Put yourself into the goggles of Laura Dawson in February 2017 for a second. You have excelled at swimming for as long as you can remember, rapidly rose through the ranks of the Great Britain swim team, tasted success all over the globe and now you stand here ready to race what you’ve decided will be the final race of your career. Let’s end this on a real high, you say to yourself. If you ask Laura what she remembers from that final race though, it is somewhat different from the fairytale ending this opening paragraph has teed it up to be.
‘I got disqualified,’ she said with a wry smile.
‘I pulled myself up (to the board). There’s a ledge thing you can put your feet on to stop you slipping on the wall and it’s attached to elastic. When I went up onto it, I hadn’t locked it properly. So as they said on your marks, I slipped off of it and was automatically disqualified.’
It’s human nature to feel a mixture of anger, disappointment and downright resentment for such a situation to occur during your last ever race. Admittedly disappointed at first, Laura’s reaction and mindset to the disqualification is perhaps the only evidence needed to show just how suited she is to her current role as a sport psychologist.
‘At the time I was absolutely gutted. I’ve had this great swimming career that’s taken me all over the world and it’s ended like this. But if you hold onto the bad things though, all you’re going to think about is regret and the bad times. What I tell the athletes I work with now, especially the young ones, try to only keep hold of the good times.’
As a result of Laura’s success and the fact that her job now revolves around offering psychology advice, you’d be forgiven to think that an understanding of the conditions needed for peak performance and a strong mindset has always been a particular strength for her. However, she instead insists that this is something she has developed over time.
‘It’s ironic, if you talk to me now and the way I help clients, you would have thought that I would have practised all this for years. My Mum would say that I’d be so good at it, but I was like “Mum, I listen to these motivational speakers sometimes and although it motivates me, I was not like that when I was a young swimmer.”
It’s evident, speaking to Laura, that she has an energetic and infectious personality that would make it seem as if bringing out the best in people was just natural for her regardless of the years of study. It is a huge surprise that this hasn’t always been her default mode though.
‘I didn’t have particularly high self-esteem and swimming was the only thing I felt I was quite good at. When that wasn’t going well, I was a misery guts and the way that came out was anger for me. I wouldn’t say I was troubled, but feisty to say the least.’
After experiencing success throughout her time in the U.K, she made the brave decision to move to the U.S.A to juggle the student-athlete lifestyle. Tragically though, family heartbreak brought that to a temporary halt.
‘I went out to Kentucky for freshman year. Then my Dad got diagnosed with a brain tumour so I moved back to be close to home and joined Stirling Intensive Training Centre, the closest elite squad to me, when I was 20. My Mum needed more help at home so I moved home and cared for my Dad. Then my Dad died in the June and then a month and a half later I had to go out to Ohio, which was tough.’
Whilst it was a hugely difficult period for Laura to deal with, she identifies it as a time in which she saw real personal growth, maturity and a heightened perspective on life in general.
‘I kind of realised that life is far too short to feel angry all the time. So that’s when I started to kind of accept when I had a rough swim. It took a lot for me. That’s why I am able to serve people so well in this field — because I wasn’t the perfect athlete, I wasn’t coachable 100 percent all the time.
‘I get a lot of my resilience from my Dad and my work ethic. I wouldn’t say he was pushy, because it didn’t have a detrimental effect on me at all, but he certainly didn’t like me quitting things. As a result, now, I don’t quit. I could’ve said to myself, well lockdown has happened, I am not going to do LD psychology anymore. Instead, I’ve put a positive spin on it.’
Now, with that developed insight into elite sport and this new perspective of how to bring out the best in herself, Laura, at the start of 2020, decided to use her knowledge to help others. The creation, LD Psychology, followed.
‘I’m really big on wellbeing. Obviously with sport psychology, people always think it’s going to be about winning and how to start winning this and that. I am still like that, but I’m also very keen to ensure clients have a good sense of wellbeing.’
One thing she is keen to reiterate to her clients is the idea of identity in sport. In general, but particularly in the U.K, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the idea that if you show promise in a particular sport then that defines you and makes up a large chunk of your personality. However, once retirement comes or if you’re hit with a major setback, suddenly this rigid sense of one’s self results in a great deal of confusion and frustration. Once Laura became more aware of identity and its role within sport, she not only became happier as an athlete but, more importantly, happier as a person.
‘America was the making of me. Before, I based all of my self-worth on my swimming and obviously sport is very up and down so my self-esteem was too. I never thought of myself as being a pretty girl or intelligent in school or an academic. Then I went out to America and all of a sudden, I realised that all I needed to do was put in a bit of effort and I was an academic. Once I realised there were more pieces to me than just swimming, I started to feel better about myself. I think it was a blessing that I’d already came up with a plan B before plan A ended.’
In the U.S there are far more structures in place which, on a subconscious level, help with the challenge of identity in sport more than in the U.K. In the U.S, for the vast majority of sports, if you want to play at the highest possible level, you need to attend classes in another subject and to a high standard. However, in the UK, sometimes the structure does not support student athletes and their academics. In some cases the support is not there.
‘If there was more programmes like this in the U.K it would be good. Newcastle Elite Academy, which was set up by some Newcastle United FC players, they have a 16–18 or 16–19 student athletes academy. They study sports based academics, but it then gives them an opportunity to manage time perfectly and juggle things you’ve got to do if you’re working. ‘
Having competed at the highest level and now helping individuals to perform to their highest potential, what would sport psychologist Laura Dawson say to promising swimmer Laura Dawson if she came calling for help?
‘I’d probably work on my indentity. I’d probably say that people don’t just like you cause you’re a good swimmer. They like you cause you’re chatty and loads of different things. I would also try improve self worth. I wouldn’t have been going into swimming galas thinking I don’t have a chance here, I’d want myself to go in thinking that I am class and can do whatever I want.’
Describe yourself in three words?
Kind, caring and chatty.
How would your family or friends describe you in three words?
Motivational, confident and honest.
Are you more introverted or extroverted?
Extroverted.
What has motivated you the most throughout your life?
My passion to help people. I feel that is my calling in life.
Best moment of sport psychology career so far?
When parents have come up to me saying how helpful the workshop has been for their child.
Where would you like to be in 10 years time?
I’d like to have LD Psychology as my only income and to be working for myself and helping athletes of all levels and ages.
Biggest personality strength?
My ability to relate to people.
Biggest personality weakness?
The fact that so far, because of COVID-19, I’ve been confined to working on a virtual level rather than face-to-face workshops or one-to-one meetings.
Best piece of advice ever given?
Just my Dad saying that I should never give up on stuff.
