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Laney feature

Laney representing the University of Exeter Women's Hockey 1st team

Sports Scholars search-where are they now? Kathryn Lane

Former University of Exeter Sports Scholar and Women’s Hockey 1st team captain Kathryn Lane (Laney) is now contracted full time with England Hockey as part of the senior women’s squad. As the reigning Olympic champions and with the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup on the horizon it’s definitely an exciting time for England Hockey. We caught up with Laney to find out what she’s been up to since graduation…

Following graduation what’s your journey been?

Laney: “I got my 1st job straight after University working for a recruitment company on a graduate scheme. Captaining the U21 England Hockey team at the Junior World Cup in Chile where we finished 7th just before Christmas was a fantastic experience. The senior England trials then came out and I decided to give myself the opportunity to fully prepare for that whilst doing some hockey coaching in schools. Following trials I was then selected as part of the full time England Hockey programme”.

What is your daily/weekly schedule as a full time athlete?

Laney: “On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we have 2 sessions a day which are a mixture of pitch and S&C sessions with the Wednesday as our rest day. In and around that we’ll also have team meetings and performance analysis sessions scheduled. During the hockey season Saturdays are club leagues. This year I’m playing for Leicester in the Investec Premier Division. In the off season we have extra conditioning sessions instead”

What are your sporting and non-sporting goals for the next year?

Laney: “Sporting goal is definitely to aim to be selected for the England Women’s World Cup squad in 2018. Outside of sport I’m currently looking into the possibility of studying an online masters course and am doing Spanish classes to keep up with my degree. I also volunteer once a week with the RSPCA as a cat cuddler which is definitely a change from full time hockey!”

What do you miss most from University?

Laney: “Obviously my BUCS Wednesday, which was always the best day of the week!”

What was the most valuable thing you learnt during your experience at Exeter?

Laney: “Juggling captaining University and England U21 hockey as well as my academics whilst at Exeter was definitely a challenge at times but I developed my time management skills pretty quickly and also learnt how to be time efficient with work to make sure I had room for everything else”.

If you could give one piece of advice to an incoming 1st year High Performance athlete at University of Exeter what would it be?

Laney: “Make the most of all the opportunities you get at Exeter as part of the High Performance Programme such as workshops, physio, S&C and other support services. I also think it’s important to get involved as much as you can with all parts of University life while you have the chance”

Date: 3 August 2017

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