Welcome to our new ‘Sharing Insights’ blog series, offering a unique opportunity to demonstrate the skills and expertise of some of our academics at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU)- opening new avenues for communication with businesses and a broad range of stakeholders.

Imagine a world where the strategies that drive athletes to victory on the field can also ignite success in our daily lives. In this blog, Dr Katie Dray, Course Director for BSc Sport Coaching and Performance Coach and Mr Dan Stretch, School Director of Recruitment and Business Development explore how key sports science principles can enhance your professional and personal performance, and how the University’s Sports Lab can further support your journey.

Physical Fitness: Successful athletes who perform at the top levels know how to look after their body and keep it ready to perform. The good news is you don’t have to be an elite sportsperson for your fitness levels to positively impact your job. Keeping fit can help boost your energy levels during the working day, making you more alert and productive. It can also help with the way your brain works, improving your cognitive function, memory, and concentration, leading you to make better decisions throughout your work day. Even small bouts of exercise benefit us by releasing endorphins, helping us to manage stress.

What can you do? Make time in your work day to move around. Take the stairs instead of the lift or use your lunch hour to take a stroll.

Setting goals: Elite athletes start with the end goal in mind and work their way backward in developing incremental mini-goals. Setting goals can be an incredibly powerful tool to focus your mind on a clear direction and work out the steps you need to take to get there. Good goal setting involves being varied. For example, outcome-focused goals like acing a job interview, are best achieved when accompanied by performance goals (e.g. making sure you can articulate your experience) and process goals (e.g. creating a diagram of your skills and attributes). Setting goals across different areas of life can help keep you accountable, monitor your successes, and keep track of priorities.

What can you do?  Start your day by mapping out your goals for the day. Limit them so they are not overwhelming and try and make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), for example: complete the project proposal and upload by 3pm.

Playing as a team: Great teamwork is essential to reaching peak performance in lots of sports, and not just the team that takes to the field, but everyone who plays a part in getting said team ready for competition. Great teams have good role clarity. Teams with excellent communication strategies, a strong sense of belonging, and shared common goals are often the most successful in sports.

What can you do? Great teams understand each other’s strengths and remember them when they communicate. Take time to get to know your teammates and understand their strengths to recognise who may be best at carrying out particular roles.

Leverage your inner coach: Successful athletes are most often supported by incredible coaches. These coaches know how to get the best out of their athletes and help shape environments ripe for improvement and motivation. It is just as important to be a good coach to yourself. Making sure your inner voice is fair and constructive in the feedback you give internally can sometimes be more challenging than giving feedback to other people.

What can you do?  Next time you find yourself being critical of your performance, be more compassionate. Try and structure the words you use to yourself like you were talking to a friend. Refocus the negative phrases into learning points and practical strategies e.g. ‘It’s wrong this time, but I’ve identified an area I can improve on’.

Are you inspired? Would you like to learn more about how these principles can support you and your workplace?

SportsLab is a sports science consultancy unit based on the CCCU campus. It offers a range of professional services including performance-based research and supporting businesses to enhance workforce performance and boost productivity through methods and practices underpinned by world-leading research. Previous sessions have included coaching, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and sports psychology.