"Mindset is key."

Interview with Ole Springer, professional footballer for Rot-Weiss Essen

Ole is a smart, likeable guy, full of passion for football. He lives for this sport, which "gives him a lot but also demands a lot at times". Daily training, always being fit - mentally and physically - and a life determined by the match calendar. The goalkeeper gladly accepts all of this to live his dream as a professional athlete. We met him to talk about his lifestyle, the right mindset, and the decisive moments on and off the pitch.

I have definitely turned my hobby into my profession and am living my dream

Dom: Please tell us briefly: Who are you and what do you do?

Ole: I'm Ole, 32 years young and a professional footballer - more precisely, a goalkeeper, currently with Rot-Weiss Essen. But I also have a master's degree in business administration. I'm really happy to be able to go out on the football pitch every day and to have turned my hobby into my profession.

Dom: How did you get into (professional) football?

Ole: Well, I got into sports like most kids. My father is absolutely football-mad and influenced me early on. I then played football with friends at a low sporting level. I simply enjoyed exercise and football. Later, I actually didn't start in goal, but played in defense, until I eventually had a coach who thought he recognized a certain talent in goal. I don't think he was wrong, and then one thing led to another, and I kept climbing the ranks until I was suddenly doing competitive sports.

Dom: You also have a special career path with your business administration studies. Can you remember that decisive moment between a "normal" career or a professional athlete? Did it exist?

Ole: I think I was actually very lucky that I never reached that decision point. I don't know what I would have chosen then. My studies and football never ruled each other out. They went well together. When I finished my studies, I reached the point where many probably have to make that decision. And then I was really lucky that Werder Bremen came along again and said: "Hey, we find you totally exciting as a person, as an overall constellation, but also as an athlete." And so I was lucky enough to be able to say: This is like winning the lottery. I can bring in both competencies.

At some point, I think, you have to say: If professional sports don't lead to the top, you have to do something else now. But I haven't been at that point yet and I don't feel like I am at the moment. That's why I hope I can continue to do this as long as my body can keep up. And currently, I would say, that's still quite a long time (winks).

Dom: What does your daily routine as an athlete look like?

Ole: I get up at 8 in the morning, get ready, and go to work. When I arrive at the stadium, I usually drink a coffee and then have one to two hours before training. I warm up, go to the weight room, do some mobility exercises so that my body gets up to operating temperature and injuries are prevented. Then I go out onto the pitch. I'm usually active on the pitch for an hour and a half, with the goalkeeping coach, but then also with the team. And then at some point around one or half past one, I'm done with the sporting part. On some days, I add a strength unit, so I'm usually home by 2 or 3 PM.

Dom: Would you say you're living your dream?

Ole: I have definitely turned my hobby into my profession and am living my dream. I mean, I think when you see professional footballers on TV as a child and you want to experience that too, then you do a lot for it. Then you're willing to train a lot, to work hard. Nevertheless, a lot of luck is also involved - being in the right place at the right time. For the most part, I had that, but I don't think always. Which is why, if you're honest, you might only be in the third league at the moment. But the bottleneck to the top is so narrow. Being in the right place and at the right time, having luck or bad luck, all of that often makes the difference between one or two leagues. And yes, all in all, I really have to say that I am very satisfied with what was in my hands, what I could do, and how I could work on myself.

Dom: How important is absolute focus for you?

Ole: I think as a goalkeeper, you're no different from other athletes. You always try to get into that flow. You always try to reach that peak of performance. That doesn't happen at the push of a button. Especially in preparation, you have to be spot on. As a footballer, you have to work towards that for a whole week, athletically, mentally, and health-wise. Plenty of sleep, good nutrition. These are actually factors that play a role in being there at the decisive moment. And even that doesn't guarantee anything. But usually, for me, if I take all these things into account and prepare professionally for the moment, I am there. I then feel accordingly and it simply gives me a deep inner feeling that I am up to the task ahead of me.

Dom: How do you get into this focus and flow before a game?

Ole: That again goes hand in hand with preparation. If I'm really prepared to the minute, I feel good, I feel great. Then I look forward to the game. If I'm not well prepared, which actually only happens when some external factors force me to, for example, if I had to train a bit less or maybe had an English week, little recovery time, then I'm certainly a bit more tense. You notice you might not be at 100 percent. But generally, I enjoy being able to play football immensely, and that's why I can say I usually look forward to the games.

As a professional athlete, you naturally know pressure. Performance pressure, external expectations. But honestly, also the internal pressure, from yourself.

Dom: How do you personally deal with pressure and how do you experience it?

Ole: As a professional athlete, you naturally know pressure. Performance pressure, external expectations. But honestly, also the internal pressure, from yourself. And that was and always is the bigger one in my career. The expectations I have of myself are generally greater and more burdensome than what comes at you from outside. But you learn to deal with it. I think that's also an experience you build up over the years. I've been in competitive football for a total of 22 years now, and there was always some form of pressure. Sometimes you want to get promoted, sometimes you can't get relegated. And you get used to it, you learn to deal with it. And I've developed routines and procedures for myself to simply tell myself that if I'm maximally prepared and then things go wrong, then that's just how it is.

Dom: How important are routines for you?

Ole: Routines naturally help you get into the aforementioned flow. If you have fixed procedures leading up to kick-off, your body eventually realizes: Okay, I know this situation, I know what's expected of me. For example, I always have the exact same warm-up routine. From the moment I step onto the grass until I go back into the changing room and take off my jersey, it's always the exact same sequence. Simply because I notice: My body then also enters competition mode, and my mind knows what's important now. And if you're a bit more nervous or feel a bit more pressure, this routine helps you to ground yourself and calm down again.

Dom: What role does the right mindset play in all of this?

Ole: In my opinion, mindset is everything in competitive sports in general. Especially above a certain level. So we are really talking about top-level sports here, where you can truly say: Everyone who reaches that level can do something. Everyone there has a certain talent, has the physical prerequisites for it, and that's where the small details make the difference. And in my opinion, these are very strongly defined by the mindset. How much do I want it and what sacrifices am I willing to make for it? In my career, I've had the privilege of meeting many, many incredibly talented footballers who didn't bring this mindset with them, and who usually didn't make it. So off the top of my head, I can only think of one or two exceptions where I say, they were just so incredibly good that they still made their way. And conversely, there are also athletes where you say, they're not exceptionally talented, but they know what matters. They are there on point, live like full professionals, and that's why they make their way.

Dom: And where do you see yourself more?

Ole: Personally, I would also classify myself in the second category. I don't think I was blessed with an excessive amount of talent. But at the age of ten, it was already clear to me that I wanted to go to the St. Pauli youth academy, that I wanted to travel 100 kilometers every day and work towards a goal. And that's why I've consistently developed over the years to where I am today, also in terms of performance. As I said, I wouldn't actually attest myself an excessive talent at this point.

I believe resilience is the basic prerequisite for success in life.

Dom: Let's talk about resilience. Very important in sports too, isn't it?

Ole: I believe resilience is the basic prerequisite for success in life. I wouldn't limit that to sports. It's utopian to think that life always goes uphill and everything always goes according to plan. The same applies to sports. You lose important games, you have a bad phase, you don't play. If you give up immediately, logic already tells you that you can't be successful anymore, because you've stopped. And then to resist adversity, to be resilient, to constantly bring yourself back to the point with the right mindset and to say, I still want to develop, I still want to progress, that's the be-all and end-all for success in competitive sports, but also in life. I'm convinced of that. And I think I've been living that for 22 years.

Dom: How do you feel about defeats? For you, is it a learning process?

Ole: I'm an incredibly bad loser. Anyone who has ever played "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" or anything with me can confirm that. I hate to lose, but I've also been able to draw an awful lot of strength from defeats because I question almost every defeat, or rather, whenever something goes wrong. Sometimes it actually just leads to you saying it was bad luck. But often it also leads to development and learning processes that you can then drive yourself. And then drawing strength for the future from defeats has become a bit of a life motto for me.

Dom: In one of our earlier conversations, you also said that the goalkeeper position in particular is something special in football. Can you explain that?

Ole: As a goalkeeper, you are usually not physically challenged for 90 minutes, but mentally. So, having actual actions in the game depends on the opponent, but it might add up to one or two minutes in the game where you actually have to intervene physically. The other 88 minutes, at first glance, you are uninvolved. And all the more important it is to stay focused during this time, to stay in the game. Because you can't just say: Now the ball is up front, now I'm already thinking about dinner. Instead, you really have to push your mind almost the entire time to its limit. And that's why, for example, I'm someone who is more than exhausted after 90 minutes. That might sound funny at first, but sometimes I sit on the team bus and am plagued by cramps because my mind has simply used up a lot of energy. The brain is the body's biggest energy consumer, after all. And maintaining that tension throughout the game is honestly more strenuous for me than any 10, 15-kilometer run I do as a hobby.

Dom: For Rot-Weiss Essen, you are currently the 2nd goalkeeper. Does that make a difference to you and how do you deal with it?

Ole: Well, if you imagine it for a moment: as an athlete, you want to go out on the weekend, you want to prove yourself, you want to show what you can do, but you're not allowed to, and honestly, you don't have a chance to change that on your own. First, there's a number one, and they play. Unless they have a dip in performance, an injury, or a suspension. And that's why you have to accept this position and this situation, be at peace with yourself, and really be at 100 percent for eleven months a year despite everything. Because when that one moment comes, you have to be there. And you can't just say, I'll only do 70 percent now, and when I'm needed, I'll be there. No, you really always have to be ready to perform, you always have to be at 100 percent, because you never know when the day will come when you're needed.

Dom: Okay Ole, last question and it's completely self-serving. You know portance and what we do. Hand on heart: As a professional athlete, what do you think about sportswear that eliminates sweat odors?

Ole: (Laughs). I think nobody likes sweat odor, especially old sweat odor. That's why it's cool if you have clothes that don't start to smell despite exertion and sweat, despite hot temperatures. That's why it's certainly important, especially in private life, I would say. On the sports field, to be honest, it's not so important to me whether my opponent might briefly think: "His clothes are pretty soaked in sweat." But if you exercise privately, for example, go for a longer run, let's be honest, you sometimes don't wash your sports clothes directly, but only air them out. And if you're out and about again the next day, then it's great if you have products that don't smell of sweat. I also believe that there's a huge difference whether you have cheap products that absorb the sweat and then stick around, or whether you have high-quality products that repel or eliminate sweat, so that you can feel fresh every day.

Dom: Great, thank you for the open conversation, Ole.

Ole: Thanks to you all, and to you, Dome!

Photos by @mihalea.nompleggio
Campaign Video by @freiluftfilm
Follow Ole on Social Media: @ole_springer31