The speaker recounts how growing up in a small community with limited entertainment options led them to sports, particularly football. Sports offered a sense of belonging and instilled values like discipline, resilience, and community bond. Engaging in activities like karate and cross country, and playing football, allowed the speaker to learn and grow beyond mere athleticism.

Facing an abrupt career-ending injury at 22 provided a turning point. Despite the setback, the speaker utilized the lessons from sports to rebuild a new path, becoming a leading female football coach. The speaker's journey highlights the importance of perseverance, goal setting, and the support of a community in overcoming life’s challenges and achieving new success.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. gladiators [ˈɡlædiˌeɪtərz] - (noun) - People trained to fight against each other or wild animals for public entertainment in ancient Rome; here used metaphorically for a competitive game. - Synonyms: (competitors, warriors, fighters)

The hill across the road from our house was used to play gladiators.

2. humility [hjuːˈmɪlɪti] - (noun) - The quality of having a modest or low view of one's importance. - Synonyms: (modesty, humbleness, meekness)

Karate teaches you discipline, patience in a process, it teaches you respect and it teaches you humility.

3. resiliency [rɪˈzɪljənsi] - (noun) - The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. - Synonyms: (perseverance, endurance, strength)

But it also started me on a journey of resiliency, awareness, determination and fight.

4. imposter syndrome [ɪmˈpɒstər ˈsɪndroʊm] - (noun) - A psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud. - Synonyms: (self-doubt, insecurity, inadequacy)

Often as females we do that, we develop imposter syndrome.

5. accreditation [əˌkrɛdɪˈteɪʃən] - (noun) - The process of certifying that an organization or person has achieved an official standard. - Synonyms: (certification, endorsement, validation)

I completed my pro licence, the highest accreditation in football coaching amongst a class of 12 top level coaches.

6. embrace [ɛmˈbreɪs] - (verb) - To accept or support something willingly and enthusiastically. - Synonyms: (accept, welcome, adopt)

The boys embraced me just like one of them.

7. linear [ˈlɪniər] - (adjective) - Arranged in or extending along a straight or nearly straight line; here metaphorically for a straightforward progression. - Synonyms: (straightforward, sequential, direct)

A sporting journey is by no means linear.

8. persevere [ˌpərsəˈvɪər] - (verb) - To persist in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. - Synonyms: (continue, persist, endure)

I've gained the confidence and character to succeed to persevere in all areas of life.

9. amplifies [ˈæmpləˌfaɪz] - (verb) - To increase the volume of sound; here used to mean increasing the impact of something. - Synonyms: (enhances, boosts, intensifies)

Being part of a community provides support and amplifies one’s journey to success.

10. connection [kəˈnɛkʃən] - (noun) - A relationship in which a person or thing is linked or associated with something else. - Synonyms: (relationship, association, link)

It's about continued human connection, really feeling a part of something bigger than yourself.

It's more than football - Leah Blayney - TEDxSpringwood

When most people think about sport, they think about games. A chosen activity that sometimes can be heartbreaking, sometimes fun that requires a level of athletic expertise. But today on TEDx, I want to talk to you about how one love of a lifelong activity of sport, in my case football, has set me up for success. When I think about sport, it is more than just a game.

I was born and raised in a village in the Blue Mountains called Wentwell Falls. We didn't have a local shopping centre, arcade or even a movie theater. If you're a kid growing up in the mountains, you made your own fun. I spent most of my early childhood down Charles Darwin Walk, playing in waterfalls and backyard sports with my brothers, cousins and other kids in the street. The hill across the road from our house was used to play gladiators, a game where all the other kids in the street had to wrestle my brothers and myself if they wanted to make it to the top.

I remember we'd go on holidays to foster and I'd always take a football with me and practiced juggling for hours on end. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. I used the sand heels to run up. Somehow I always knew hard work was the only way I was ever going to make it to the top.

Growing up in a small community sport gave me the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than myself, bigger than us. But I didn't just play football. We learned karate, we ran cross country and we even played rudimentary roller hockey in the street. Sport united my family. It gave us a common purpose and something we really enjoyed.

Karate teaches you discipline, patience in a process, it teaches you respect and it teaches you humility. Most big things in life take discipline and patience. Without discipline, you don't practice. Without correct technique, you don't progress. Without failure in demonstrating your routines, you don't truly get to appreciate success.

When I went to represent our country in football as a teenager, it was my karate community that were one of the first group of people to get around me. They would buy raffle tickets to fund my travel. They would see me in the street and tell me to keep going, to get to the top, to be successful. That's when I truly felt a part of a special community. And being a part of a community is really something great.

But sport, it's not all winners, medals and trophies. I was doing what I believed I was born to do. I was playing football for Australia, playing professionally in the us Having a career. And then bang, instead of a career, I had a career ending injury. I was a young woman of 22 whose career had just begun. I lost my job, my prospects and for a brief period there, my identity.

Sixteen years on, and it's not lost to me that I've played football for our country. But later this year I'll head to my second Youth World cup as coach of the Young Matildas. I'm the first female in the country to have gone to one, let alone two. I've travelled to 40 countries all over the world, two more than my actual age. And that's a trend I hope to continue.

These days, whenever I'm faced with a task inside or outside of sport, I understand that things don't happen overnight. Most things take great discipline, commitment to a process and a community. But how did I pick myself up and start again? Reskill. Find another way to do what I love.

It turns out the lessons I'd learned in sport and the community I had built through sport would be my support and my way through. When I was 12, and I remember this vividly, I trialled for a representative football team. I was very excited, super engaged. And then I was told by the coach, we're only taking one girl in this team because we have to and it isn't going to be you.

This was tough at the time, I readily admit that. But it also started me on a journey of resiliency, awareness, determination and fight. The rejection hurt, but I learned to handle that. I got faster, I got stronger, I simply worked harder. I found a team and a coach that believed in me not because I was a token girl. He fought for me to play for them and the boys embraced me just like one of them. Not because I was a girl, not because I was a boy, but simply just a footballer.

I've learned, like many girls and women before me, to develop a mindset of becoming the best, making the team, getting the job based solely on that criteria. And that learning pushes me outside of my comfort zone. I completed my pro licence, the highest accreditation in football coaching amongst a class of 12 top level coaches. I was the only female in the room.

I'm a female coach in a male dominated sport. I want to be one of the best coaches in the world. I don't believe in being the best female, I want to be the best of the best. Over time I've developed the inner confidence to reject any notion that if I am selected, it's a token appointment. Coaching has taught me to continue to enjoy the process.

In everything you do, the outcome is the product of how well you apply yourself to a process. You need to be Able to hone your craft and never feel like you shouldn't be there. Often as females we do that, we develop imposter syndrome. We get a feeling maybe we aren't deserving, maybe there's somebody better. I'm telling you, there isn't.

Believe in yourself and your abilities. Strive to achieve in all arenas. Build confidence by doing. And women we can do so. I'm a coach and I love it. I love educating, I love passing on knowledge, seeing the fruits of another's success, having an impact on another's journey. That's what I love and that's what I've come to learn about myself.

There's a real art in it, in writing the highs and the lows, in accepting that even the smallest act by you could inspire another's journey. It's bigger than a game, more than a scoreline. It's about continued human connection, really feeling a part of something bigger than yourself. We can't always do everything by ourselves, regardless of how independent we are. When we're a part of a community like my old karate club, we have the support, we have the confidence to do something, to be something together.

There is no better example of community at large than the coming together around our Matildas. In 2023, it was a huge year for Australian football. We held a World cup, we got to the semi final. Several players I've worked closely with were involved. One's family even turned to me for a video as a personal note for them from someone they look up to. That's my highlight of the World Cup.

Knowing the impact, watching some of these kids on the world stage shine, knowing at times their struggle, their journey, but most of all them knowing I had their back. Sport inspires a willingness to pass on knowledge, to sometimes accept people at their worst and look to help develop them into their best. A sporting journey is by no means linear.

I work in a daily environment where some days it's coach, some days it's counsellor, some days it's the authority, and other days it's simply just a smile because you know your athletes are doing it tough. We play the game because it's sport, but when you unpack the why, the how, the who, you're fine. There's so much more to being involved in sport than it just being a game. I know that I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't get to be a part of this without the resilience, the determination, the growth mindset that sport has created in me.

I've gained the confidence and character to succeed to persevere in all areas of life simply because once upon a time, I fell in love with a game, and that game has given back sa.

Sports, Education, Inspiration, Women'S Empowerment, Resilience, Community Building, Tedx Talks