Lessons from a PhD
Take home message
Have a good team.
Be passionate
use the Slivers of time
Learn from those a step ahead
For Coaches
Are there gaps in your personal team? Who is the team behind you that you can draw upon?
For Athletes
Could you deliberately maximise the opportunity of learning from those a few steps ahead, rather than just hoping some of it rubs off.
“For Phd Students”
Chip away every day. And check in with fellow students or recently completed for nuggets of gold not listed in the Faculty handbook.
I wanted to take a short detour from coaching and athletes into the realm of study and share with you a few lessons from my PhD that may help other students (but coaches and athletes, stay with me. The piece neatly comes full circle back to coaches and athletes). A recent discussion with a friend who is in the late stages of his PhD and listening to another great Pacey Performance podcast with Fremantle FC High Performance Manager Jason Weber who is also completing his, encouraged me to post a few tips from my PhD studies so that they might help fellow students.
Tip #1 - Have a good team.
To say I completed my PhD last year is in some parts a bit misleading. Whilst my name is on the thesis, it is one of many “IN” the thesis. Whilst a thesis is original work and driven by and attributed to one person, it is not the work of one individual and involves guidance and conversations with supervisors, lab technicians, academic staff, librarians, mentors, colleagues, reviewers, family and friends to complete. It really is a team effort and like many situations in life, establishing a team is critical to PhD success. Supervisors see the big picture and help you head in the right direction. Colleagues a step or two ahead see the immediate pitfalls (or “rabbit holes”) and procedures. Mentors of mine were outside the immediate circle and provided a well measured perspective. I even had lengthy discussions with an imaginary examiner. He (based on a real person) played a pivotal role in the structure of my thesis, constantly asking me to “prove” what I was thinking causing me halt writing a section, and instead back track to an earlier point in the thesis to write 4 mini-chapters to settle our argument. (Note: whilst he may have won the arguments, the thesis was better for the conversations. But I am not telling him that!).
Tip #2 - Passion.
The PhD journey is long. Or in my case, really long. What got me through this was a genuine excitement for my questions. Long story short, I had foundations of the questions as a coach for about two years before actually embarking on the quest, when between my eventual supervisor and me, we could not find anyone willing to answer them. So I had a crack. It is important for any post-graduate student to genuinely love their question. You are going to have late nights, moments of despair with journal feedback and a light at the end of the tunnel that just does not seem to get any closer. As well as support from those closest to you, you also need the passion for your question. Choose wisely.
Tip #3 - Slivers of time.
For those brave enough to embark on the PhD journey with a family and full-time job I wish you all the best. It is a hard enough task as a full-time student, let alone with a full life of family and employment. A tip I gave my colleague the other week was to work on the PhD every day. I am a big fan of deep work and solid chunks of time. For me writing is not a skill (you are probably thinking that right now) so if I did not write constantly, I wrote poorly. At the end of a long day of work and evening family commitments, the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the laptop and write. I was exhausted and believed no good could come of such a futile 30 minutes of fatigue and that I would be better of waiting until the next real opportunity when I would not be so tired. The result of that plan was simply no progress and that it could be days before I could be in a position to write, and by then, I had lost track of where I was. By getting in-front of the screen daily - even for 30 minutes - was a very productive plan as it kept the topic fresh in my mind and I thoroughly recommend this for the time poor, fast juggling students.
Tip 4 - Learn from those a step ahead.
Great supervisors are critical to your eventual achievement. I was lucky here to have great supervisors and academic mentors (Prof Rob Newton, Assoc Prof Prue Cormie, Dr Stu Cormack), absolute legends. More than a step ahead, they’re a lifetime ahead and graciously found time and patience to drag me along. Also important were the students a year or two ahead, or those just on the other side of the finish line. If the supervisors hand you the balls to juggle, your fellow students just ahead can teach you how to juggle. For example, I found that in the second half of the journey I was juggling. I had a few chapters that were done, many in various stages of completion, plus the usual university administrative requirements. And I will use the construction of a house as an example. A good construction manager doesn’t wait for the foundation slab to be set to order the bricks - that would result in an obvious stall. Instead, they order the bricks to be delivered as the slab has set to keep construction flowing. The same is for a thesis. I needed to be working on a chapter whilst waiting for drafts to come back from supervisors or reviewers. I needed to keep production flowing. Fellow students ahead of me knew of other minor, but highly time effective tasks that kept the thesis process flowing as they had already encountered these road blocks and wanted to pass on that knowledge and help. There is a lot of, “I wish I knew that back then” teaching from those just a step ahead that is precious and greatly appreciated. The road blocks are fresh in their mind and they genuinely pass on tips. I found them invaluable to my success and an important part of my team. If you find yourself a step ahead, make sure you give back.
I was going to end this with a few other general notes about structuring the thesis with your examiner in mind, or working hard, or reading widely, not just papers, but other theses to get a sense of thesis structure (as these are also very important in my opinion). However, I started this post suggesting I was going to detour from the usual coaching and athlete theme to a study one. Then I realised, the tips I have provided actually relate:
Tip #1 - Have a good team. Coaches for a good team, surround themselves with good members in and out of their coaching team. Players want to be in a good team, to contribute to a good team. Individual players also make sure they have a good team outside of their sport that helps support them. I guess we all need a good team.
Tip #2 - Passion. The coaches and athletes I work with don’t consider it work. They are passionate about getting up early all year round to do what we do. S&C coaches are passionate about helping their athletes achieve their goals. Athletes are passionate for improvement.
Tip #3 - Slivers of time. It seems whenever I get a moment of quietness, my mind wanders towards the S&C realm - a gym structure, an agility drill, an encounter with a coach or athlete, a podcast on S&C, a new topic to write about here. I fill the slivers of time I have with my passion. I think many athletes do too. They don’t have to stretch or do simple rehab exercises at home. They do it their spare time they have because they want to get better.
Tip 4 - Learn from those a step ahead. If my supervisors were like the coaches seeing the big picture and game plan, then fellow students were my teammates sharing their preparation tips and tricks. I know junior players are frequently watching and learning from senior players. I have mentors that I discuss S&C and coaching with on a regular basis who are all at various stages on the path ahead of me, with different perspectives of the challenges I am about to face yet cannot see. Be proactive about learning from those just ahead of you. Likewise, but willing to share knowledge with those coming through. Everyone wins.
I guess there are similarities between elements of success whether they be academic or sporting. To those embarking on a PhD, I wish you the best of luck. It will be a wonderful time of your life that you will look back on fondly. I hope some of these tips help. Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can!
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Thanks again. BA.