Your World After Sport

As a professional athlete, coach or official your focus is understandably on your playing/participating career, but here at World After Sport we want to help you prepare for tomorrow in a way that enables you to balance both your current and future careers. Advice and research has also shown that having plans and interests outside of sport actually enhances your performance on the pitch, court, track or ring.

We want your participation in your sport to last as long as it can, knowing that sadly your career, can be cut short. However long your career is we want to be kept safely in your kit bag so you can take us out at any stage.

Shaunah Brown (right), of Harlequins Rugby, shows how she transitions from her rugby to being a firefighter.

Below shows you how a typical sports career might pan out and how your income and personal responsibilities change as you progress.

We also have a special package specially or younger athletes who were on a journey to professional sport, but sadly plans didn’t work out. If you have been released and need some support please do get in touch.

Shaunagh Brown
Career Planning
Join us - Guest Speaking
Career Planning

Preparing yourself for tomorrow

The majority of athletes and coaches progress into their sport straight from school, college or university so have not necessarily experienced life outside of the sporting bubble, which means too many find themselves facing an uncertain future after sport, unprepared for the next phase of their lives.

That said athletes and coaches have a great number of skills that easily transfer to other areas, like communication, team working, leadership and self motivation, to name a few. Our coaching team want to help work with athletes and coaches to see how these transfer.

We want to work to smooth out your transition by bringing the sports and business sectors together to build support circles and practical help for everyone, be it you, your family or a business looking for their next appointment.

Your transition from sport to a new life will potentially take you to a life you’ve never experienced, so we want to provide you with hands on mentoring and advice that will help you, and your family, prepare for that time. Working with current and former athletes we have identified where we feel you will benefit from our experience, expertise and passion to learn from the passed and prepare for the future.

World After Sport provides you with the opportunity to work with a life coach who will help understand where you in life and where you want to get to, and prepare a personal plan that we aim to deliver to, working directly or with 3rd parties that we have hand picked to provide the highest level of standards in all walks of life.

Athletes could be:

  • on the talent pathway for their respective sport
  • parents, wives, husbands or partners of athletes
  • an sport professional athlete considering their future
  • an sport professional athlete transitioning from their sport
  • Athletes released from their sport at any point in their career

It is never too early to prepare for life outside of sport as part of your plan to continue in life, and we want to support from at the earliest opportunity, but we will also move quicker should you engage with us later.

Know Your Start Point

You can only think ahead if you know where you are today, and we believe there are 4 potential categories of athlete/player, and although we’d love to speak to you when you’re in the early stages of your career, we will of course support you wherever you are in your journey. The diagram below shows how the average athletes career could pan out.

The more we discuss this the more we find that in some sports the age of retired players is dependent on the sport being played, the position of the athlete. In rugby we are seeing front row players retiring earlier due to the pressure and stresses being seen during scrummaging.

Coaching staff and sport officials (e.g. Referees) staff opportunities create a way to extend the career of a sports professional beyond those shown below, and over time our aim is to help as they too could see their career end by 40 years old.

17-23

Academy/Pathway/Released

  • Focused on winning first contract / sports grant
  • Freshly educated from school / high school
  • Higher education optional
  • High potential for release
  • Low Income earner
  • Minimal personal responsibilities

24-28

Stellar Athletes / Prime of your life

  • At the peak of your sporting career
  • Higher Education being considered or completed
  • Maximising sporting income
  • Starting to have greater personal responsibilities
  • Match official focus becoming greater

28-35*

Final years of your participating days

  • Career coming to an end
  • Plans for tomorrow become important
  • Personal income starting to plateau / reduce
  • Coaching badges being prepared
  • Personal responsibilities at their peak

35+

Sport has seen its end and you have retired

  • New career being sought
  • Coaching/management may commence
  • Personal income see large drop
  • Personal responsibilities continue
  • Psychological challenges commence as life changes