- Jul 22, 2013
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- AFL Club
- Carlton
I would be completely unsurprised if coaches and psychologists treating individuals outside the AFL system had wildly different opinions as to what a healthy amount of time fixated on something so all consuming would be; in fact, I'd be astounded if their expectations lined up at all.
And Bolts sounds like an old bloke lamenting how in his day kids went outside to the juice bar instead of the arcade.
Don't want to be confrontational, but I'm led to wonder what you do for a living.
There are plenty of professions where people are "fixated" on immensely demanding work for 70 or more hours a week. Work where the pressure to perform and the consequences of getting it wrong are severe enough to make footy look like a stroll in the park.
I spent the first 20 years of my working life in a job where I worked a minimum of 12 hours daily for 7-10 consecutive days (and more typically the 12 hours ended up being 16+). The consequences of a "clanger" were that people might get maimed or killed.
Professional athletes do work hard. But in the grand scheme of occupational stress they are way, way down the food chain.