Maddie Hinch MBE on Running on Emotion podcast

The latest episode of Running on Emotion, the podcast that explores key and defining emotions in the careers of sporting heroes, features Maddie Hinch MBE.

Host Alastair Eykyn looks at anticipation as Maddie discusses how her style of play made her stand out from the beginning, how goalies mature like a fine wine, how she uses music to hype her up, how she felt during the penalty shoot-out in Rio and why she had to step away from the sport to reset.

Maddie explains how she was different and was told that if she kept playing that way it wouldn’t work. She felt she needed to be in the right group with coaches who believed in her, and that’s what eventually happened, making her glad of her stubbornness.

In the beginning Maddie couldn’t understand what was enjoyable about picking the ball out the net and rolling it back to excited forwards. She says that you do go on to learn the heroism side of the position.

Regarding goalkeepers maturing like fine wines, Maddie says: “I remember someone saying to me you won’t be any good until you’re like 27/28 and actually, the Olympics for me was when I was 27/28, having had a few more years under my belt as number one and had been through the highs and lows of getting it wrong and learning.”

Talking about music hyping her up before a game, Maddie goes into how a song she first heard about 10 years ago makes her feel and how it gets her in the right place.

In August 2016 there are 9 million people watching in the UK, as Great Britain draw 3 – 3 with the Netherlands in the Olympic hockey final, the gold medal match and it was all down to a penalty shootout. Maddie talks about that night and how it played out.

There was a time when she was in a bad place mentally and she talks openly about it. How she took herself away from friends and family by flying to Australia by herself but came to realise she missed the buzz and looked forward to training again. Maddie says: “It was a real rollercoaster of emotions and I never really knew what I wanted to do until I finally started to miss it.”

Running on Emotion is available every Monday wherever you get your podcasts.