RACHEL MCCANN
Rachel McCann, a fellow podcaster, debuted for the Black Sticks in 2015 and has made 68 appearances for her country. Maintaining a professional career in Hockey in New Zealand comes with its challenges, with the funding behind the sport not as heavily endorsed as other major sports in the country. A close friend of Rachel described her as an athlete with “a lot passion, commitment and determination with a healthy level of aggression”. These personality traits have helped Rachel with the challenges that come with a professional sporting career.
After finishing High School, Rachel had one goal in mind and that was to play for the Black Sticks as soon as possible. With peers around her making their debuts for New Zealand, it took a few years to realize that she was on her own journey. At 21, McCann made her debut for the Black Sticks and enjoyed a good run of games and started to feel more comfortable in the team. But then McCann missed selection for the Rio Olympics squad and her career started to take a different turn. In 2017, she was dropped down to the women’s development squad and eventually left the program altogether, McCann had lost the love of the game that she fell in love with when she was eleven years old. In the midst of this frustration, Rachel started to find opportunities outside of the game. This started with gaining a diploma in Positive Psychology and a more focused effort into the practice of Mindfulness, following the teachings of well-known Mindfulness coach George Mumford. After a successful stint playing club Hockey in Germany and finding a healthy balance outside of the sport, helped Rachel re-ignite the passion for Hockey and her desire to represent New Zealand again.
She also became inspired to start sharing her knowledge and launched “The Happy Athlete”, a social media platform and podcast where she brings tools for young athletes she wished she had learnt earlier, on how to deal with stress, pressure and emotions with the mission to help athletes and people flourish and create a place where Well-Being, Mindfulness and Sports Performance meet. In this episode, McCann with host van Beek, discuss her journey to date and cover a range of topics which includes; saying no to early specialization in a sport; playing with her idols; battles with her identity; how she got over the disappointment of missing out on the Rio Olympic squad; understanding the difference of Extrinsic vs Intrinsic motivation; we dive deep into her journey of Mindfulness, how she practices it and applies it to her sport; the Happy Athlete journey and why she started it. Where she has got to in her sport hasn’t come easy and has been thrown some pretty big challenges but Rachel has found a way to persevere and has a bright future ahead of her.
Chapters
· Intro/Injured herself in Covid-19 (3:31)
· Birth place… Sibling rivalry… Childhood… (6:56)
· NO! To Early-Specialization in sport (10:31)
· High School Netball Trials/Early mindset (13:43)
· 7 Hockey teams in 7th form (17:10)
· Transitioning out of High School (21:48)
· Playing with your Idols (24:43)
· Battles with Identity (30:34)
· Living with other hockey girls who were succeeding (32:28)
· Making your Debut for the Black Sticks (40:06)
· Balance between Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation (45:07)
· Rachel's best mate George Mumford, Author of the "Mindful Athlete" (51:53)
· How do you use Mindfulness during the day and in matches? (55:37)
· Missing out on Rio Olympic Squad and getting through 2017 (1:05:39)
· How playing Hockey in Germany 2018 changed everything (1:12:36)
· What are you looking forward to in the next couple of years? (1:19:16)
· theHappyAthlete Journey (1:23:05)
· How would you like to be remembered? (1:28:35)