nicole calder

1. No one cares about your future as much as you do. Be your own advocate. 2. Team trainings are not enough – deliberate practice is a must. 3. Find what works for you – gym, pilates, swimming, boxing, yoga, tennis, etc. 4. Keep your name known. Look up ‘The Matthew Effect’. 5. Loyalty comes at a cost (literally, it’s called ‘the loyalty tax’) 6. No journey is linear. Popcorn pops at different times despite the same heat. 7. Intent. Intent. Intent.

has anyone noticed this trend? acl injuries to newly promoted or newly recruited players. in 2011, i moved to the US on a collegiate scholarship to play the sport i love. within 6 weeks, i tore my acl. fast forward two months, and three other of my freshmen teammates had also torn theirs. four acls, out of a squad of 20. all of us freshmen. coincidence? as i’ve been following the women’s super league, one thing i’ve noticed is the occurrence of acls to players who have

everyone wants better coaches. but who’s actually developing them? maybe we first need to determine, what makes a good coach? my litmus test for assessing a coach is based on three criteria: 1. do players improve? (development) 2. do players feel motivated to do more? (inspiration) 3. do players want to play for the coach again? (retention) if a coach can tick these three boxes, i’d say they’re doing an excellent job as a coach. but where do coaches learn

in football. in sport. in general. this is a known fact, but do we know why? we’ve hypothesised many reasons – some of which include the cost of coaching licenses being too expensive, the lack of financial and job security, and the conflict between women having and raising children alongside a very demanding job. let me add another hypothesis – the systems aren’t designed for women to even consider coaching. i’m not talking about making coaching courses specific to co

This concludes our Europe trip. Seven weeks, six countries. There’s a lot we learnt which I’ve tried to capture in these blog posts. The main learning: less is more. I think we had a good balance of being busy, but not exhausted, and the latter end of our trip allowed us to relax so we actually felt refreshed coming home. Whereas the first three weeks had us moving around every few days, Greece only had two islands in 10 days, two of which were travel days. I would definite

Onto our last (and potentially our favourite) country, Greece! Our flight from Palermo to Athens was with Volotea which we again only paid for two checked bags at 20kgs. Our bags weighed 20.4 and 20.1kgs and they didn’t even bat an eyelid nor did they weigh our carry-on either. As an airline, they had a disclaimer when purchasing tickets that due to the situation in the Middle East, they might have to change the ticket prices to cover the cost of fuel, which they ended up nee

Time for the famous Amalfi Coast! Because we booked the train ticket last minute (literally), it cost us about $130pp to travel from Florence to Salerno (a four-hour train journey). I’m sure if you booked it in advance, you could save some money, but we weren’t sure how long the car return would take and/or what we’d be doing for food so opted for flexibility at an expense. When we arrived in Salerno, our Airbnb host recommended we pay for a private transfer to the accommodat

Another early morning flight, but that enabled us to explore Venice for the day and night. Given that we didn’t have any time to get food during transit, our first stop on arrival was to grab some food and in the land of Italy, we settled for a margherita pizza. There are a few different ways you can get to Venice from Marco Polo airport – private water taxi (€40), Alilaguna water bus (€18), or an express bus (about €10). We settled on the water bus as we wanted to experience

Welcome to our fourth country, Norway! Admittedly this part of our trip didn’t make geographical sense when we were planning it, but we were working around the women’s champions league final which was on the 23rd of May in Oslo. So we decided to visit my very good friend from college, Ida, in Trondheim before venturing down to Oslo. When I stepped off the plane in Trondheim, it almost felt like arriving home. I’ve visited Ida and Trondheim once before, in December 2023 when

We flew from Zurich to Dubrovnik with Swiss Air in the afternoon (3pm departure) and a 2.5 hour flight. Flying within Europe is like flying within Australia – you don’t need to be there 3 hours before your flight, probably only 1.5 hours and could get away with an hour depending on the airport size and time of the day for travel. First stop when we arrived in Dubrovnik was picking up our car from Enterprise. I was so hesitant with booking cars in Europe because I had read s

Country #2 – Switzerland. Our first experience? The Obb Nightjet. As I mentioned at the end of the last blog, there was absolutely no information online about anything relating to check in or the experience itself. All we knew was that we booked and paid for a shared sleeper cabin (about $220 for both of us which included a ‘breakfast’). We arrived about 30mins before our scheduled departure where the train was waiting for us at Amsterdam Centraal Station – we got on the trai

Welcome to my European travel blog! I’ve been taking notes along this trip of every country and city we’ve visited – accumulating everything from where to eat, where to grab a great cup of coffee and how public transport works (plus anything else that might be worth noting). Prior to our trip, we had all our accommodation booked and paid for as well as all our flights (just not our flight home because of the situation in Iran…seems that in 3 months nothing has actually change

2025 has probably been the hardest of my life. it’s been a year of grandiose loss and significant change. a year that still breaks me upon reflection. it started at the end of 2024. for reasons that go beyond what i wish to share online, i was conflicted about playing one more year at a club i had ingrained myself into for the past 6 seasons. a routine surgery to clean out my knee and trim my meniscus turned into a stern warning about the severity of my arthritis – a warnin

today is not a good day. yesterday wasn’t either. i think that’s what happens when you’re finally left to sit with your sadness – there’s no escape. no distractions. there’s nothing but you and your feelings. it’s been two months since my Oma passed away and instead of it getting easier, it’s getting harder. harder because the reality of never seeing her again is sinking in. harder because the reality of never talking to her again is sinking in. harder because i’m not only gr

do your feelings ever just hit you all at once? i suppose when you’re constantly surrounded by people, you suppress your feelings. not out of fear of being vulnerable or authentic, but because sometimes it’s not functional to be constantly so emotional. that’s how it’s felt this past month. we lost someone close to us earlier in the month and naturally with loss comes grief. but grief is a bit fucked up. it’s never linear in its process. and 99% of the time we just continue w

what type of driver are you? below average, average, or above average? if i collated the responses of everyone reading this, i would almost be willing to put money that most would define themselves as an above average driver. what’s the problem with that? well, it’s statistically impossible for everyone to be above average. about 15 years ago, i remember a sports psychologist asking the players in my SASI team this exact question. and, as anticipated, all of us stated we th

i've asked this question many times before, but it seems to be all i can think about at the moment - at what point do you try harder and at what point do you give in? when do you need to accept the reality that some things just aren't meant to be? when is resistance a sign and when is it an obstacle to overcome? i've been here many times in my career. i was here in 2014 when i tore my second acl. again in 2018 when i got cut from adelaide united. a year later when i did my ac

in my last post i wrote about people's need for a network, but what i was really referencing was people's need for a friend. humans are social creatures - we literally need other human beings to survive. but in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by individualism, finding a friend seems ever more challenging. i moved to the UK in november. i've been with this football team since january. yet i still don't feel any closer to anyone in this country. i still don't fe

building a network can be hard. but it's something that anyone who moves - interstate, overseas, or even just to a different house, experiences. moving to the UK has been the second time i've been without a network, the first being when i moved to the US in 2011. but, as i mentioned in an earlier post, my experience in the US was extremely different. although i was moving countries, i still had a safety net of sorts with regards to having roommates, teammates, and coaching st

something that hardly ever gets covered within sporting communities is how to navigate a life on the bench. it's one of the most brutal positions to be in as a player, but how you navigate it quite often determines the cohesiveness within a team. so how do you go about being a substitute? what's important for coaches and players alike to know about navigating a crucial but often neglected part of competitive sports? please note these experiences are written specifically about