Podcast: The High Performance
Published Date:
Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:00:09 GMT
Duration:
7:18
Explicit:
False
Guests:
MP3 Audio:
Please note that the summary is generated based on the transcript and may not capture all the nuances or details discussed in the podcast episode.
An important message on this week’s bitesize with former Lionesses manager Phil Neville on equality.
Having worked in women’s sport, Phil reflected on his realisation of how hard things were for his sister Tracey Neville, who was competing as an elite international netball player while Phil and his brother Gary were at Manchester United. What more could he have done…
Listen to the full excellent episode with Phil here (ep18): https://www.thehighperformancepodcast.com/podcast/phil-neville
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In this podcast episode, former Manchester United and Everton footballer Phil Neville reflects on his time as England women's manager and the challenges faced by female athletes, particularly his sister Tracey Neville, an elite international netball player. Phil acknowledges his previous ignorance of the struggles faced by his sister and other female athletes. He emphasizes the importance of empathy and understanding the experiences of others before making judgments.
Phil highlights the daily struggles and prejudice encountered by female athletes, including homophobia, sexism, and lack of equality. He expresses his frustration at the setbacks faced by women's sports, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, where female sports were often overlooked.
Phil emphasizes the need for change at the top, with more female and black representation on boards and decision-making bodies to drive progress and equality. He shares an inspiring story of Abby McManus, a female footballer who worked as a kit lady before becoming a player, highlighting the often-overlooked sacrifices and challenges faced by female athletes.
Phil expresses his admiration for the dedication, work ethic, and positive attitudes of female athletes, which he believes are often more rewarding than the financial rewards of coaching male players. He emphasizes the impact he has had on the lives of these athletes and his desire to continue promoting female sports and women's athletes.
Phil's experiences as England women's manager have given him a new perspective on coaching and the value of empathy, understanding, and recognizing the unique challenges faced by different individuals. He encourages listeners to be tough on themselves but tolerant of others, assuming best intentions and avoiding quick judgments.
[00:00.000 -> 00:04.000] Empathy, Trump's opinion every time.
[00:04.000 -> 00:09.000] Hi there, welcome along to this short bite-sized episode of the High Performance Podcast.
[00:09.000 -> 00:13.000] You're about to hear a very short conversation with Phil Neville,
[00:13.000 -> 00:18.000] the former Man United and Everton footballer, the former England women's manager,
[00:18.000 -> 00:21.000] the current manager of Inter Miami in the United States.
[00:21.000 -> 00:25.720] And you're going to hear Phil's reflections on his sister Tracy's struggles and the lessons
[00:25.720 -> 00:30.040] that he learned when he was managing the England women's team. And here's what I want you to
[00:30.040 -> 00:35.600] reflect on. I want you to reflect on being tough on yourself, but tolerant of others
[00:35.600 -> 00:40.000] because you know you, right? You know, when you've fallen short, you know, when you've
[00:40.000 -> 00:44.080] failed, you know, when you should have or could have done better, but you can't have
[00:44.080 -> 00:45.500] that opinion of other people
[00:45.500 -> 00:47.300] because you don't know them.
[00:47.300 -> 00:48.700] You don't know their story.
[00:48.700 -> 00:50.100] You don't know what they're struggling with.
[00:50.100 -> 00:53.200] You can't hold others to the same standards
[00:53.200 -> 00:55.000] that you have for yourself.
[00:55.000 -> 00:57.400] Because here's the crux.
[00:57.400 -> 00:59.100] If you'd have lived their life,
[00:59.100 -> 01:00.700] if you'd have had their upbringing,
[01:00.700 -> 01:02.300] if you'd have had their messages,
[01:02.300 -> 01:04.300] if you'd have had their struggles,
[01:04.300 -> 01:07.860] then you would act exactly the same.
[01:07.860 -> 01:09.760] Let me just repeat that because it is so important
[01:09.760 -> 01:11.920] because we all walk around in this world
[01:11.920 -> 01:15.240] opining on other people, criticizing other people,
[01:15.240 -> 01:17.560] holding other people to account.
[01:17.560 -> 01:19.960] If you'd have lived their life,
[01:19.960 -> 01:22.840] you would have done the same thing.
[01:22.840 -> 01:25.600] Now I'm not saying that you have to excuse bad behavior,
[01:25.600 -> 01:28.640] but what I am saying is that the world is a much better place
[01:28.640 -> 01:30.960] if you assume best intentions,
[01:30.960 -> 01:33.280] if you actually have a conversation with someone
[01:33.280 -> 01:35.040] to try and understand even more,
[01:35.040 -> 01:36.400] if you park your opinion,
[01:36.400 -> 01:39.960] if you park your desire to immediately hop onto social media
[01:39.960 -> 01:41.860] and scold or criticize someone.
[01:42.880 -> 01:45.320] So put your opinions on the back burner.
[01:45.320 -> 01:47.240] Put your empathy first.
[01:47.240 -> 01:49.120] Assume best intentions.
[01:49.120 -> 01:50.880] Don't hold others to the same standards
[01:50.880 -> 01:52.320] that you have for yourself.
[01:52.320 -> 01:55.000] Understand that if you'd have lived their life
[01:55.000 -> 01:56.880] and had their experiences,
[01:56.880 -> 02:00.080] you would act exactly the same.
[02:00.080 -> 02:01.800] Be tough on yourself.
[02:01.800 -> 02:04.380] Be tolerant of others.
[02:04.380 -> 02:09.320] And here's Phil Neville on the High Performance Podcast.
[02:09.320 -> 02:11.640] Until you've lived in the shoes,
[02:11.640 -> 02:14.120] you'd never know how they're gonna feel.
[02:14.120 -> 02:17.860] And I went into the women's job and my sister,
[02:20.260 -> 02:22.320] my sister used to say all this and that,
[02:22.320 -> 02:25.160] and used to say, get on with it, you'll be all right.
[02:25.160 -> 02:27.600] Oh, you were on the telly last week, you'll be all right.
[02:27.600 -> 02:29.400] And then when you're actually living in the shoes
[02:29.400 -> 02:33.240] of a female athlete, you think this is not right.
[02:33.240 -> 02:38.000] That the prejudice, the homophobia, the sexism,
[02:38.000 -> 02:42.960] the lack of equality, every single day is a fight.
[02:42.960 -> 02:44.360] Every single day you think you're winning,
[02:44.360 -> 02:46.480] then you take us two steps back every single day you
[02:47.360 -> 02:48.480] fight
[02:48.480 -> 02:54.780] You fight like you possibly can to make things better for a group of girls that are the most
[02:55.120 -> 02:58.800] unbelievable group of people I've ever I've ever been involved in all my life and
[02:59.400 -> 03:06.880] Some days you win some days you lose and it's it's until you weigh the obstacles, the, and like I say,
[03:06.880 -> 03:09.680] when I was a footballer, my sister used to come home from these camps and she used to
[03:09.680 -> 03:13.200] go to training on a Sunday morning in East Grinstead, three hours there, three hours
[03:13.200 -> 03:17.920] back. Oh, well done. How are you doing? Good session. But actually you look back now and
[03:17.920 -> 03:24.000] think how ignorant, ignorant was me and my brother to like actually what she was going
[03:24.000 -> 03:26.000] through. Why didn't we put a driver on for her?
[03:26.000 -> 03:34.000] You know, why don't we put a driver on for her? Why don't we fund something a little bit better back then
[03:34.000 -> 03:42.000] than now getting now? But because you're not in the shoes of that person, because you're not in the shoes of a female,
[03:42.000 -> 03:47.680] you just never know. You just never know. And I can actually sort of like relate now to people saying,
[03:47.680 -> 03:49.120] oh, we've made great strides.
[03:49.120 -> 03:50.560] Oh, we're doing OK.
[03:50.560 -> 03:56.400] Well, actually, there's still my girls are fighting every single day now.
[03:56.400 -> 03:57.480] We were winning.
[03:57.480 -> 04:00.280] For two years, we were beginning to break down barriers.
[04:00.280 -> 04:02.200] I think we've took a massive step back now,
[04:02.200 -> 04:03.960] and people have forgot female sport.
[04:03.960 -> 04:08.780] No netball, no hockey, no female sport played for the last three to four months, not even on the
[04:08.780 -> 04:13.840] agenda of any boardroom in any sport in any industry.
[04:13.840 -> 04:18.560] And I'm like, to change that, you're going to have to change at the top.
[04:18.560 -> 04:19.560] You have to change at the top.
[04:19.560 -> 04:24.640] You have to get people, you have to get females, you have to black people on the boards before
[04:24.640 -> 04:26.080] it starts infiltrating down.
[04:26.080 -> 04:28.720] So I'm going on it from a point of doing that.
[04:28.720 -> 04:31.060] It's been the biggest learning experience ever.
[04:31.060 -> 04:32.480] When in my first camp,
[04:32.480 -> 04:35.000] normally when you get a new player
[04:35.000 -> 04:37.320] and you sing a song and everyone films it,
[04:37.320 -> 04:40.120] they stand up there and they speak about their career,
[04:40.120 -> 04:41.480] their life, their obstacles.
[04:41.480 -> 04:42.880] And literally there was one girl,
[04:42.880 -> 04:44.880] Abby McManus, I'll never forget.
[04:44.880 -> 04:49.240] She stood up there, she told the journey. I had tears in my eyes, tears in my eyes about
[04:49.240 -> 04:54.120] the journeys, the fact that she was a kit lady. Then she got changed and went out onto
[04:54.120 -> 04:58.360] the pitch, then came back in and washed everyone's kit. And I was like, that didn't happen. Do
[04:58.360 -> 05:02.200] you know what I mean? But we were ignorant to all that because actually people probably
[05:02.200 -> 05:07.920] didn't care because our lives were okay. So now when obviously I'm coming to the end of my time
[05:07.920 -> 05:10.040] with the lioness, I'm thinking I'm not finished
[05:10.040 -> 05:13.760] with promoting female sports, women's athletes.
[05:13.760 -> 05:18.400] And because ultimately until you've lived in the arena
[05:20.000 -> 05:23.920] with the most amazing set of girls who all they want to do
[05:23.920 -> 05:26.400] is do the best thing they possibly can for the coach,
[05:26.400 -> 05:27.500] for the organization.
[05:28.600 -> 05:31.600] It's been like a breath of fresh air and people say now,
[05:31.600 -> 05:33.100] oh, you're going to jump back into the men's game?
[05:33.100 -> 05:35.600] No, no, actually, that's not a foregone conclusion
[05:35.600 -> 05:38.700] because if you've coached that type of player,
[05:40.100 -> 05:42.600] by Lord, it's actually, it's probably better than coaching
[05:42.600 -> 05:44.300] a male player at times because you know what,
[05:44.400 -> 05:46.720] they listen, they learn, they want to get better.
[05:46.720 -> 05:51.080] And their attitudes are phenomenal, phenomenal attitudes.
[05:51.080 -> 05:54.960] And that for me is more rewarding than the money
[05:54.960 -> 05:57.800] that you get at the end of the month for your paycheck.
[05:57.800 -> 06:00.600] It's the reward of actually having effect on people's lives
[06:00.600 -> 06:03.920] that I think has been really special and it's been good.
[06:05.000 -> 06:10.100] people's lives, I think it's been really special and it's been good. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. If you want to hear the full conversation with Phil Neville,
[06:10.100 -> 06:13.420] it was one of the very first conversations we had actually on High Performance. It's
[06:13.420 -> 06:18.680] episode 18. Go back in the archives, track it down. Of course, you can watch it on YouTube
[06:18.680 -> 06:22.840] as well. And just a quick reminder that if you can rate and review this podcast, that
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[06:43.200 -> 06:49.880] opened to a world of content from high performance. As always, thank you so much for your continued support
[06:49.880 -> 06:54.200] of the podcast. You are the reason why we're growing. You are the reason why this podcast
[06:54.200 -> 07:00.220] is being shared around the world and listened to by almost 500,000 people a week. Please
[07:00.220 -> 07:06.480] continue to spread the learnings from this series. Big thanks to Finn from Rethink Audio, to Hannah, to Will, to Eve, to Gemma,
[07:06.480 -> 07:09.040] and remember, there is no secret.
[07:09.040 -> 07:10.720] It is all there for you.
[07:10.720 -> 07:12.400] So chase world-class basics.
[07:12.400 -> 07:14.160] Don't get high on your own supply.
[07:14.160 -> 07:17.600] Remain humble, curious, and empathetic.
[07:17.600 -> 07:19.520] And we'll see you soon.