it!
At the end of the day, I could go on and on in this area, but the quote I began this blog with is the key.
The only way to do great work is to love what you do, and the only way to love what you is to do it, and if you are in an environment where you can’t express that, you will one day become disenchanted with the lavish eccentricities despite their cache!
2 – There are NO days off!
These days, in professional sports, it’s a year-long daily endeavor to support team and player success. You will get the odd day off from time to time, but it’s very hard to plan anything!
This is a truth that seems to be more and more demanding as the days pass. Every sport is the same, off-season flows into pre-season, camps, and then the real season, and there is less and less of a defined respite from the demands of the daily grind.
Even when one has time off, there is the need to invest in professional development or growth, and unfortunately, this can often get lost, leading one to become less and less innovative and cutting edge.
Catch 22!
3 – You will work 80-hour work weeks, not even an exaggeration.
This is just a fact, one that gets more and more challenging as the desire to have a family becomes a part of the equation. Many people in professional sports are divorced, that’s just a fact. Relationships are hard to do, families are even harder to do.
Be warned.
4 – Your salary might be good on paper, but when you factor in the hours, it’s not a great wage.
The truth is, if you are making, let’s say for fun, $150,000 a year as a member of the performance or medical staff, let’s use 355 days as a true time reality and 10 hours a day as a simple example. 3,550 hours of work divided into $150,000 equals $42 an hour.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Add to the fact that to get these coveted jobs, one is at minimum, required to have a Masters degree, and more and more, a PhD.
So you get paid this amazing wage to pay down years of student loans!
5 – You will get little or no feedback, and the feedback you do get will usually be negative.
It’s just the nature of the business, no one tells you that you are doing good work, the team only has success when it wins a championship, and that doesn’t happen often, so you need to understand how you find your sense of progress and value in an environment where there is limited feedback.
Most of the time, no feedback is good feedback.
6 – It’s often thankless work.
The thank you’s are few and far between. They do come, but you just can’t depend on them.
I think this one is pretty clear. It’s just a truth.
7 – If you have kids and family, you will miss many important moments.
For those of you who do have or want kids, there is no way around it, you will miss a lot of their lives. You can do your best, but you are “Married” to the team and if you wish to be great at what you do, that requires your full investment.
Team first, family second, despite what the organization might espouse. That is usually what they say before the season starts or at the team dinner at the end of the season. In the middle of it, there’s not much room for anything but getting the work done.
8 – It’s not about you, it’s about the player and the team.
You are expected to put yourself behind the team and the player as a priority. This means finding time for personal growth, exercise, or rest is a full-contact sport in and of itself. You have to become dogged to make sure you take care of yourself in this demanding life.
If you don’t, you will become unhealthy and alone.
9 – One day you might lose your job, and it might not have anything to do with the quality of your work.
You can be doing exceptional work. You can be a great part of the team. But if a new management group comes in, and they like someone else. That’s the end of the road.
I always used this metaphor to explain professional sports in the season and in the essence of it’s year-to-year.
It’s like you are on a Japanese bullet train all year long, and then at the end of the season, or the end of your tenure with the team it’s like the train slams to a stop, you get off, and now it’s time to figure out where you stopped and what’s next.
These are just a few of my thoughts for you should you be contemplating the jump into professional or elite sport, or you have delusional thoughts about what it might be.
However, if you know why you want to do it, and you are prepared to give yourself to the work, professional and elite sports can be exceptionally rewarding and amazing.
Here are some of my rules for making it a reality:
10 – Strive to be Great
Don’t just get good at what you do; strive to be great. That means going beyond your boundaries, overreaching, and exploring anything that can help the athletes you serve succeed.
As per above, this takes a significant amount of discipline because your self-development is always being challenged by your mandate to the team. But you have to overcome it, and be the best version of you that you can be!
11 – Don’t be a One-Trick Pony
Working in professional sports requires you to solve problems, and support things you didn’t go to school to do. You have to be versatile and able to contribute in a myriad of ways.
The more you know about other fields of practice, especially those you will work with, the better will be your conversations, and interactions, and the more you will find results. And this level of sport is ALL about results!
By the way, if you are a therapist or performance professional, Neuro Reconditioning is a great way to make yourself indispensable We teach and mentor fully online so you can build it into your work day, or you can join us in-person for mentorship – just saying!
12 – Live in the Background
Your job is not to be the center of attention or the focus; your job is to be invisible. You must keep the athlete focused on the task at hand.
This is not the space to create a personal brand or to shout out on social media what you are doing each day. In some ways, this is one of the challenges, which harkens back to my train metaphor. You won’t be keeping up with the world outside, and when the train stops, you might find yourself lost in a sea of external expertise.
These days, this item is becoming more and more challenging. Just putting that there for your consideration.
13 – Never Stop Learning and Growing
You need to be diligent and tenacious about learning, exploring different ways, and being open to what’s possible. Do not stagnate!
I said this once, and I will say it again, you must find a way to grow!
14 – Don’t be a Distraction
Keep your shit to yourself. Your stuff can never be a distraction to the athlete or the team. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to people when you are in a bad place, it just means it shouldn’t be the athletes’ problem.
Far too often professionals in sports bring their drama into the room. It has no place in the room. You can’t become a distraction to the mission of the athlete or the team.
15 – Be a Student of the Game
Whatever sport you work with, know as much about it as you can, and talk to the athletes, the coaches, and the specialists, you can’t understand what your athletes do enough, never stop learning!
This, for me, is a golden rule. It doesn’t mean you need to be a former player or athlete, it just means your vocation is only as good as it’s ability to transcend into the sport itself.
Own it!
16 – Don’t Get Stuck in Your Own Ways
Be curious, learn from your peers, and be open, you will never know it all!
Know it all’s are not welcome in professional and elite sport. You will find yourself alone and unappreciated very quickly. That doesn’t mean you should not be confident. These are not the same thing.
17 – Be a Team Player
Be willing to do anything and everything for the cause of the team or athletes’ success. Help others succeed so you succeed.
Noted previously, this does have ramifications.
18 – Don’t Protect Your Job, Do Your Job
If you protect your job you will not be innovative and creative, and you will eventually lose your job because you have not grown.
If you’re going to lose your job, do it by doing the best you can do!
Despite everything I’ve said before, if you are in it, be in it to win it and do it with all your heart and soul.
The reward is in knowing you’ve brought your very best.
I hope these help anyone who wants to explore this world, it can be very rewarding, but it is also very demanding and challenging, so keep your eyes wide open!
