Is Alcohol Permission To Stop Performing in Sport?

Jake (0:04)

Hi there, welcome along to another episode of High Performance. This is one of our regular Wednesdays where Damian and I just sit and we talk about something that's on our mind. And today, Damian, we're going to talk about the role of alcohol in modern day sport. You, in fact, before we started recording, you were talking to us about, you know, some recent meetings that you've had at the very highest level of sport in England. You work with lots of professional teams, you consult for a lot of people. Is there still a drinking culture in elite sport across the world?

Damian (0:32)

It's an interesting question. I think, yeah, that's the lubricant. That's almost like the door in to players gathering. I'd say it happens in certain sports, in certain parts of the world more regularly than others. But I think the idea of a drinking culture, it conjures up the idea of drinking to excess, falling over and not being coherent.

I don't think that's as extreme as it maybe used to be when you think about like Brian Robson's drinking club at Manchester United or some of those stories from yesteryear. But I still think drinking is almost like the social lubricant of players getting together, gathering, feeling that they can use it to bond. So I suppose it's a long-winded answer, and I think it's there, but I don't think it is as extreme as it used to be in terms of the amount of copious alcohol.

Jake (1:27)

Okay, well, the reason why we decided to have this conversation is because we saw a piece in the Times newspaper here in the UK and we were talking about it, debating it across our little High Performance Podcast presenter WhatsApp group.

And the reason why the article was interesting is not because it sort of defends drinking in professional sport, although it kind of, in some ways it kind of does, but there was a line in it, borrowed from the legendary Justin Langer where he said, a beer is permission to stop performing. And we spent years on this podcast, almost seven years asking people how to get the best out of themselves. And what we haven't really done is actually focus on what's the best way to switch off. And actually, the best way to perform and the best way to switch off, both add as much to high performance in equal measure. So we're in this world now where people are wearing all rings and whoop bands and wearables and they're trying to optimize their sleep scores all the time. You know, the algorithm that sits on your wrist is how you judge how you feel each day.

So I guess the question has become, has high performance culture left anyone anywhere where they can put their guard down? Or are we now optimizing life all the time that, yes, as you say, drinking is not happening so much, but actually there is a value to the kind of bonding that that can create. And therefore, we need to find a new version of what that looks like.

Damian (2:47)

Yeah, definitely. I think it's really a stupe point you're making, Jake, that I think we're in a world of almost like constant optimization. You know, the idea that you've constantly got to be measuring everything, even like your sleep time has to be optimized about the quality of the sleep, how long you have it, the depth of your REM sleep and things like that. And I think there's something that, you know, that old saying that everything can be measured doesn't count, but not everything counts can be measured. I was reading recently an interview with Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, who described back in 2017, they got Roger Federer to come and speak to the players about performance. And they asked him to describe like an average day of his training. And Federer spoke about getting up and having breakfast with his kids, then going and doing two hours work and coming back and having lunch with his wife, and then resting in the afternoon and then having a family meal together.

And what was interesting, what Steve Kerr spoke about was it wasn't this sense of optimization. It wasn't the idea of squeezing every last drop out of his day. It was about also knowing when to spend time with the people you love, when to connect, when to relax as much as when it was to be in action. And I think when we talk about this idea of a drinking culture, like I say, I think the images that come to mind is extreme drinking, sort of rowdy behavior, people losing control of themselves. I think we lose sight of the fact that there's an awful lot of benefits to be had on this. And I think for us to sit down and just have a chat and look at it from a few different perspectives, you know, prompted by the article that we read in The Times, it'd be well worthy of our time and hopefully for anyone that wants to join us.