I feel alive again. And I’ ll be brutally honest. Menopause is really, really tough and menopause is most tough on your brain. In order to keep my brain aging healthy, I need to make sure I keep it engaged. I really realize that.
GLENN: How about Deion Sanders? You brought him in to speak to the USWNT at camp. How did that relationship form, and what did he offer?
EMMA: Well, I was a fan of Deion Sanders and once I knew we were going to Colorado, I reached out to Heif( Media Relations Coordinator, Aaron Heifitz) and said,‘ What’ s the chance that I can meet with him and connect him with the team?’ And he’ s such an orator. He’ s inspirational. And I think watching his journey with Colorado has been beyond enjoyable. I love the way he gives the public access to different areas of coaching that sometimes I think we cut off from the public. I think he’ s done that in a really, really healthy way. And wherever I get the opportunity to bring people in, I will. When we go out to L. A., I’ ve invited a couple of college basketball coaches to come across. I’ ll never forget when we won the gold medal and then the women’ s basketball team won. Myself and Denise( assistant Denise Reddy), we went across to the headquarters for the women’ s basketball team, and we sat with Cheryl Reeve and Cara Lawson, her assistant. We sat up until the early hours just talking about our experiences; we shared that moment of winning a gold medal, and I never want to lose those opportunities whenever they come up. And I absolutely want to spend time while I’ m in the U. S. getting across as many women’ s sports as I can, because I don’ t get that opportunity in England, because soccer is the only professional sport.
GLENN: These crossover conversations, do you think athletes should focus on just one sport or is it better for them to play multiple sports?
EMMA: I’ ve always been an advocate of‘ be happy.’ If playing multiple sports makes you happy, play multiple sports. Now, granted, you’ re going to have to reach a point where you might have to really pick one. I have one story. There’ s a phenomenal Irish boxer called
Katie Taylor. And, I mean, she is an unbelievable boxer, and she, as well as boxing, played football for the Republic of Ireland. And I remember when I was coaching at Arsenal, and she came across on trial, and she could play at that level, as well as boxing to the level she could. She’ s a world champion many times over. But she had to make that decision then. But she was, you know, 18, 19, 20, she decided‘ boxing is where I’ m going to go.’ And she had to give up football. But when I watch her feet on the canvas and I think about how her feet move— now, I don’ t want to take anything away from what she’ s done in boxing, but I think about the impact football has had on her boxing, and vice versa. So, I think it’ s easy to sort of shoehorn people in one direction. I always want whoever they are to have a healthy relationship with something, and having a healthy relationship developed, I think creates a longevity in something. So, people should choose to do that whenever they feel that’ s best or appropriate.
GLENN: I recently spoke to the University of Vermont men’ s coach, Rob Dow, who had just won the national championship. And he talked about one of his players, Max Murray, who’ s a first-round draft pick of New York City. He talked about his feet, that he was a basketball player, and one of the reasons he was so good in the area on set pieces and free kicks, was the movement of his feet in order to get into positions, maybe before other players.
EMMA: I completely support that. It’ s just differential training which can only enhance, and you usually know when it becomes detrimental to something, but not everybody gets to be part of the 1 % club and make the top, top level. So why shoehorn early? And I even remember I used to coach a lot of kids’ teams when I was in the U. S. People used to ask me this all the time, and I feel exactly the same way now as I did then. I’ m like, if you want to play lacrosse and soccer, play lacrosse and soccer. Just make sure you’ re still resting in the right moments. You know, the biggest challenge I always felt in the U. S., is just overplaying, just too much. I’ m all about balance, and if you get that right, do what makes you happy.
GLENN: One of the things I noted in your book, you said you need positive discomfort to get the most out of yourself and your staff. I wonder if you could share an example of what you mean by that.
EMMA: You know, we’ re all creatures of habit. And we love comfort. And that’ s not to say there aren’ t opportunities to thrive in comfort, because when we feel safe in something, we can be at our very, very best. But having led many teams, and in particular, having led one team in Chelsea, which were perennial winners, to keep moving that marker every year wasn’ t easy. So sometimes players would come in and you already knew they were like, this is kind of easy, so maybe we’ ll cruise a little bit. So the best thing I could say is that you have to learn how to pull the rug from people’ s feet in the right moment and that may take place in many, many different ways. Whether that is switching up the schedules of something, to moving people in and around the locker room, to making a training adaptation somewhere along the line. It could be that, to roster changes, you know, just to make sure people are not too comfortable. I think it’ s important for all of us, but what I have learned over years is to try and put people in situations where they have that self-awareness and self-reflection, where they’ re doing that checking themselves, and the more you can create that autonomy and self-awareness, the better chance you’ ve got anyway.
GLENN: At the Olympics, six wins out of six matches, never trailed. So, it’ s almost that same situation. You’ ve said,‘ I don’ t want things to be all rosy.’ So, somewhere along the line, you’ re going to have to make it less rosy.
EMMA: Netherlands scored in the second half and I turned around to Denise, and I went,‘ thank goodness.’ We needed that. Now, I want to see what sort of team we are in this situation. It’ s different when you’ re dominant and in charge of the ball and you know, whatever, I felt we dealt with everything in the Olympics. I felt that the Dutch team were a really stern test. And I thought that our team showed something in us that I wanted to see. I think I’ d like to see more of that this year. And it’ s not about going behind— the
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