Learning to say “I don’t know”
As a female and a generally competitive human trying to break into the male-dominated sports biomechanics field, I’m constantly trying to prove my knowledge, and to show I’m worthy of being in the room, or the lab, or the Zoom call. But more often than I’d like to admit, I don’t know all the answers. And that’s okay.
The past 6 months I’ve had the pleasure of working with a phenomenal, majority female group at the Northeastern Occupational Biomechanics and Ergonomics Laboratory (NOBEL) trying to determine the forces on the head and neck while wearing different head mounted displays. I’ve learned so many technical skills through this research, but the greatest takeaway I’ve had is it’s okay to say I don’t know. It’s okay to say I don’t get it. It’s okay to ask for help.
But it’s not always easy to admit that, or to have the self-confidence to say it aloud. So amongst the many hard skills I have already learned and hope to gain this summer, I hope to become confident enough in myself to proudly say I don’t know.
I am so lucky to be working as a sports science focused marketing intern at Perch through the Women in Sports Tech (WiST) fellowship. Perch is a startup in Cambridge that utilizes 3D motion cameras that can easily attach to any weight lifting rack to provide valuable metrics instantly after each rep. The product helps athletic trainers seamlessly integrate velocity based training and sports science into the weightroom.
If you asked me six weeks ago what velocity based training is, I would have looked at you like you were speaking gibberish. If you asked me how an expanding start up operates, I would have had nothing to add to the conversation. If you gave me a spreadsheet thousands of rows long and tens of columns wide and told me to sift through it and tell you the story, I would’ve stared at the seemingly never ending data with a blank face.
Six weeks later, I’m far from a master in any of these things, but I’ve learned so much. I’ve read 25+ research articles on different aspects of velocity based training and turned them into three blog posts for Perch’s website, with a fourth in the works. (shameless plug — check out https://perch.fit/blog/ where my blogs will be posted soon and for a ton of other awesome content!) I’ve listened intently during daily business development meetings, learning how the company continues to build its customer base and nurture relationships with existing clients. And finally, I’ve spent the last few weeks diving through Excel and Google Sheets tutorials, building out dynamic, functional dashboards that trainers can use to easily see how athletes are progressing and comparing to their teammates.
While Google and Youtube have been great tools, collaborating with my colleagues has really helped the dashboards come to life. Every time I come to a coworker with a question, I leave the conversation with specific guidance and ideas that no tutorial could ever provide. I only wish that I worked up the courage to say I need help sooner instead of cursing out Excel for one too many hours.
Transitioning from a virtual format to the office for the second half of my internship has only helped collaboration soar. It has shown me how willing my coworkers are to help. We are all equally passionate about providing the most comprehensive, easy-to-use product and supporting data analysis tools for clients so Perch can be as useful as possible. I am looking forward to finalizing a first iteration of the dashboard soon, and concurrently learning about other projects people are working on.
As I progress through my fellowship, I am gaining more confidence in my abilities, and with that, a greater capacity for admitting when I need some help. Working in an industry I love, on a product I believe in, surrounded by such supportive, encouraging, and passionate people both at Perch and within the WiST community is helping me gain the confidence to say “I don’t know,” “I don’t get it,” and “I need help.” It’s okay to not know all the answers, and that doesn’t make me any less worthy of being in the sports tech industry.
