Blog - 3 Starting to settle in now

 I remember leaving home to start University about this time a year ago. I had so many conflicting thoughts… What if I don’t like it? What if I don’t find what I’m looking for? I don’t really need a degree for what I want. They were mostly negative thoughts.

My first week in Sheffield was hard. I really missed home, friends and family. I hadn’t found anything that I wanted to do and my course lectures weren’t going well. ‘What are you doing here!?’ I told myself. Very cliché I know, but it’s truly how I felt.

Then one day I just woke up, suddenly and rather unexpectedly filled with an unrivalled motivation to succeed. I realised I had been sitting on my arse the last couple of weeks, opportunities weren’t going to be given to me on a silver platter – I had to go out and get them. I wrote two emails back to back. One asking for a job at Hallam Active, the other asking for a place on the strength and conditioning internship program. A few hours and emails later I had a job and an internship. I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling I had when both those emails came back to me. I felt like everything I had done within the last several years had been leading up to this moment. Coaching young kids to surf on summer camp, taking expensive fitness certificate courses, working 14 hour days as a personal trainer trying to fit all my clients in, and now, I had my first job in strength and conditioning. A goal I had set myself 4 years ago.

I also felt extremely lucky, I had just been given two amazing opportunities. I was going to make sure I didn’t waste them.

 Putting hours into fitness is something I have never struggled with. I remember going through my GCSE’s in school, I had to set myself a page number in my revision book I needed to get to before I could go to the gym.

 I’m telling you this story because this week at USF was like getting my internship at Hallam. Anyone who coaches athletes, especially teams, knows that forming a relationship is essential for your success as a coach and your team’s success as a group of athletes. If you don’t have a relationship with your athletes it’s very hard to get them to work. It’s also very hard for them to believe you’re actually there to help them. I didn’t have a relationship with anyone when I arrived here. I’ve certainly learned a lot, but for the most part I’ve been sitting back taking notes for two weeks.

Over the course of this week I’ve been getting far more involved. I’ve gone from taking warm ups and cleaning equipment to taking individual athletes through complete sessions, monitoring whole team workouts, designing programs and independently taking force plate data. I’ve starting working closely with athletes across all sports and developed a relationship with them. I am no longer the ghost in the room with a notepad.

 

On a sporting note, women’s soccer won both games they played on the weekend. A great end to a great week. They’ve been training hard and deserve every moment of success that comes their way. Women’s basketball had the week off as they’ve been back longer than any other team. They will return on Monday, well rested, both mentally and physically ready for their final conditioning tests before the season starts. Volleyball have been going hard as they also have the first game of the season next weekend. Baseball are the only team that have a while until the start of their season. However, don’t think for a second that means the pressure is off. Over the course of the week the final few individuals filtered in from their summer break. They’ve got some exciting times ahead with a conditioning test next week and the start of their 5:15am lifts a few weeks after that.

 

Out of the weight room I finally made it to The Golden Gate Bridge, after three weeks in San Francisco that’s pretty pathetic but I’ll take it. I spent Saturday on a long bike ride exploring the beautiful beach town of Sausalito. Sunday, a group of us went down to Palo Alto; the area surrounding Stanford campus. The weather was much nicer than in the city and we spent the day hanging around the pool.

 

I’ll say it again this was the best week so far and I’m confident that next week will be better than this one! The only negative is that this weekend marks the exact half way point of my time here. Six weeks really does fly by.

 

It’s been my dream from a very young age to own my own strength and conditioning gym in USA. This internship brings me one step closer to achieving that dream. I think back to that first week in Sheffield when I was filled with self-doubt. If I knew then where I would be today, I wouldn’t have dared question myself. I think about the internal struggle I had with myself, and how I made it through that. It reminds me what motivation feels like. I promised myself I would never again think like that. I would never again doubt myself of being able to achieve that things that I dream of. And this trip confirms that.