Ella's Coach and Sports Injuries

Ella’s Coach and Sports Injuries April 2015 Alice Cox

A: So erm, you, like you’re twenty years old, and you say you’re, what position are you with the high jumping, like, are you..

E: I’m in the top ten jumpers in the UK, erm and, I’m kind of one of the top under twenty-threes right now. You kind of peak as a high jumper about twenty seven, twenty eight, and even up to thirty, so I’ve got quite a lot longer until I actually peak. Erm, so, I aim to climb a little bit more up the rankings hopefully this year, and to kind of be in the top five, that would be, that would be amazing. That’s kind of my plan; I’m not that far off that really, it’s just centimetres here and there. So, so that’s kind of, that’s kind of the plan and then if I can make, erm the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, erm, that’s in Australia, which would be pretty cool. And then, erm, two years later is the 2020 Olympics. That’s kind of the timeframe that we’re looking at so, not like, not Rio but, hopefully 2020 after that would be, that would be really cool.

Haha. Well, we’ll see.

A: you?

Well, you’re on track now. You were injured recently, weren’t

E: Yeah, yeah, I prolapsed a disc in my back, erm, and then, last year as well, I was in a really bad car accident, so I’ve kind of had, like.

I had, I had a really, in between out there I jumped – I had a really, really great indoor season where I was jumping really, really high out there and I just prolapsed a disc right at the wrong time. Erm, so, I’m def.. and I was jumping like, personal bests and stuff so I’m def.. I was definitely on like the best form of my life. And I’ve just had a couple of, like a month or so setback, but that literally sport, that’s just what happens, like you’ll be having the most amazing training and everything’s going amazingly well, and you just get this injury and then that knocks you back but, erm, like I’m definitely someone that’s resilient enough that I’ll come through this and I’ll be back out ready and jumping for the outdoor season which starts in about a month or so, which I’m really, really excited about. And hopefully jump high there, and kind of like, yeah, yeah, move up the rankings a little bit would be fab, with a couple of big championships and stuff is kind of the aim. Oh yeah, so…

A:

Exciting

E:

Yeah; it’s really exciting.

A: Yea, because you’re, well you’re training. You’re getting back into it now, aren’t you?

E:

Yeah.

A: I think you high-jumped. Were you back on the beds – is it the word beds?

E:

Yeah it’s called bed, haha

A: For the first time, like last week, wasn’t it? Yeah, that was quite exciting, wasn’t it?

E: I was really excited, and hopefully on Wednesday. So, in a couple of days’ time I will be actually going back and actually high jumping properly. Yeah. Real good. Yeah, but hopefully I’ll actually start high jumping again, which is the bit that I love and it means that once I start doing that hopefully my training can increase a little bit more because it hasn’t been really what I would normally do – it’s been quite a lot lower level just as I’ve been kind of coming through a rehab, so, hopefully I’ll be jumping again next week, which, on Wednesday, so that will be really exciting, because that’s the best bit.

A:

And so your coach is coming on Wednesday?

E:

Yeah.

A:

You see her once a week?

E: Yeah, once. Kind of, kind of, sometimes it’s once a week, sometimes it’s twice a week. It depends really, on the time of year. But because I’m injured this time I’ve gone down to once. Erm, but yeah.

A:

How long’s she been your coach for?

E: Well, she’s known me since I was nine, erm, and she’s probably been, like, my coach, she started being my coach since I was, like, thirteen. Then I moved away. Then ever since I came back, she then started to coach me again so – but she’s known me, she’s known me for like eleven years. Known me since I was tiny, tiny. If I ever was tiny haha.

A: So what kind of relationship do you have with your coach? Is it quite, I don’t know, she’s known you for so long, and, is it, almost maternal in some way, or?

E: Yeah, exactly. She definitely feels like that. Erm, I think she can definitely, I think, get quite anxious and worried about me, and erm, and she can definitely tell when something’s not quite up with me, if I’m a little bit down, or if there’s something going on she can definitely, she can tell. Erm, the thing with my coach is she comes across as quite a gentle person, but if I slack at any point then she’s like, she has this real fierce streak, which is great, because that’s what you need. You need someone that’s going to, like, push you, but at the same time she’s like a huge support, so it’s so important that especially when you go through injuries and, because injury is horrible like, erm, not being able to train properly, and it can really get you quite down, because it’s something that you love and you suddenly have all this extra time that you normally use in training you just don’t know what to do with yourself. And it’s so important that your coach is there to kind of support you and that’s what she does, like she’s there. She’s still, and she’s still quite creative so she gets me to do exercises that she knows won’t cause me any more injury, but keep me kind of ticking over and make sure that I’m not getting really bored, or really frustrated or irritated, so erm, no she’s, she’s really great. We’re really close actually. And definitely, like the older that I get, and the more that I’ve been able to talk to her and, erm, that’s definitely as we’ve got closer. Erm, yeah.

A: So I suppose the fact that it’s, like, the athletics as well it’s quite a, I mean it’s an intimate thing. It’s just you, and her, so, it’s not a team sport. It’s just you and her training. You’re training next, not next week – is it next week you’re training, erm, with other girls, though?

E: Yeah, yeah, so then, so we go warm weather training, and I think there’s three of us that are going to go. So there’s two other girls that are going, erm and it does change it quite a lot, especially as I’m quite used to training by myself and erm, and one of the reasons why I love training by myself is because I can get on with the session at my own pace and I get quite irritated at people holding up training, and kind of like, deliberately slowing it down to get more rest, and just chatting like can frustrate me if I just want to train. So it does change the dynamics quite a lot, and I’m also very much used to having my coach one on one. Erm, and then when it goes to, like, even just to on one like it does change it a little bit, and it does take a little bit of a while for me to get back used to that again, erm and that happens as soon as I go back home and there’s a bigger training group that I train with. There’s more of us and you kind of just have to get used to that, but erm, it does, it does change it quite a lot and it changes the way my coach coaches, because she’s probably not as close to the other two girls as she is to me because obviously she spends like one on one time with me whereas the others she’s always training a group and just doesn’t have the opportunity to kind of talk as she does to me so it does change the way that my coach coaches, if that makes sense. Erm, which is also, erm, I’m not used to that, so, it does change it quite a lot.

It’s quite interesting, but yeah, it’s still good though