Simon Mason
Team GB athlete, sports commentator and CEO
The Health and Wellbeing team caught up with three-time Olympian Simon Mason amongst his busy commonwealth commentating schedule, on performing well and the role exercise is playing in keeping him feeling young.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your career to date…
Simon: I started playing hockey aged 12 at school, then from there I progressed through club level and on to junior international, being included in the senior international teams from 1992. I have been fortunate enough to compete for England and GB 197 times; playing in three Olympics (’96, 2000 + 2004), 3 World Cups, 3 European Cups and 2 Commonwealth Games. During that period, I started working for my kit sponsors, Mercian. My role with them evolved over time, ultimately resulting in my buying the company in 2015, allowing me to pursue the professional goal of establishing the brand as a known and respected globally entity.
What has been the biggest highlight of your career?
Simon: On the International playing stage; competing at the Sydney Olympics. Domestically, winning the European Championships in 2003 with Reading Hockey Club – this was akin to winning the Europa Football league. Commercially, my biggest career highlight was leading the company through the debilitating financial crisis in 2009 and the recent two years of difficulties created by the Covid pandemic, all without having to reduce our internal team and actually coming out the other side as a more structured and focused business.
You compete now in masters (over 50’s) hockey, are the challenges that you face quite similar, or are there any major differences?
Simon: Competitively, when I step on a pitch, the mental challenges; the desire to be successful, never change regardless of what level or whom I am playing for. I am always driven to give my best. But, over time, physically the challenges of performing as well as possible are different; I no longer get to train as part of my job, carving out time in a busy schedule to train and recover effectively, amongst the pressures of work and daily life can be challenging.
How do you keep yourself in shape off of the pitch?
Simon: The aim is always to create a realistic and achievable training plan which I can follow wherever I am in the world, balancing sensible cardio and endurance work alongside strength and flexibility, with increases in intensity at appropriate intervals and as I approach specific games/tournaments. As I get older, nutritional balance has become increasingly important in helping me maintain training efforts and performing effectively on the day.
Finally, what advice would you give someone for maintaining a good exercise routine or even competing as they get older?
Simon: Identify a goal, structure a training plan that you enjoy and that makes you smile – even if it sometimes it’s more of a grimace. Enjoying it makes it more likely to be able to stick to it. Set small ‘timed’ incremental targets that you can adhere to and achieve - small increments can accumulate to mighty things! Just doing 10 press ups every time you boil the kettle can be a start to build towards twenty and so on, training doesn’t have to simply be hard chunks of training time … and, if in doubt and you see a hill, run up it!