Dyslexia helped me process choices faster

“I was considered one of the slow students, so obviously I learned over my career and my adult life…. There’s a diagnosis for that and it was dyslexia.”

Former England footballer Joleon Lescott spoke about his time at the school, at an event organized by the Made By Dyslexia (MBD) charity.

Lescott, 43, who played more than 200 games for Wolves, stressed that while he struggled, dyslexia was actually an advantage for him as an athlete.

He said he had difficulty reading and remembered “the scary passage we all had to read in English class, like my panic attack.”

Remembering the anxiety, he said:[The] Accumulating knowing that there are four other students in front of me – which part should I read and then… [trying] To learn the words in a paragraph without listening to what is being said before.

“I was saying to the students next to me: ‘Oh, what does that mean?’, just like trying to hide it somehow. [making]… It’s like I’m trying to think about the future.”

Lescott, who also played for Everton, Manchester City, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Sunderland, said dyslexia also helped him with “the way I deal with things”.

Lescott was speaking in support of a new Sports and Peak Performance course offered by the University of Dyslexic Thinking, hosted by the Open University and run by MBD.

It’s designed to “find out what makes dyslexia unstoppable on the sporting field and discover how to unleash your maximum performance,” says MBD founder Kate Griggs.

In football, for example, he said: “If that pass goes there, that’s an option for that and that might lead to that.”

“So, it will help me process things a lot faster, and like I said, I’m a very visual learner, which I’ve had to be in my career, so…. [it] “It definitely played a role in the success I had.”

Lescott said he would “figure out what the options and processes are and boil them down to realistic options.”

He added that dyslexia helped him “process options faster and come to a conclusion rather than overthinking things.”

“In any sport you look at, dyslexic thinkers push boundaries, break records and inspire us,” Ms Griggs said, adding that dyslexia “is a different way of processing information”.

“People with dyslexia are able to memorize games,” Ms Griggs said, highlighting areas including “visual spatial awareness… visualizing yourself and how you move and the impact it will have on the game” and using intuition.

She added: “All the things that Jolyon described and the sports people who use them to be successful and good at sports, are all very strong dyslexic thinking skills.”

Lescott added that his dyslexia didn’t leave him struggling with math in the same way.

“I was able to avoid a lot of harassment and probably bullying.” [of] He explained the fact that when we got to play, exercise or do more fitness classes, I was able to excel.