‘I’m just feeling really optimistic about things moving forward. I’m excited about rugby to be honest,’ says Adam Ashe in a way that, over the course of our discussion, I learn typifies both his personality and outlook on life.
After a total of nine years within the Glasgow Warriors set-up, a period which saw Adam make 75 Warriors appearances and notch six caps for the Scottish national side, he now finds his rugby career at a crossroads. With his contract now up at Glasgow in the midst of a global pandemic, for most, this would be a situation and period of transition that would cause huge anxiety and fear. However, given Adam’s self-confessed growth over the last few years, with greater clarity and perspective in relation to his thoughts, this is instead a period in which Adam is both embracing and, truth be told, thriving.
It’s fairly evident early on in our discussion that Adam is an extremely well-rounded individual and without sounding as if I’m describing a piece of furniture, finely honed. He has the flexibility to be polite and warm in the early proceedings of a discussion, provide thought, context and depth when asked a serious question and deliver a witty remark when necessary. This ability to show flexibility and read the tone of a conversation though, Adam says, hasn’t always been something that has naturally flowed to him.
‘I was a really, really shy kid. I had a lot of confidence with some things and sport was one of them because I felt I had natural talent there. In terms of asking questions in school though and being able to speak to other adults, I was painfully shy up until about the age of 16.’
It wasn’t within an educational environment however that Adam’s confidence flourished, instead, it came through his passion for sport and his role within a competitive team environment.
‘I think being in a rugby team massively helped. It’s a social environment and you have to get on with people in a team and learn how to work together. In rugby there is a bit more — I don’t know if affluence is the right word — but certainly in my Stirling days there was a lot of boys who went to private schools and I didn’t. You sort of start to mix with these guys and I think they’ve got a different way of coming across. I feel like they get made to learn about how to speak to people. How to communicate a bit more than I probably did.
‘There’s definitely an aspect in rugby and team sports in general where it’s probably not the best idea to take yourself too seriously because you will get shot down very quickly. Once you understand that and realise that regardless of someone’s background, their age, where they’ve come from, you sort of just get on. You’re happy for people to take the piss out of you, you take the piss out of them. There’s an aspect in that where it’s really healthy for people, especially young men. Realising that regardless of who you’re speaking to they’re just you but made slightly differently and see things differently, I think there’s something quite empowering about that.’
Having already attributed his personal development to a mixture of both growing up and seeing success in rugby, Adam’s communicative skill-set developed even further in his first year at Glasgow Warriors. After leaving school in 2011, he was sent an email which said he had been offered an Elite Development contract and would be given the opportunity to play with and be coached by the elite in rugby on a daily basis.
‘When I first came into the environment one of the people I really looked up to was Al Kellock. His ability to portray information and to say things was incredible. I can’t remember how many times he’d stand up in a team meeting or host a rewards dinner and you could tell he didn’t have much of a plan, but was able to articulate what he wanted to say in such a powerful way and so clearly. I found it so inspirational.’
Having started his earlier years as somewhat on the shy side, the coaching staff at Glasgow encouraged players to have their own say in meetings through presenting to fellow teammates and coaching staff. Ask an Adam Ashe of ten years before to do this, he’d have hated it. However, instead, he threw himself into the challenge and is keen to reiterate the importance of others putting themselves into those challenging yet educational positions.
‘It’s definitely something that can be worked on. What prevents it is beliefs more than anything. Thoughts and beliefs around what you have the capability to do and not. What you believe about yourself. Once some of those beliefs are questioned, it frees you up a little bit. You’re able to be as you are.’
Adam, as open and transparent as always, also admits that in the early part of his professional rugby career he’d often have a tough time dealing with disappointment and deal with it in a way that would just add extra pressure and stress on himself. This, he suggests, is rather common and perhaps inevitable as a result of the structures and attitudes of working in an elite sporting environment.
‘I think that the reason a lot of sports people struggle is because, generally speaking, sports people are really good at getting from A to B. The athlete will be able to visualise something, see something in their own mind and move towards that. A performance, a body shape, bigger arms in the gym. They are able to do that, but it’s important to remember that things in life are not always in our control and a lot of the things we set our minds on we don’t have control over. There are things that can intercede that process like a coach not selecting you, an injury happening. When that happens, people can react in different ways, but for many people it just completely destabilises them or stressed them.’
Because of this almost conditioned mental struggle as a result of a professional sporting culture, Adam took the decision to delve deeper into other avenues outside of sport psychology in a bid to find more meaning and contentment when it comes to both his life and performance.
‘I’m quite interested in different traditional teaching when it comes to spirituality, psychology and these types of things. Buddhism, for example, but there’s another teaching called non-duality. It’s an ancient teaching that has been around for 2 or 3 thousand years. I’ve been interested in learning about it for the last few years. I remember going to see this guy speak one time in London, Rupert Spira. I said to him “this teaching which is ultimately about happiness, true happiness. Do you think this teaching would be applicable to the world of professional sports?” He looked at me, paused for about five seconds and said yes. The reason he said yes was not because he thinks it can be taught in sport, but because the reason people play sport is either because of an expression of happiness or because they want to find happiness. You’re just out there, completely immersed in what you are doing. It’s like your personality and beliefs start to merge with what you’re doing. It’s like a flow.
‘I think using sport as a means to find happiness or achieve happiness is where it gets a little more difficult or sticky. In sport I think there’s a lot of egotistical striving and desperation, especially professional sport. When I got to 22 or 23 and I’d achieved quite a lot of the stuff I wanted to do, I realised that maybe what I thought I was going to get or feel, I didn’t get. Then it led me off onto a different path trying to understand what it is everyone desires in life: to be happy.’
Think of this for a second, in sport there are clear and set objectives. Whether it’s attempting to score a try in rugby, shoot a three pointer in basketball — all of these objectives are creating somewhat of a desperate craving and desire for anyone competing in sport. In teachings such as buddhism, something hugely insistent on the importance of staying in the moment and eradicating craving, just as Adam asked Rupert Spira, is this specific type of mindset and professional sport mutually exclusive?
‘That’s the reason that sport psychology is the way it is. It’s all about visualisation, mantras, moving towards things that are ultimately desirable. The tricky part is, what people really want is a happiness. That’s what people really want. I’m not sure how much thought the sporting world puts into that. For me, this seems a reasonable thing to say and aligns with my experience. What these traditions say and try to teach us is that happiness is always here. It’s never been anything else.
‘There’s always a sense of awareness here and then our thoughts project into the future or into the past. I think we’re so caught up in the future or past that we sometimes completely miss what is here. I think it’s times like when we have those specific experiences of being really focused on something then we drop out of it, we come to an end goal or desire and our mind relaxes a little bit. If people were to know that and find out, I don’t know if coaches would necessarily be happy with that. I think they’d maybe question the players’ motivation.’
This then leads onto the question of what is true mental toughness? Is it being able to cope with negatives in the best possible manner? Is it viewing pressure as an opportunity for growth? Who, in Adam’s opinion, is the most mentally tough player he has played with?
‘I’m going to say Rob Harley. Some people might look at Rob and say that the reason Rob is why he is is because he’s 90% mentality. His ability to do his recovery, be professional, train with intent every week and play minutes in the weekend — that’s because of his mental attitude. I don’t agree with that. I think physiologically, biologically, there’s so much that comes into play that we just don’t even understand. I’d say Rob because clearly his body is extremely resilient and is suited well for playing a lot of rugby. You’ve got the aspect of when someone naturally falls into being the way there are and Rob clearly doesn’t get hurt naturally, his body is able to keep going. Once that happens to you, mentally you can start to reinforce that’s the way you are, it then starts to grow arms and legs and begins to be even more than it actually is.’
The topic then goes onto a type of person in sport that has often been described as the maverick personality. Talented? Yes. Suited to institutionalised behaviour? Perhaps not. This is someone however, Adam feels, shows a different type of mental toughness but oftentimes just as effective.
‘People, quite often, the ones that are most successful are the ones that put two fingers up at anyone that says they should live their life like this or do life like this. They just do things their own way. They have zero regard for how someone else thinks they should live their life. I know a lot of people like that and some of them rise to the top very quickly and become extremely effective at what they do because they don’t go off what’s been said before, they don’t go off history when it comes to how they should live. If somebody does go off their own intuition and what they want to do, there’s a confidence that can build within somebody. A real powerful confidence.
‘Obviously I think someone that has got that is Finn (Russell). He’s an absolute maverick of a person. You could tell him anything and he won’t listen to you. He’s a good friend of mine and a great guy, but he makes his own conclusions on things and is his own person. He does what he does and is good at it. That’s what he’s like, it needs to be respected and understood. Coaches have to work with that type of person in order to get the best out of them. You have to have boundaries and restrictions, but the way you deal with those boundaries and restrictions with each player will be different.’
Currently, whilst playing the waiting game for a new club, Adam isn’t sitting around idly waiting for the phone to ring, instead he is fully focussed on both his and former ex-teammate Grayson Hart’s business, Pure Sport CBD. CBD, short for cannabidiol, comes from the cannabis plant. On the cannabis plant you have two plants — the hemp plant and the marijuana plant. The marijuana plant, which people smoke and get high, has a THC of around 15–40. The hemp plant however has next to no THC, normally around 0.3%. The Hemp plant, used in a variety of products across the world these days, is the one that Adam and Grayson have been investing in for Pure Sport CBD.
‘The idea came when Grayson and I were struggling with injury and we were using painkillers to manage ourselves and train. We both experienced some of the adverse side effects that can come from using these things and heard people talk about CBD. We tried it for a few days and saw a big difference. Less pain, less inflammation, sleeping better. We felt better in general. More balanced throughout the day is probably a good way to put it.
‘’We were really impressed but realised that a lot of physios, players and coaches were saying that we shouldn’t use it because there could be a banned substance in it — THC which is banned in sport. So we stopped using that product and went out to find if someone could guarantee us we wouldn’t fail a drug test if we used it. We couldn’t find it so thought maybe we should set up a company ourselves where we provide these products, manufacture them so that people can use the products like us or people who get drug tests in the workplace. So that’s when the brand was sort of born. We’ve got a lot of partnerships with athletes, rugby players, professional football players, golfers, olympians and even people in different lines of work who just care about keeping healthy and care about the stuff they are putting into their body.’
Whilst some coaches or physios may have once stopped you mid-sentence if you suggested, as a professional athlete, using anything related to cannabis, now, with greater emphasis on educating the benefits that comes with the plant, it appears as if the tide looks to be turning on sport and its unhealthy relationship with painkillers.
‘It was previously seen as weed and you shouldn’t go near that if you were an athlete. Now, people are starting to be educated on it. Amazing programmes like BSCG (Banned Subtance Control Group) are starting to come out of the woodwork and say look we can test your products and make sure there’s no banned substances in there. Now we’ve got the science to be able to do that, I think the more that happens people will generally move towards healthier solutions.
You can purchase Pure Sport CBD products through the website www.puresport.com and receive 15% off using the discount code PS15.
Quick-fire Questions
Describe yourself in three words: Open, fun and warm.
How would your family and friends describe you in three words? Relaxed, fun and tough.
Introverted or Extroverted: First 22 years of my life introverted, but maybe now a bit more extroverted. Maybe a bit of both.
Main Motivation in Sport/Business: Sport — contribute and commit to a team and give value in order to grow a franchise. Business — help thousands of people using an alternative health supplement that could be a massive benefit to them. That’s the main motivation behind the business.
Biggest Mental Challenge So Far In Life: There’s a lot of struggles in life but a lot of good things happen too, but getting to a place where you can be at peace with everything about yourself is a challenge and not one that most people are willing to step into or take on that challenge themselves. That will happen through confronting everything about yourself, whether you like that or not. That’s a lifelong challenge though that will never end.
Biggest Personality Strength: I have good intuition. I’ll have an idea and be able to manifest it into something that becomes something. I’m quite entrepreneurial.
Biggest Personality Weakness: I’m not the most organised of people. Getting stuff done in between having the ideas isn’t a strength of mine.
Best Piece of Advice You’ve Ever Been Given: Treat others as you’d like to be treated.
