Snape evolves Sporting Edge platform

Known for being an innovator on the field, Jeremy Snape has recently adapted his Sporting Edge platform to cope with the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The former Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire man, who also made 11 appearances at international level, founded the high-performance consultancy after retiring from the professional game in 2008 and subsequently retraining with a master’s degree in Sport Psychology from Loughborough University.

Since then, Sporting Edge has spent the best part of a decade interviewing leading thinkers from the world of elite sport, the military, the performing arts and business and converting their insights into practical digital learning content which is used by a range of global brands.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, Snape admits that he has had to be “flexible” and develop his company’s offering to suit the needs of a constantly changing world. Now working directly with consumers, Sporting Edge is readily available via a membership subscription.

“Sporting Edge has traditionally been led by my consulting work,” Snape says, “including speaking at leadership conferences.

“When Covid hit, we created a new service which made our digital library available directly to consumers as we noticed people working from home wanted to take control of their own learning and career. This new subscription model is a much more flexible approach and we’re already supporting hundreds of independent coaches and entrepreneurs as well as our traditional corporate clients.

“The principles we cover are generic across all industries, they focus around mindset, leadership and team culture and every member gets access to over 600 of the two-minute interviews in the library. It’s fascinating to compare the approaches of Gareth Southgate with a military leader or an executive from Google. Every short video has a practical action to help people to translate the lesson into their own context.

“We also offer weekly micro-lessons which I produce, webinars, podcasts, and articles as well as masterclass sessions with the likes of Shane Warne, neuroscientists and strategy experts.”

Reflecting on his journey from retirement from professional cricket, through to founding Sporting Edge and growing it into the business we see today, Snape stresses that adaptability has been all-important at every stage of the process.

The 47-year-old completed a number of work experience placements during his playing days, before holding multiple coaching positions and finally retraining at university to pursue his calling in performance consultancy.

“Even in my playing days I was not a specialist but was instead constantly trying to adapt to different things. I was an innovative and competitive cricketer rather than being massively talented, which I think is something that has stayed with me.

“I’ve certainly leveraged my network and made use of people I’ve got to know, but I always wanted to build a business to showcase the fascinating mindset and leadership strategies that I’ve learned to a much bigger audience.

“I’m incredibly proud of how we’ve scaled the business and the feedback we’ve had has been really fulfilling in knowing that I’ve built something that could have such a big impact with people.”

Snape’s message for current players planning their second careers is simple: keep your options open until you realise exactly what it is that you want to do.

“You’ve always got to be thinking about that next step and as cricketers you can’t do it too early. I started my master’s degree while I was still playing so I could make that transition more readily.

“Looking back, it looks like a perfect path but it’s just not like that. You start with the best intentions but you really have to be resilient and see lots of doors close to realise what it is you want to do. As a player, I tried to get some work experience with sponsors and all that really did was help me to work out what wasn’t the job for me!

“I always had a passion for people, coaching and psychology. When you combined all of those things, somewhere in that melting pot is where Sporting Edge has evolved into what you see today.

“During that journey, I’ve been knocked off course three or four times, but my grounding in cricket and sport has stood me in really good stead for setting up a career with my own business.”

Jeremy’s podcast ‘Inside the Mind of Champions’ is a regular in the Apple top 10 for Management and you can learn more about the Sporting Edge Members Club here.

Find out more about the PCA’s Personal Development and Welfare Programme (PDWP).