Dame Sarah Storey’s Strictly Come Dancing Mindset

Dame Sarah Storey’s Strictly Come Dancing Mindset

The mindset behind Dame Sarah Storey’s next challenge

What does it take to step away from the familiar and embrace something completely new?

Her total of 30 Paralympic medals, including 19 gold medals, makes her the most successful (by gold medals) and most decorated (by total medals) British Paralympian.

 

For Dame Sarah Storey, Britain’s most successful Paralympian and a valued member of the U Perform team, success has never been based on physical ability alone. Throughout her extraordinary sporting career, Sarah has combined consistent physical preparation with resilience, curiosity and a willingness to step outside her comfort zone.

That mindset has taken her from swimming to cycling, through major injuries and challenging rehabilitation, and now from the podium to the Strictly Come Dancing dance floor.

Learning to dance presents a very different physical and mental challenge. It requires strength, balance, coordination, stamina and the confidence to perform unfamiliar movements in front of millions of people. Yet Sarah’s approach remains the same: say yes, focus on what you can control and keep moving forwards.

Here, Sarah shares the mindset principles that have shaped her career and helped her approach every new challenge.
"It is no secret that success doesn’t just rely on physical training but also on having the right mindset. When people ask me about what were the key ingredients to my international sporting career lasting 35 years, one of the components I point to is the balance of mindset and physical training, I always tried to achieve.

Sport is notorious for presenting challenges, but that for me is also a metaphor for any of life’s ups and downs. As well as having the physical characteristics for success, it is important to frame the situations you find yourself in carefully.

I have always been a glass half full person, the sort of person who is curious to find out about whether or not I can do something. That’s not to say I have no nerves, anxiety or trepidation about the challenge I am facing, but I always think it is better to find out, than spend your life wondering whether you should have said “yes i will have a go and see how it works out”.

Switching sports in my mid 20’s is one of the most obvious times that I have said yes to something that was completely out of my comfort zone, but like anyone, I can think of many other situations that are not sports related, where I have said yes to see whether or not it was possible.

Yes to trying to pick up a second language at school and then yes to trying to learn a 3rd as an adult. Yes to the roles I have worked in that were perhaps not immediately obvious to me but have resulted in me being able to make an impact on things I could never have imagined doing.

More recently the things I have been saying yes to but put me out of my comfort zone have involved sporting events/races, job roles and reality TV - and of course they don’t always work out. Whilst training for Dancing on Ice in 2024, I broke my left  ankle in training and ended up finding out about how difficult it is to learn to walk and run again after a double fracture and dislocation, two surgeries and a further stress fracture!

Having a positive and solutions focused mindset proved to be invaluable to the success of my rehab, and enabled me to break down the daunting task of trying to return a joint to almost normal function. Seeing solutions and opportunities was how I chose to focus my energies, although it wasn’t always easy. Returning from injury perhaps tests that mindset more than any other situation, due to the fact that recovery is never linear - regardless of how disciplined you are with the exercises and progressive approach to rehab - so i had to ensure I was resilient to those setbacks and not allow them to erode my positive approach and can do attitude.

Whenever something got hard, felt like it was not progressing, or became counter intuitive, I would pivot and work on something that regained the control for me. Whether that was a nutritional approach, working on core strength as an alternative or simply giving myself a rest - I learned that sometimes, the hardest choice is to say is, “yes I can have a break and yes that will be the best thing for me right now.”

Whatever the challenges you are facing I would always advise;
  1. Look for the solution that gives you most control and consistency - it could be nutrition or supplementation based, or even having a specific routine around the way you warm up for the hardest of sessions. Whatever it is, make sure you are able to replicate it so that you are able to take confidence and build that mindset of solution first, through action.
  2. Remember progress is not linear. Whether that is returning from injury, chasing a goal or finding a new technique that will make you more efficient. 
  3. Remember that mindset requires work, just like physical training. You don’t have to be a person who meditates to mentally rehearse things - I would always do my mental prep during training, so I could imagine myself in the race, or arena and it gave that session even more relevance.
  4. Don’t forget to find fun and enjoyment in the process, even when returning from injury, i would remind myself that I could enjoy the limited movement I was allowed at any one part of the process. At the start that was the knee bike and one foot on the ground, but by relaxing and finding the fun, it didn’t feel like that phase lasted too long.
  5. Remember to take a step back to see how far you have come. Which is especially important if something is hard. Maybe you made a decision that you wouldn’t have been brave enough to do previously and so although it is hard you are further along. Maybe you are less anxious about getting to the start line of an event these days and the fact you are focusing on the race worries demonstrates progress in a different way. By acknowledging how far you have come it can be easier to see the next step for the next improvement.

Good luck with whatever you choose to challenge yourself with next!"

Supporting the body behind the mindset

Sarah’s story is a powerful reminder that progress comes from bringing physical preparation and mental resilience together. Whether you are learning to dance, returning from injury, or simply trying something new, your body needs the right support to meet the demands you place on it.

Dancing can be physically demanding. Repeated turns, jumps and changes of direction place pressure on the muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments, particularly around the feet, ankles and knees. Alongside the right training, rest and a balanced diet, good nutrition can help support the body through this increased activity.

Collagen is a key structural protein found throughout the body, including in cartilage, tendons, ligaments and bones. As part of a consistent nutrition and training routine, collagen supplementation can help provide specific amino acids found in these connective tissues. 

However, just as Sarah explains that mindset must be trained, physical support also relies on consistency. There is no single shortcut. Progress comes from regularly doing the smaller things that help you prepare, perform and recover. Supplements take time to take effect in your body and collagen will go where it is needed in the body most. 

Another great read for anyone with an injury is https://www.u-perform.co.uk/blogs/news/what-role-does-collagen-play-in-healing-sports-injuries.

Sarah uses U Perform 'Recovery Stack' 

 


As a member of the U Perform team, Dame Sarah Storey represents everything the brand stands for: preparation, resilience, evidence-led performance and the courage to take on the next challenge. Dame Sarah was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1998 New Year Honours "for services to Swimming for People with Disabilities"

Now, as she swaps two wheels for dancing shoes, the entire U Perform team will be cheering her on.

Go Sarah!