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8. What is a week in the life of Tess Howard like?

Full time with GB at Bisham Abbey Monday and Tuesday – training 9am-5pm with gym, hockey, meetings, lunch as a squad – and I try do some uni work in the evenings after making dinner. Wednesdays I head into LSE (London School of Economics) for seminars and lectures, then on to East Grinstead for club training in the evening. Back at home I have a hot chocolate before bed! Thursday mornings I study and have a walk in nature or see a friend, then we are in Bisham again for meetings in the afternoon. Friday is GB training at Bisham with gym and hockey finishing 2pm. I relax and study the rest of the day ready for my club match on Saturday with East Grinstead. After the game, I chill with my teammates in the clubhouse or watch the men’s game. Then Sunday is a total day off – I might go visit a friend, have a lazy day at home, go walking, see my grandparents or smash some studying if I have an essay due, usually do some food prep for the week and watch a film in the evening.

9.  How did you motivate yourself during your ACL injury & rehab? Did you find sharing and documenting your journey helped?

I knew I would be back playing hockey if I did every single bit of rehab as best as I could. My main motivation was to get back for the World Cup and Commonwealth Games and see how strong I could make my body. I spent 12 months in the gym – it’s hard to keep happy the whole time and after 6 months I fell into a depression, lost myself and felt the mountain was too big to climb. It was a very hard few months. But New Years Eve changed my mindset. The clock ticking over and suddenly I wasn’t in ‘2021: the setback year’, I was in ‘2022: the comeback year’. And I found this new level of focus and purpose. It was this fire that kept me going through to May when I played my first international match. Sharing and documenting my journey every Tuesday on Instagram really helped me to keep track of my progress and give me little wins. One thing I really missed was my teammates and so this way I felt a bit connected to others. Towards the end of my rehab, I started a Support Group called ACL Legends, with hockey players who were also going through rehab. This has been one of the most rewarding things, to be able to mentor and help others. ACL rehab is no joke, and I couldn’t have done it without my GB physio Jen and training coach Roy. They were my little team for 12 months.

10. What inspired you to speak up about Hockey kit rules and how did you find yourself involved in the process with England Hockey?

Long story! My undergrad dissertation was on the impact of gendered school sport uniforms on girls participation and performance in sport. I found 70% of women have seen girls drop-out of sport because of sports kit and body image concerns. It has since been published and made into news articles. Sitting on this data – alongside all of the other reasons skorts create gender-binaries in schools and sport, the fact it produces athletic-feminine identity paradoxes, and fundamentally that they are impractical (show me a girl who chooses to run a fitness test in a skort?) – I felt I had to share it. I am uncomfortable in my GB skort, it feels like a pencil skirt, and every member of our team trains in shorts. I just didn’t know why we had never been given the option of shorts – it’s because the skort is a remnant of Victorian feminine ideals of women and emphasising female femininity to be acceptable in the realm of masculine sport. We have moved from long dresses to long skirts to skorts. But it is still a gender and sex identifier. I thought if I have this data and I feel this way, I can’t be the only one. I went to England Hockey and asked if we could change our kit policies. The domestic league guidelines changed to include the fact individuals can choose if they wear a skort or shorts. Genuine choice. The momentum is building internationally, and the GB women’s team have been the first to have a mix of shorts/skorts and thereby ‘be the difference, create history, and inspire the future’ (our vision). It makes me incredibly proud. The ‘why’ is for all those who have ever stopped playing the sport they love because of kit or body image concerns.

11. How do you unwind after a match?

I like to relax with friends and family after the game, soak in the atmosphere if we’ve won or debrief and chill if not. Then have a great dinner and I like to take my mind off the game in the evening, but to avoid replaying it in my head I need keep my brain occupied so I’ll watch something inspiring. I LOVE anything with female protagonists and love political / comedy shows and films. If I need to get back to myself, I’ll watch Mrs America or Pitch Perfect or Sister Act!