Soccer star turns her mind to mindfulness
Erin McLeod has had a long and distinguished goalkeeping career, but it has not been without its challenges.
McLeod, 37, has represented Canada on 118 occasions, played in four FIFA Women's World Cups and won an Olympic bronze medal. She's also suffered multiple setbacks through injury and battled anxiety.
While McLeod still has plenty left to offer on the field — currently on loan from the Orlando Pride to Stjarnan in Iceland — she is passing along her years of experience through The Mindful Project, which launched a high-performance program Tuesday.
The project focuses on mental health and well-being and is designed to help athletes stay in the moment, allowing them to be in the best state of mind during competition.
“I've always been so hard on myself and been a perfectionist, and it's taken away a lot of the joy of the game for me,” McLeod said. “I'm so proud of my career and where I am now, but I do remember points in my career when I was miserable and it was because of the way I spoke to myself and my lack of self-compassion and all these different things.
“I think it's important for young people to enjoy the process a bit more and be in the present moment a bit more, which helps not just on the field but in life.”
Co-founded by McLeod and Dr. Rachel Lindvall, a university professor and soccer coach with a doctorate in mindfulness research, the programs offered by The Mindful Project (mindfullproject.ca), are designed to help cultivate emotional awareness, self-acceptance and purposeful focus in athletes.
Mental training has been a big part of McLeod's success and, along with being an elite athlete, she is also a certified mental coach and uses mindfulness in her day-to-day life.
“I'm an ambassador for Canada SCORES (after-school programming) and they used it in 14 of their schools,” McLeod said. “Then we had a university soccer team using it, a volleyball team using it and a couple of university classes and we got research back showing the increase in the quality of life and decrease in stress; the results were great.”
According to McLeod, data from the first six weeks of the high-performance program prior to the worldwide launch showed perceived stress was 194 per cent lower and quality of life was 206 per cent higher in participants.
McLeod believes the program is beneficial in all walks of life.
“We say it's a high-performance program, but it's not just for the top-level athletes,” she said. “For me, just because of the way it's structured, it's for people who want to get more out of themselves and enjoy whatever they're passionate about a little bit more.”
A St. Albert, Alta., product, McLeod first made an impression on the national sports landscape as a member of the Canadian team that claimed silver at the inaugural FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup in 2002. Canada lost in the final of the tournament to the United States in a game played in front of 47,000 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
Along with her four senior World Cup appearances,
McLeod has played in two Olympics and is vying for a spot on the roster for the Tokyo Games, which were pushed back to next summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
McLeod overcame a nagging foot injury and was set to play the season with Orlando before the pandemic temporarily shut down sports. She was due to return to the field to play in the National Women's Soccer League Challenge Cup in the spring, but Orlando had to pull out of the tournament as a number of players became infected with the virus.
“It's been such an interesting year and mental health is something that is being talked about quite a bit,” McLeod said. “Generally, the program has been very well received and it's about how we start incorporating this. We've been speaking to a couple of NCAA Div. 1 schools and it's something that resonates with them because it kind of makes it more routine.
“We've been working with a professional soccer team and we've partnered with a club in Vancouver, so there is definitely interest there and I'm really excited about the launch. I've always envisioned it being in university programs and in academies. Because when you're 15 years old, and that's kind of when we recommend starting it, that's when you're getting recruited for university or you're going to these academies and that's when the pressure and stress starts to rise.”
McLeod admits the pressure on young athletes today is greater than it was for her growing up as a multi-sport athlete. She is hoping The Mindfulness Project helps young athletes navigate the mental challenges of elite competition.