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Episode Summary: 

In this episode of Sport Is Life, Ian Hawkins reflects on the life lessons he's learned through sports, particularly from an influential coach, Frank Haffey. As a shy child, Ian faced challenges finding his voice on the field but was encouraged by Frank, a former Scottish goalkeeper, who taught him the importance of communication, confidence, and self-belief. Ian shares how Frank’s close mentorship pushed him out of his comfort zone, shaping his ability to motivate and lead, both in sports and beyond. 

Ian emphasizes the transformative power of sport as a training ground for personal growth, resilience, and learning to overcome challenges. He recounts how his coach’s belief in him inspired not just his football journey but also his approach to life, coaching, and mentoring others. Ian encourages listeners to look for opportunities to build confidence in others, especially the younger generation, by offering support, guidance, and understanding. 

About the Host:  

Ian Hawkins, host of "Sport Is Life," is dedicated to showing how sports can transform lives. With extensive experience as an athlete, a coach, PE teacher, community volunteer, and manager at Fox Sports, Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. His journey began in his backyard, mentored by his older brother, and has since evolved into coaching elite athletes and business leaders. Ian's commitment to sports and personal development is evident in his roles as a performance coach and active community member. Through "Sport Is Life," Ian shares inspiring stories and valuable lessons to help listeners apply sports principles to all areas of life.  

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SportIsLife-IanHawkins   

Theme Music Artist: 

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when you face different challenges in

different situations. For me personally,

they often come to the surface on the

sporting field, whether it's a lack of

belief.

Being able to find your voice, like I

said, different emotions that

come out, so frustration, always

different things.

Most prominent in in a sporting

environment. And So what better place to

learn to deal with those different

challenges than that in that environment.

I'm Ian Hawkins and this is Sporty's

life. The purpose of sport, as I

see it, is to see your vision become a

reality, find your voice, create

strong connections and learn to trust

your body.

Sport teaches us so many valuable life

lessons and the story I want to share

with you today is from a an

experience I had as a

young fella why I was so

blessed to have had some amazing coaches

when I was younger I had two different

international coaches for football

played for their country. Another guy

who had. Grown up in England and

played for Liverpool. In the reserves,

but still like at the incredibly high

standard and these are some of the

coaches that had from a young age and

one particular coach when I was.

13 and 14, maybe

15 as well. He was my

coach, he played for Scotland. He was a

big man. He I found him as a shy kid,

quite intimidating. He was a close

talker, so when he talked to you he'd be

like right up in your face. I found that

really quite challenging.

But this man also taught me

just the most incredible life lessons.

His name was Frank Haffey, he

played for Scotland, he was a goalkeeper,

he was an incredible

goalkeeper, but he also played in a game

where he his team let in

nine goals against England.

And even though you know, high

quality and, and a lot of those goals,

you know, it's like when you're a

goalkeeper, they're not your mistake.

He was, he just copped an absolute

smashing to the point where he

needed to get out of the country and and

he came and lived in Australia, which was

good luck for me, end up playing with his

son and.

Yeah, I remember he talked about how

important it was in football to use your

voice. He said you should be coming off

the field with a sore throat. Now, for a

shy kid like myself, I found that really

challenging. But there was also.

Part of me in there that was an

extrovert and whether

he saw something in me that knew he knew

he'd be coming out or maybe I

didn't notice him having the same

conversations and being so vocal towards

other people in the team. But I seem to

feel like at times he was picking me out.

Like, come on, I can't hear you. So

I had to push myself out of the comfort

zone because it was more, it was

less painful to be yelling out. Of my

voice is a 13 and 14 year old encourage

my teammates was to have him talking

really closely in my face ask me why I

haven't done it. So

by his encouragement, but also by pushing

me, I learned to use my voice. I

learned to have the confidence to

be cheering on my teammates and encourage

them and and not being concerned with

what people thought. Yeah, I'm sure you

can imagine initially as a shy kid, I

was. I was very. Intimidated

and just distracted here for a second.

Why is it every time my dog sits here

quietly, every time I start recording a

podcast, he decides he wants to jump up?

So you may have heard him tiptoeing

around the room again. Anyway, I know

Chris. Yeah, so

this, this, this coach and this

great man, Frank Affi, he helped me to to

find that confidence.

And. That's just

something that stuck with me as I grew up

and continued to play is that I

always was a very vocal

player and it

perfectly suits my personality. I play

my best when I'm doing that. I'm I'm a

cheerleader. It's just something that

comes naturally to me to be encouraging

my teammates and also holding them to be

count, and that's how I find

my flow. And I don't know

how I would have found that

if I hadn't had that experience where I

was pushed into it, encouraged

into it. But it wasn't just about like, I

don't know if I'm making it sound like a

really intimidating thing. He did

it in a loving way and an encouraging

way. I can also remember a conversation

he said he had with me at the

end of one of those seasons. I think it

was that that first year that he coached

me in the under 13. Because we hadn't

had a good year as a team, we were

in the top division. I think we might

have won the lower division of the

year before, maybe two, maybe Division

Three. We got bumped up a couple of

divisions and we had a tough year. We won

a few games along the way, but we're out

of our depth and he came up to me after

the game, his typical close after the

game, after the last game, the end of the

season. His typical close talking. He

just said to me, I want you to promise me

you're going to keep playing.

Football. He said because you've

got a gift and you need to use it

now. That's just

something that stuck with me and I did

keep playing for a long time. I've had

my last season of football, competitive

football was a couple of years ago and I

pretty much played since then with a few

years off here and there, couple of

little breaks for two or three years.

But what more than just like the football

ability, because I was never anything

that was going to take me to great

heights from a football perspective. But

I can only imagine looking back that he

saw something in me beyond football

because it's certainly been something in

my life that's been a place that I've

learnt a lot about life. It's also a

place where I've learned a lot about human

behaviour and being able to.

It's had to, yeah, a positive influence.

It's such a great training ground. When

when you when you

face different challenges in different

situations. For me personally, they often

come to the surface on the sporting

field, whether it's a lack of belief.

Being able to find your voice, like I

said, different emotions that

come out, so frustration, always

different things.

Most prominent in in a sporting

environment. And So what better place to

learn to deal with those different

challenges than that in that environment.

And so hearing that message from

Mr Happy as I called him back in the day

was was something that

really motivated me to continue

to play but but also.

The fact that it's stuck in my head all

these years later, it must have really

inspired me to.

Well, to be better than than what I'd

been to that point, because I hadn't

really had a great deal of experience of

people building me up to that extent

and really believing in me and, and

pushing me. And I really liked it

and, and it was always.

Something that helped me in lots of

different areas, having someone there

that was was did it in a

kind way, but but pushed me

and got me beyond what I

thought I was capable of. And that's

true. In.

Sporting environment and a work

environment. Social

Environment. Just having

someone in your corner that believes in

you and is prepared to help push you

along. Now,

my parents gave me an awesome upbringing

where they gave me the freedom of choice,

and that's something I'm truly

appreciative of because I know that.

There are a lot of people that didn't get

that opportunity just to to choose their

own future beyond school

and even subject choices, all of those

different things.

But there are times where I wish I'd been

pushed more, so it was so good to have

these mentors and coaches pop up

throughout my life to to be able to help

me to do that.

Now like I said as a shy kid

who didn't really have a voice and and

kept always spoke quietly

in in any environment. Like I said when I

wasn't with my friends, always spoke

really quietly because I didn't want to

bring attention to myself in case I made

a mistake or in case I

got any sort of unwanted attention

because I didn't have that confidence.

And often attention ended up in me doing

or saying something that I always

felt myself. Made me look a

certain way.

So to have someone like that lift me up,

absolute life changer. And this is our

opportunity now as adults

through sport to be able to make

that same difference for young people.

And that is something that I've

definitely played, paid forward and

made a big part of my life. I, I started

coaching when I was probably only about 3

or 4 years after that year, so when I was

about 16, maybe 15/16/17. So

I'm actually maybe a couple of years.

Beyond that, and it's

something I've always tried to

do is to, to make it a fun experience, a

positive experience for the people I've

coached. And I know the difference

again, making it and it's just,

it's, it gives you so much satisfaction

or fulfilment and if you've done any.

Training, coaching, encouraging,

mentoring and a work perspective. You

know what I'm talking about. You know how

beneficial that is. So my challenge to

you is that. In your day to day

life, can you identify

where people are behaving in a way that

maybe they could do with a boost?

And just finding, trying to find the

right thing to say at the right time to

help them find a bit of that belief.

Sometimes when people are acting in a way

that you, you think, particularly if

they're younger than you and you think

maybe that behaviour is not really

acceptable, I think instead.

About what? What could they need

to help them change their behaviour? Do

they just need someone to listen to them?

Do they just need some attention?

Do they just need some structure? Maybe

they just need to be taught something

that they don't yet know?

Then this could be you also when you're

thinking about your your own children.

Rather than diving into looking at what

people are doing wrong and finding

mistakes in things and being critical and

holding people to standards which

are unfair. Yeah, Come from that

perspective, how can I build this person

up? How can I help them to be better?

Sometimes it's can be really quite

challenging, particularly if that person

's behaviour is is. Really

hard to take. I'm thinking about

sometimes. When you're coaching

young people and, and they're

particularly intention

seeking and sometimes

maybe disruptive and,

and a bit louder and, and a bit.

Yeah, just just wanting to be that centre

of attention instead of getting

frustrated that yeah, how can you help

them to to realise that that they.

They are good at that, that they they do

have a place in

performing in front of people because the

more what generally happens is if they're

not given recognition for their ability

to to be that centre of attention, then

they'll find other ways to try and get

that recognition. Sometimes it just

requires someone like me

or you to help them

see that they're going better than they

think and they don't need to be trying so

hard. That's my challenge to you,

is to look at that, look at the world

through that lens. If you look at someone

's behaviour, particularly younger

people, what do they need? What? What

could you help them?

What did you not get? What assistance did

you not get that you needed that would

have helped them in that situation? Or

what assistance did you get that you can

then pay for it?

Such a positive impact we can have

through that sporting environment.

And it's free, but the payoff is

massive. And

if you've got a great story about a

lesson you learned in sport, then let me

know. Send me an email info@ianhawkins

coaching. com. And if you're feeling

really brave and you've got a great story

that you've learned to hate from, and

you're willing to pass that on by telling

your story on the Sporty's Life podcast,

then let me know that too. I'd love to

have a chat to see if you're a good fit.

And umm, yeah, together we can help even

more people. To create positive changes

in their life. Lift themselves up and

maybe some of those people around them as

well.

You've taken the time to listen to this

whole episode. Now it's time to take

action. Commit to one thing you've

learned today and make it happen. And to

avoid any obstructions, join the Sporty's

Life movement by clicking on the link in

the show notes.