Life After Sport – The unseen struggle
It’s going to happen, inevitably one day you will hang up the boots and the ride will be over. No matter how far you have reached, how high you got, one day it’s going to happen and it’s hard. The higher you climb the further the fall, I know because I have done it.
This week we lost a legend of the action sports world and a personal hero of mine, BMX athlete Dave Mirra took his own life in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina in the USA. As the world struggles to understand why or how this could happen I’m here to hopefully give some insight to the struggles that athletes go through away from the public eye. I do not know Dave’s demons, and I do not claim to understand why he did what he did. However, I do understand what it is like to step down from the podium, and the challenges that come with that decision.
I have never won an Xgames medal, but I did live out my childhood dream of riding freestyle motocross professionally competing and performance across Australia and the world. From when I left high school I had one goal, I sacrificed so much to achieve it but it was all I really wanted in life and absolutely worth it. After a 10 year professional career and 22 years riding motorcycles I made a call that I had had enough and that was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. I won’t go into the details of why I made the call, there was multiple reasons but as I sat there confiding in a close friend as to my decision I burst into tears.
Prior to that moment, in my head, riding was who I was, it is what made me special, and defined me as a human. It created moments when 20,000 people were cheering for me, just me, the boy from Coonabarabran who decided he wanted to ride his dirt bike as a job. It’s an unexplainable feeling, for in those moments you are god to those people, the most important thing in every person’s life who is cheering for you at that single moment, it is both an incredibly empowering and humbling experience at the same time, and its god damn addictive.
But it was in that moment that I was confiding in my friend I realised that it was not who I was it was simply what I did and regardless of what I did, the person I was did not change. The hardest part was accepting that I would not be there again, that part of my life was over, and though I will no doubt achieve new exciting thing in the future, that chapter was closed and I was essentially starting again.
You see, humans have an inherent desire to be special, to matter, and to be cared about, this is basic psychology. It’s also what is fuelling the social media epidemic in current times. People with no discernible skill in life, other than being blessed with good genetics, are able to whore themselves out for likes on Instagram. Some even make money out of it, but it’s lonely and none of it is real… just like with sport, once the fanfare is over very few people stick around to see what happens next and that can be a struggle.
Many athletes move into new sports and they continue to succeed to a point but even then, they have to take a step back an essentially start again, they are all of a sudden just another competitor and don’t really matter.
So where to from here? What advice do I have for young athletes trying to make a name for themselves?
Understand there is an end point and at some stage you will have to get off the ride, either by choice, or forced by injury. So be sure to prepare for the inevitable. Action sports don’t have the support networks of other mainstream sports to assist with the transition so you will need to prepare yourself, be that through education or participating in other aspects of your sport such as event coordination, commentary, or training of other athletes. People that succeed in one thing tend to succeed in most of their endeavours, but it does take time, so be patient.
Most of all remember if you are ever struggling with any aspect of your life, it is ok to talk to someone, be that a friend a college or a trained professional. My athletes and I frequently discuss their challenges and ways to overcome them. Our sports are hard both physically and mentally but sometimes the biggest challenge of a career is deciding when to hang up the boots. If you have any questions, or would like to know more about training and Actionsport Performance, contact me here.
Train hard and be safe.
Your strength coach,
Cam
Rest in peace legend
