How did you get into sport?
This is the “How did you get into sport?” podcast where we explore the ins and outs of working in high performance sport.
These are conversations with leaders in the industry about their journey and most importantly how they got to where they are. Working in professional sport is one of the most sought after yet highly competitive industries with limited professional organisations offering opportunities to work at the highest level of their respective sports.
This podcast was created on the back of countless conversations with a diverse range of experienced professionals overly frustrated yet still highly motivated to work in their dream role and asking the question “How did you get to work in professional sport and what did you have to do to get there?” Host Luis Resa is a Sports Physiotherapist who has worked in various elite professional organisation both in Australia and internationally.
In each episode, Luis has deep conversations with Sports Physiotherapist, S&C coaches, Head coaches, High Performance Managers and other leaders in the field of elite sport to discuss what it takes to excel in the world of sport as well as diving deeply into the intricacies of what got their foot in the door of some of the world’s most desirable roles.
Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. In the meantime, enjoy a deep conversation and learn the specific do’s and don’ts of both securing and surpassing expectations in the field of high performance sport.
How did you get into sport?
Sean Lane - Coaching in the US. Head Coach Spire Academy Ohio, USA
Sean Lane is a football (soccer) coach who’s had success as a head coach across 3 different continents. Laney shares his journey from staring as a professional player at the age of 16 years old, to transitioning into a financially successful cooperate career to giving it all up to pursue his passion for coaching while still having to support 5 kids, a mortgage and starting from the bottom when most would consider too late to start. Laney is now the director of soccer and head coach of Spire in Ohio, USA.
If you are someone who feels it is too late to reinvent yourself, you feel it is impossible to start from the bottom again or its simply unfeasible to break away from the golden handcuffs of financial success, Laney’s lays out the blueprint of how anyone with a bit of sacrifice, a lot of hard work and humility you can still live out your dreams.
Highlights from the episode…
- The importance of getting out of your comfort zone. After a professional football career in England Laney moved to Australia, even though he had offers in England, Ireland and other European clubs.
- After an incredible football career, Laney went onto climb the cooperate ladder to become a general manager of his own successful sales company.
- I share a personal cautionary tale of why it’s important to include your family when making career decisions in an industry that often requires most to be selfish.
- After a decade long financially successful corporate career, giving it all up to start his coaching career coaching an under 6s girls team.
- The importance of paying your dues. 5+ years working with academy teams, being paid less than $100/week, driving 1 1/2 hours each way to training 6 days a week before he got his first senior role.
- “To develop intuition you have to pay a tuition!”
- After 5 + years paying his dues he reaped success with as a senior team coach winning the league twice in a row as well as wining coach of the year in 2017.
- “People open doors for you and it’s up to you whether you walk through them”. Laney shares how he got the opportunity to go from coaching on the Gold Coast to Bangladesh.
- Stories of working in one of the most passionate footballing countries with a population of over 145 million, in one of the oldest and biggest clubs in the Bangladesh Premier League.
- His next opportunity with a state of the art sporting academy as the head of football in Ohio, USA.
- Key must have attributes of any Physios, Sport Scientists, Analysts, S&C coaches etc. coming from a head coach perspective.
People mentioned:
- Scott McDonald
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_McDonald
- Troy Bingham
https://www.spireacademy.com/about-us/leadership/leadership-troy-bingham/
Sean Lane contact details:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-lane-688b4522
- Spire Academy website: https://www.spireacademy.com/
Host: Luis Resa
Contact me on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-resa-a975196b/
- Email: luis.resa@outlook.com
Thanks for listening and please leave a review. If you would like more information on anything mentioned in this episode simply send me an email.
