Does anyone have a more varied day? I have just found a minute to reflect on the last few days. This has seen me not only racing and training myself but also coaching, mentoring and teaching pupils from such varied backgrounds, I’m not sure if anyone else does this type of work, or at least in 24hrours on consecutive days.
In one day I can work with privileged clients with their own in house gym to working in a school for autistic pupils to teaching pilates, strength & conditioning at Eton college and the variety does not stop there. On another day this week, I visited a school with children who had been expelled from mainstream education to working at St Georges school Weybridge, one of the highest achieving schools around. Last week I mentored at the Centre Point charity dealing with young people from a background of homelessness, drug addiction and alcoholic abuse. The program is called “sport for change” teaching them the ethics and ethos of an elite athlete and how they can add these values to their lifestyle. In addition, I was trying to teach them how to swim!
I think I am very lucky to have such a varied working life and I would like to thank the Youth Sport Trust, the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and my friends and clients for giving me some very interesting days. Certainly very different from my days as an Olympic athlete going round and round a lake 7 days a week!!
Toby Garbett
June 2016