After trial spells at various academies as a youngster, Jack McMillan was offered a scholarship by Notts County. Following a successful spell as an apprentice, the midfielder penned a professional contract with the East Midlands Club. “I played local football in Leicestershire as a young kid and I would find myself on trial at different professional clubs, but nothing ever materialised until I was about 13 years old when I began to spend longer periods of time at academies,” McMillan told LFE. “When I was 15, I signed for Notts County and went on to become a scholar there before signing my first professional contract at 18.”
Reflecting on his time as a youngster at Meadow Lane, McMillan holds his apprenticeship period in high regard, positive that the skills he learned on the job as an apprentice footballer, with the help of the LFE Life Skills Programme, were crucial to his development both as an athlete and a person. “Being an apprentice was one of the best experiences of my life. I learned so many crucial skills with the main stand-out one being resilience. As an apprentice, you’re in an environment with other lads who at the beginning you might not know too well personally, so you need to be able to build relationships and connections quickly on and off the pitch to win, but ultimately develop as a person.
“Those skills are constantly being developed every day as a scholar and the life skills sessions emphasise what you are learning daily with more of a concentrated light. The external people that come in are there to add value to yourself as a human being, and of course as a footballer. 10 years on there are definitely sessions that still stick with me and had a positive impact.”
Delving into his apprenticeship further, the Leicester-born ex-apprentice detailed how the professional backdrop of a football club played a huge role in fast-tracking his maturing process. “Amongst my friends I’m known as ‘the grandad’ as maybe I’m a little too mature for my age and I think that has come from leaving school at 16 and almost becoming an adult right away to try and navigate my way through the very topsy turvy, unpredictable environment that is football. It helped shape and provide me with a high-performance mindset that unfortunately didn’t last in the football world but helped me in my next steps. The rigid and high-performance surroundings of a football club taught me a lot.”
At the end of his first professional contract, McMillan wasn’t offered a new deal by the Club and decided to shift his focus onto new opportunities away from the game, a prospect that didn’t faze him. “After I left Notts County I went on a few trials at other clubs and played a bit of non-league, but I then realised that I needed a break from the game, mentally more than anything. At that time, I probably didn’t have the resources to carry on sustainably, so a break was needed. I then went into some coaching before choosing to go to university. After university, I went to live in Rome to do my master’s degree in business and realised that I was still a winner, a high achiever, and that I could make it in the corporate world.
“I was fortunate. Thanks to my circle of friends and family, I never got too high, and I never got too low. Never celebrated my successes too much and never allowed myself to feel too low on the way down. I also have the likes of LFE to thank as well. I was always made aware of the importance of having interests away from the game and making sure I was set up for a potential life away from football and this is so important.”
Upon his return to the UK from university, McMillan headed down to the Big Smoke to begin a new life in the corporate world, however, he soon realised that the one hundred miles per hour London life wasn’t one he wanted to lead. “I was approached about a job on LinkedIn and moved down to London for two years to do it. It was very high pressure and involved really long days. It was tough, but I learned a lot and realised I could transfer the skills that I had picked up in the sporting world into the business world.
“It wasn’t a sustainable life for me to lead. It was so high paced, like a ‘rat race’ as some would call the London life. I remember waiting for the tube one day after work and I thought to myself I’m not going to get onto this next tube, I probably won’t even get onto the next two or three after that. It’s going to take me 3 hours to get home, and that’s not how I wanted my life to be. I’ve also always been someone who puts health and well-being as a priority and by living that kind of lifestyle I wasn’t doing myself any good.”
After leaving the hustle and bustle of London behind, McMillan decided to pursue a career in something fundamental to his life – mental and physical well-being. “Yoga, breathwork, and meditation are seen as a feminine practice in a way. In the east where it originated from it isn’t, but certainly in the west. When I first got into it at the beginning I didn’t shout about it, especially in the football environment. I would do it for prehab and rehab purposes and luckily during my career, I wasn’t injured much at all. However, when I stopped playing, the world came crashing down and the football bubble burst, the air outside was definitely different from the air inside it. Breathwork, yoga, and meditation allowed me to re-find my ‘why’ for life and my purpose because my identity was missing.
“Something that you learn in these practices is the power of ego and how that can cloud a person’s judgment and dictate how they view the world and where they feel they should be in life. I did a lot of self-reflection and as I evolved with the practice, I realised I wanted to teach this and more people should know about it, especially athletes.”
At the beginning of the year, McMillan launched his own company ‘Optima Yoga’ and within a few months of operating partnered with LFE to deliver breathwork sessions to current apprentices as part of our Life Skills Programme. “This practice (breathwork) is new and it’s something that raises eyebrows, but it’s something that is being adopted more and more within sport. When I go into clubs now and deliver a workshop, from minute one to the end of the session I see a real mindset shift from the apprentices and a change in how they view the practice. At the start, they almost look around as if to say ‘Well I know how to breathe this is a bit ridiculous’ but by the end when I bring them out of the meditation stage and they give me their immediate positive feedback, it makes it all worth it. I can have a big impact on my clients in such a short time frame due to what the practice can do. Athletes have so many resources when it comes to recovering physically, but not enough mentally. Breathwork and meditation can bridge that gap. With mental well-being comes performance, and without it, you won’t be able to perform at a high level on a long-term scale. The last 12 months have been a whirlwind, I’ve learned a lot, and I just hope to continue to grow and expand. Without LFE and being given the platform by them to deliver my workshops it wouldn’t have been possible. The feedback that I’ve received so far has been amazing, it’s a real blessing.”
Discussing the practice in more detail, McMillan explained how it can prove an effective mental relief from stress and anxiety in particular and enhance physical performance too. “We breathe 25,000 times a day on average, and we have 6,000 thoughts, with 80% of those thoughts being negative, that’s just how the brain survives. 20% are open to neutral and habitual thoughts. Breathwork can allow you to silence your mind and allow a mental break. Stress and anxiety are more prevalent than ever, both in general life and sports and breathwork can silence that. It’s good to have that mental release, to breathe, relax, and allow the parasympathetic state, which is our rest and digest to drop in, slow nasal breathing is the best way to achieve that. Exhaling slower and longer than your inhale can allow the body to relax and that attention piece that you place on your breathing will allow everything that’s on your shoulders to go away for a few minutes. The effect it can have is instant
“There’s a big emphasis now in sport on the mental side of the game and how it affects performance and recovery. The breathwork can allow you to enter your ‘flow state’ quickly. Also, from a physiological perspective, it can prepare you for performance by getting oxygen to the blood, improving it around the body, and activating different muscles. It’s now becoming a key part of some of my clients’ pre-game preparation. As the facilitator, seeing that effect is great.”
McMillan believes that football as a whole is opening its eyes to new practices, with the new generation of players helping to break down barriers. “Players are so much more open to learning nowadays and everything is so much more accepted, football is widening its horizons to how it thinks, and I believe the game is becoming more holistic as a result. When I played it was very much training, hitting the gym, playing, eating, and recovering. Now there has been an introduction of more psychology, player care, focus on well-being, and holistic practices. Players are also doing more off their own backs which is great.”
