The Post Rugby Podcast
Anthony Andrews
#2: From broken back to finding freedom in nature with Rick Cooper
Episode Notes
Rick Cooper is a former rugby player and inspirational Leadership and Performance coach.
Rick’s upbringing in sport was one where he initially tried to find validation, recognition and significance through the competition of rugby. This led him to embark on a professional career with Saracens.
In doing so, he broke his back, making him temporarily semi paralysed with the medical profession ruling out any physical endeavour in his lifetime at the age of just 21. Defiant, he went on to spend 10 years as a London Firefighter, proudly serving and helping the people of London. In this time he made a return to the rugby field and even received an invite to represent GB as a power lifter.
Now a qualified Personal Trainer, Educator, Assessor, Life and NLP coach, Rick has become an integrated man and consistently coaches men to personal transformation.
In this conversation we delve into his journey with rugby from his early days as a fiery front rower to finding his home in his later years in the back row via the bulk of his career as a crash ball centre. We talk about some of the challenges throughout his career and also some of his revelations as a retired player and how he transformed his approach to training. Through connecting with nature on a regular basis and enjoying short sharp training sessions among other things he has found a new sense of freedom with his body after many significant injuries sustained in the game. He uses this new found freedom and his inner fire, which he used to channel into the rugby field, to fuel his new life which includes creating some amazing programmes for the people he works with and coaches.
He shares many nuggets of wisdom through the podcast and wraps it up with some huge inspiration to anyone involved in the game! A huge gratitude to Rick for sharing his story. To find out more about Rick check out his website here:
Or you can follow him on instagram here:
https://instagram.com/rick__cooper?igshid=1xv1c7oru11k7
Finally, The Post Rugby Podcast would like to invite you to our FREE FACEBOOK GROUP - The Post Rugby Community to connect with other rugby players (current and retired) and like minded people to continue your journey to a happier and healthier life post rugby.