Way of Champions Podcast

#480 Dan Abrahams, EPL Sport Psychologist, on Developing a Mental Playbook for Performing Under Pressure

May 6, 2026
Guest
Dan Abrahams
Dan Abrahams, sport and performance psychologist and former pro golfer, shares lessons from two decades with elite teams. He explains the idea of a competitive persona and the High Performance Mindset. He outlines attention, intensity, and intent as core mental skills. He also discusses building team culture, shared mental models, and embedding psychology across organizations.
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INSIGHT

Competing Is Acting While Nervous

  • Competing means taking action despite strong emotions; performance under pressure is about doing the job while nervous, not being fearless.
  • Dan used Rory McIlroy's Masters heart-rate data and his own golf C-game days to show action > feeling.
ADVICE

Build A Clear Action-Based Game Face

  • Create a game face defined by action words and model players to embody the competitive persona you need.
  • Dan would have walked onto the first tee as Dominant Aggressive Woods to force assertive behavior under pressure.
INSIGHT

Mindset Scale Drives Performance Scale

  • Mindset and performance are two linked scales; where you sit on the mindset scale (HPM/APM/LPM) strongly shapes your performance score.
  • Dan defines mindset with three first-principle skills: attention, intensity, and intent.
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