Lessons learned from working with premiership footballers

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Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna 8 min 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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How did Charlie’s journey from sports science student to Premier League coach begin?

Clare McKenna 0:01

Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna on Newstalk. Now, Charlie Norton Sherwood is a performance coach. Having studied sports science at UCD, an internship at Leicester City led to a job there and then on to Arsenal, where he was their strength and conditioning coach. But he felt a pull to something else, helping people figure out what they want from life. And he joins me in studio now. Charlie, you're very welcome. Thank you very much for having me, Clare. The stuff of dreams to be in premiership football, especially a student of sports science. What did you learn from that time?

Charlie Norton Sherwood 0:38

I guess so much. And it really was my dream for quite a while. As soon as I entered sports science, trying to be a strength and conditioning coach within the Premier League Academy was the stuff of dreams for me. But I think over time, when I was in that situation, you just slowly fall out of love with the environment that you're in when you start those questions within yourself.

Clare McKenna 0:59

And it's elite level, you know, and obviously it's very cool. So many people follow these huge, massive teams. So to see behind the Iron Curtain, I'm sure is really exciting.

What pressures do elite football players face and how do they cope with retirement?

Clare McKenna 1:09

But we also hear other things from elite sport. What happens at retirement? You live and die by the scorecard. You know, it can be tough to have that amount of pressure. Is that something you are also watching and absorbing?

Charlie Norton Sherwood 1:24

There's definitely an element of that pressure, especially so I would have been within the academy when I worked in Premier League football. And you have all of the pressure upon those individuals around trying to perform to the top level. But they're negotiating contracts. They're trying to make it at the professional level. And it just adds up with all this weight upon them at times.

Clare McKenna 1:43

Yeah. And with the academy, I suppose some people don't make it onto the team. So were you seeing dreams begin and end?

1:49

Yeah.

Charlie Norton Sherwood 1:50

Almost. That was probably the hardest part of the job when there was that certain age groups where players would get released or retained.

Why do athletes and coaches start questioning their identity beyond football?

Charlie Norton Sherwood 1:57

And when some of those individuals who you've known throughout the years that you've gotten close to, when they were released, that's pretty hard upon them. And hard upon yourself as well, seeing them go through that.

Clare McKenna 2:10

And I suppose when you're a footballer, if you show a talent at a young age, you go to an academy, you get into a premiership team, you don't really... think beyond that but you were starting to notice there were players who were wondering what's next? What else is out there? Who am I without football? Do you think that was the start of leading to what it is that you do now?

Charlie Norton Sherwood 2:32

I think We all almost go through those questions within, around our work, our career, our identity, and what we do can come to define all of who we are, and we wrap ourselves so closely with what that is. I could see it within players where football became their life, but also within myself and the staff around me where strength and conditioning was my life. Strength and conditioning within football was my life. Slowly over time, you start to question, well, is this the life that I want for myself? Do I want to devote all of myself to this? What about everything else that I have going on? What about all those other buckets that makes up our life in terms of our family, our friendships, those people that we love.

How can the “trap of shoulds” limit personal growth for high‑performers?

Charlie Norton Sherwood 3:17

And if we start devoting so much of ourselves towards our career and then years down the line when we turn around and need those people the most, well, they might not be there because for so long they've just got the scraps of our attention because all we've been focused on is work.

Clare McKenna 3:31

And that's so interesting. And we get so caught up in what we should be doing or how we should be feeling or what's important. And I suppose you were ticking so many boxes. You did a really cool job, a job you were good at, a job you enjoyed. I'm sure you were earning good money. You're living in London. That's got another level of cool attached to it. You met your wife. So you're living a good life. But there's a whisper sometimes that we start to get that gets louder and it can be difficult to listen to when you see that list of accolades.