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Patient voices
Tips on transitioning out of elite sport (judo): the athlete’s perspective
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  1. Patrick Dawson
  1. Psychology, The Open University, Walton Hall MK7 6AA, UK
  1. Correspondence to Patrick Dawson, Psychology, The Open University, Walton Hall MK7 6AA, UK; patrick{at}rhodawn.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-100856

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    Love of judo

    From the moment I started judo, I was obsessed. I started from a non-competitive sporting background at the age of 16 years old. I was extremely lucky as I walked into (what was at the time) the most successful judo club in Britain and fell in love with the sport (see figure 1). I pretty much stopped doing everything else as soon as I started doing judo!

    Figure 1

    Technical practice with training partner, photo credits to Richard Goulding.

    The two best results that I had in my career were World Cup gold medals in Buenos Aires in 2013 and in February 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria. At that time, the world number 1 that I fought was pretty much unbeaten. These were two very good days!

    Sport becoming the essence of you

    Any athlete who chooses to compete and train full-time makes their sport a way of life. It is the reason you get up, you eat and you sleep. There’s a great moral code that goes alongside judo and in its purest form, it is a pretty good way to a holistic lifestyle.

    Little else mattered, and so I didn’t have the answers for how an athlete should prepare for the time that comes along when the motivation and drive by which you define yourself changes. This is specifically relevant to judo because it is an individual fighting sport. You don’t get …

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