The Netball Show
S7 Ep50: Danielle Brown (06th Aug 2024)
The net will show with Flyhawk, raising the bar for netball and winning sports. It's the netball show with the Flyhawk, we've been the long term supporter of the Mintry Foundation. He run a podcast and it was really good to see that Mintry Jan Bassader, Danielle Brown has written a book, it's called Run Like a Girl, available on her website now danielbrown.co.uk and she's been telling me more about it. Hi Danielle, thanks for joining us. Sorry I jumped in there didn't I? It's great to be here. For those of us that maybe don't realise the sporting royalty I'm speaking to today, double Paralympic gold medalist in our treat, five time world champion and you're a number one throughout your entire career and you also achieved something that very few disabled athletes manage and that was transitioning on to the able body team. Yeah, yeah it was amazing actually, I mean I had a really I guess enjoyable career, obviously you've outlined the successes and standing on the podium what was incredible, don't get me wrong you know that's kind of elite level what you do sport for but for me the journey you know being part of that GB team, getting to travel the world, getting all that international competition experience was just amazing. Some of the pictures that are on your website as well just when you see that must evoke many special memories. Yeah I mean the photos you know that they are lovely lovely memories and I've just got so many more you know just sort of spending time with teammates actually getting to travel to these amazing places that I probably wouldn't have thought of as a holiday destination but getting to understand different cultures meeting new people and it's just incredible so yeah I've got so many amazing happy memories from my time in sport. And it doesn't come much better no matter what sport you're involved with but representing your country. Yeah yeah absolutely I mean getting to put on that GB shirt getting to go out that I mean you know don't get me wrong there's a lot of pressure and particularly the more I achieved the more pressure I felt under to win and you know it got to the point where silver medal was failure you know I'd won so many titles on the parasite I was on the able-bodied side so everybody included myself expected me to win and that did make it very very tough. So what's the run like a girl book about? So run like a girl features 50 female athletes from all over the world and I wrote it for so many reasons now firstly when I was growing up I didn't have any real female role models in sport to the point that I didn't even know I could have a career in sport. I mean partly I was rubbish at sport as I was growing up so never really considered it as an option anyway but you know it would have been nice to know it was available. I think I could have probably named a couple of tennis players and that was it. So really I wanted to raise the profile of some of the amazing things that's going on in women's sport because you know whilst we do hear more about women's sport now there is still a huge huge gap and so many of the women that I wrote about I'd not come across before and I think it's just so important to share those stories and really provide those strong role models for other girls and boys and I also wanted to change the perception of women in sport as well so it's providing those role models but also changing that perception and particularly that concept like a girl. So you know I remember when I was training and sometimes if the guys were having a bad day they'd be like I'm shooting like a girl and you know it was just like at the time I didn't realize how much of an impact those words have but you know when you look back and reflect on it words are so important and we do hear those phrases don't we run like a girl throw like a girl catch like a girl it's often positioned as an insult but actually if we try and flip that around and get girls and women to see that actually you can perform or compete in joy sport as a girl and you can do it really well. Really about empowering women and girls in sport a belief that Mintridge have as well and definitely a value that I would suggest you hold as well. Yeah absolutely I've been working as an ambassador with Mintridge Foundation for Craigie quite a few years now for five years and they really are a wonderful wonderful charity they do such a lot of great work around empowering young people so girls and boys but you know that they are very very keen on on raising the profile of women's sport as well which is reflected by you know they've got so many female ambassadors which is really nice so you know from an ambassador point of view it's awesome to be able to stay in touch with these amazing role models and be part of that team but the impact of work that has on young people is just it's really incredible it's amazing to be part of it and it's amazing to see those programs work. Why now I suppose did the last 18 months of being behind closed doors just give you a bit of time to make a start on it. Yeah and so I've always wanted to be a writer you know that has been my vision my goal since I was about four years old and it kind of really started in terms of children's book with my first one that I co-authored with a seven-year-old boy Nathan Kai I did that in 2019 and so that kind of started the foray into children's book writing but this idea came to me actually before the pandemic I'd written it by by March it just takes such a long time to get published but I have to admit all this time in lockdown has given me a lot more time to write. And in it as well there's plenty of inspiring women in there people like Serena William, Simone Biles, Lizzie Arnold to name a few. Yeah I mean I did my research and I wrote the chapters and then I sent it over to as many of the athletes I could track down as possible because making sure that I got the facts right was very very important so I remember when I was in the Beijing Paralympics I won the gold medal and a local paper rang my mum up afterwards and said can I interview you so mum not really knowing what to do kind of agreed to it and they said why did Danielle start archery and my mum's like I don't know I think she had an obsession with Lord of the Rings and obviously that followed me for about four years and wasn't quite true but yeah everywhere I turned up sort of in the intro in the bio Danielle started archery because of Lord of the Rings and so yeah for me it's really important to try and get those facts correct and make sure also that the athletes were happy with it you know sort of that the information out there isn't always the truth so it was just really really nice to be able to share it with athletes to get their feedback to see what they were happy with what they were what they wanted including so it was a really nice part of that process. I think when we spoke to Chief of Mentor as well she said that that was one of the key things why she started her website just so that everybody had something with a bit of authority instead of going to a wiki. Yeah I mean well it is obviously that but also you know even I've had it where you've done an interview I remember doing this interview with the Guardian and it was like quite exciting at the time first time I'd ever been interviewed by a national paper and when I read the article afterwards I was so disappointed because I'd said everything that was quoted but it had been distorted so much and taken out of context that it made me sound quite bitter and I really wasn't impressed so yeah making sure that I think that voice is so important and getting athletes to actually have a voice so yeah it's great when athletes do set up their own sites and you've got that you know them sort of really being able to engage and tell their truths. We'll plug it before the end of the interview. What's your website? Let's plug it now as well. Daggleground.co.uk Very nice. Good to see you as well the Tracy Neville's part of the book X England netball head coach. What was it like getting somebody like her involved? Yeah so you know what first of all it's really tough trying to narrow a down to 50 athletes for the book but there were certain sports that I really wanted to cover and yeah when I was I was looking at all the different netball players I mean just so many inspiring players I found it's such a tough choice but I think one of the reasons I wanted to focus the chapter on Tracy was that she you know she was obviously a coach as well and I just loved that transition from player to coach and part of the book you know it's about as you said empowering young people and I wanted them to see that it wasn't just about being an athlete that there were other ways you could engage in sport whether that was coaching, volunteering, refereeing, setting up your own business, empowering or charity work so yeah you know she's got such an inspiring story it was just so really really inspiring for me to read, to research and to turn into a story. You do more vocational talk as well and what's the main message that you came to portray as part of these? Oh Christy that's quite a tough one. That's a good one I've been kind to you up until now. Yeah that is a tough one so I mean I do obviously talk about my story I always bring my story in because I think that that inspiration bit is important. You know I don't like just talking about myself or giving fluffy messages you know I like practical solutions and actual strategies and tools that you can take from it so I suppose some of my key messages are all around confidence. You know I growing up with a disability but for me my disability started as a teenager it wasn't something that that happened that I've always had and you know as a teenager you're figuring out who you are what you want to do as the rest of your life and I had this additional problem thrown into the mix it completely shattered my self-esteem my self-confidence and through sport I was able to build it back so for me a lot of the messages really is around focusing on what you can do rather than what you can't. It's actually giving techniques and tips and tricks and tools on how to actually build that confidence up and understand that it does fluctuate that you know there are times where where we have dips in that confidence and also the importance of confidence in performance as well you know it's more important than competence in in many many respects. How about training mind and challenging energy into winning performance? I like that do you like that as well? You should do because I lifted it from your website. Yep yeah I thought I recognised it I thought I recognised it. Yeah it is because you know I think that winning that performance so those wins you know Vost sport and anybody involved in sport knows that you've obviously got to practice you've got to put in that time that effort but if the mindset isn't there you know if you've not worked on that as well all that practice and in many respects is going to waste because you need to be able to perform under pressure you need to be able to stay positive through all the challenging bits you need to learn how to tap into that motivation so yeah it's hugely important. On your website as well it's not just obviously focused at the athletes in the talk side but there's also an option to buy into control your exam nerves revision video that's important. Yeah I know I and the inspiration for this actually came through when I was at university so I was studying law and I think it was my second year I walked into the kitchen in my shared accommodation and all my housemates were crying their eyes out I was just like oh what what's happened and they were there snuffling away go we're gonna fail we're gonna fail I know you saw it to myself I'm like well if you sat in the kitchen crying not in your room studying you're probably not gonna fail and then I was like where am I so different why am I not in there you know sort of really struggling with that pressure and I just realized actually the strategies that I'd learned through sport really helped me you know I didn't have the same sort of blipsing in confidence the same issues with pressure that a lot of my peers did and I was just like hey you know can we use sport psychology techniques and tools to actually support young people with these exam pressures and help them sort of be able to perform better under pressure so yeah and and again you know trying to make it as cost effective as possible I think you know it's the these techniques and tips are something that you can put into practice quite easily so sort of sticking it into a video format that young people can parents can download it it just makes it easier for everybody makes it so much more accessible greater speak to Danny there her book run like a girl is out now featuring 50 amazing women athletes 50 amazing stories include interesting level and the virtual book launch is on the 22nd at half past seven and you can buy your copy of the book daniel brown dot core dot uk the net will show with flyhawk raising the bar for netball and women's sports
Todays podcast sees us head back to 2021 when we spoke to 2 x Paralympic gold medallist Danielle Brown about her book "Run Like A Girl"