Demystifying Mental Toughness

Robbie Thompson is a personal trainer and lifestyle coach with over 12 years of coaching experience. He has worked with a huge range of clients from mums, dads, business owners, teachers, dentists, to professional athletes, actors and celebrities. In that time his role has changed from a Personal Trainer who helps people get in shape, to a coach who works with busy, high performing people to upgrade how they look, feel and perform in all areas of their lives. Working with such a huge range of people and seeing the very different requirements, restrictions and obstacles that they face and has given him a valuable insight into how health and wellbeing needs to work in the real world. This has allowed him to develop strategies that stand up to the requirements of the lives of busy, high performing people. In this episode we discuss his journey into personal training and lifestyle coaching, how people can dig themselves into a hole by comparing themselves to other people, the health benefits of building good day to day habits as well as sharing a number of take home messages for people who are looking to improve their self confidence and self-esteem. Key Takeaways • Look to concentrate on what your body can do not just how it looks. • People look a certain way in the media, however it is not reality so don't put yourself under undue pressure. • Focus on the process, creating good habits whilst enjoying the journey. • By building strength, there are so many benefits including how you feel, increased confidence levels and improved posture. Connect with Robbie: https://robbie-thompson.com/ https://www.instagram.com/robbie__thompson/ About the Host – David Charlton David helps ambitious athletes, teams and executives achieve their goals faster by improving their Mental Toughness. He is a HCPC Sport and Exercise Psychologist and Executive Coach who supports many professional athletes, some of whom play at the highest level in their chosen sports, as well as senior executives in the business world. To join The Confident Athlete 3 Day Challenge designed to help you perform better under pressure on a consistent basis, with trust and confidence sign up NOW using the link below. https://www.sport-excellence.co.uk/challenge/

Today I'm joined by Steve Hackney, a former celebrated rugby union professional who played in England's top division of domestic rugby union for Nottingham and Leicester Tigers. Since retiring from professional sport, for over 20 years, he has applied his elite sporting attributes to growing businesses, and the combination has been and is a potent and unique weapon in the world of marketing. Where he has transformed the way many small and medium sized businesses operate. His mission is to transform the way small and medium sized businesses grow to ensure their sustained success and his no-nonsense approach is both refreshing and to the point. Tens of thousands of business owners are right now benefitting from his easy-to-apply tactics and strategies. He is a best-selling author, international speaker and mentor to hundreds of his 'Business Growth Mentors' around the world. He is the author of two celebrated books: 'THE FORMULA – The Proven And Unbreakable System To Quickly Grow Your Business', and his new book entitled, 'Business Mentoring Success'. In this episode we discuss challenges that he faced in his rugby union career, as well as difficulties coaches, trainers, psychologists and consultants in private practice often experience. We go on to discuss how to deal with such obstacles and come out stronger. Giving yourself the best chance of reaching your full potential Key Takeaways • To get to the top you must dedicate yourself to your craft. • Give your industry the respect it deserves to become an expert in your field. • How to adapt to play with top international players and learn from best. • Anything is possible if you think it is possible Connect with Steve: https://thecoreasset.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevehackney/ Useful Resources: The Ultimate Business Growth Formula The Formula How To Quickly Grow Your Accountancy Practice About the Host – David Charlton David helps ambitious athletes, teams and executives achieve their goals faster by improving their Mental Toughness. He is a HCPC Sport and Exercise Psychologist and Executive Coach who supports many professional athletes, some of whom play at the highest level in their chosen sports, as well as senior executives in the business world. To receive regular proven high performance tips and strategies to your inbox please sign up to the Mental Edge. https://www.sport-excellence.co.uk/the-mental-edge/

Mental Toughness Compilation 002 Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. The 20th episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness highlights the best bits of episodes 11-19 and has some great stories in. As well as, lots of excellent pieces of advice from some highly regarded people in their respective fields where we touch on all of the 4C's - Commitment, Confidence, Control and Challenge. If you are an athlete struggling right now or you're looking for an edge to boost your performances I'm sure you'll gain lot's of hope from tuning in. What you'll hear in this episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness • Creating a culture of well-being can help individuals and organisations achieve high performance. • Strategies are available for athletes to overcome and beat the yips. • When in a round of golf, it's difficult to change your golf swing but you can change your attitude. • Faulty or high expectations cause athletes to tell themselves unhelpful stories. • Look after the basics, your sleep, nutrition and take care of your body management first before other recovery techniques. • Golf test's every ounce of your personality. • Flow states are effortless, you are hyper aware. • Motivating individuals in team sports is essential to get the most from the team. • Running helps me forget my troubles. • Compassionate and human management is uncomfortable but so important. • You develop resilience when you have difficult things occur in your life. • If you focus on your body or your breath, you are being present. • Imagery can be done in a systematic way to help you learn from mistakes. • Endurance based athletes can struggle to take time off and rest. • 80% of our thoughts are believed to be negative, try journalling daily to change your thinking. • You can quickly change from struggling to experiencing flow states more regularly if you seek support. • Cristiano Ronaldo has done everything he can to ensure that he is the best version of him. • When running seek to embrace it, endure it and enjoy it.

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. Paul Smith is an inspirational charity runner from Sherburn Hill, Durham, who at the time of recording the Demystifying Mental Toughness podcast episode had run for an amazing 5007 consecutive days. In his quest to run every day he has raised £1000's for many charities such as the Sir Bobby Moore Foundation, Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, Alzeimers Association, St Cuthbert's Hospice, Finlay Cooper Fund… He'll often be seen wearing outlandish costumes on his runs and wearing a big smile on his face, however just like many people, Paul has also experienced difficult times and is very good at masking his emotions. In this very inspiring, funny and thoughtful interview, Paul opens up and share's his journey to date, his hopes for the future, challenges that he has faced and conquered. For anyone who enjoys running, runs for mental health reasons or may be would like to get into running but has been putting it off this episode is well worth a listen. What you'll hear in this episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness • He has ran every day for nearly 14 years and blames Ron Hill for his run streak! • He has his own rules, every run has to be outdoors and must be more than 5k. • Ice, painkillers, biofreeze, running either side of midnight have helped Paul manage pain and his recovery. • A bowel procedure, teeth extractions, passing blood, going on a stag week and work issues have caused particular challenges in his quest. • Keeping it fun and fresh helps Paul. • Running is vital for my mental health especially right now with Coronavirus, it's the best anti-depressant on the market. • Sometimes the funny costumes can be a façade. It's like a painted smile. • It's all about the numbers for Paul and that helps him think about different ideas such as running for 50.00 minutes – my 5000th run in a row. • On his 3000th run he ran 30.00 miles around the centre circle of a football pitch, changing direction every 30 times, dressed at Bobby Moore for charity. • On March 21st, St Cuthbert's Day, Paul once dressed like St Cuthbert, a monk, got the haircut and ran from York Minster to Durham Cathedral for St Cuthbert's Hospice. • Doing crazy things keeps him going. • One of Paul's aims is to run 100 marathons by the time I'm 100 years old. • The hardest steps are the first steps. • For anyone looking to get into running, look to embrace the challenge, endure it and enjoy it.

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. Kieron Brady is a former professional footballer who played for Sunderland AFC, debuting for the first team at 17 years old and, scoring in the English top flight as an 18 year old. He also played for the Republic of Ireland, where he once claimed a Man of the Match award when Zinedine Zidane was in the opposing side in a France v Ireland match. Sadly, he was forced to retire from professional football at 21 years old because of occluded arteries in his right leg which caused him extreme pain. In his short career, he averaged a goal or assist every 100 minutes. In this episode, Kieron and David discuss the pressures of professional football. How Kieron's early retirement came about and the aftermath of the situation where Kieron admits to losing his way. He discusses alcoholism and shares his inspiring story how he has turned his life around now and has been sober since 2009. Kieron also discusses how he has spent much of the last decade or so specialising in helping people to recover from alcoholism, initially voluntarily and now professionally for SP Bespoke which he is very proud and passionate about. Tune in to listen to many nuggets of advice for young professional footballers on how to sustain a good and lasting career in the game. Essential Learning Points From This Episode • I look back on the 5 years as a young professional footballer in 2 ways, I'm appreciative of the opportunity and look back fondly, as well as feeling quite glad that my career ended. As early parts of my football career weren't particularly enjoyable. • I have regrets about my conduct and feel like the football environment contributed to the way I behaved on occasions. • Attitudes in professional football were similar to what you get in military circles. • Professional footballers are human beings first before a footballer and that often is forgotten. • Players should be motivated on an individual basis. • I was forced to retire because the arteries in my right leg were occluded causing extreme pain and discomfort. Retirement at 21 was difficult to deal with and I didn't cope very well with it. • I work professionally for SP Bespoke, who are a group of alcoholics who have been sober for over a decade each. We utilise our experiences to help alcoholics and problem drinkers and their families. • Successful people in their personal and professional life can feel immune to experiencing alcohol problems but "nobody is to dumb to recover from alcoholism but many people are too smart." • One night I might be helping someone who doesn't know where they are going to sleep that night and the next night it may be someone who is an expert in mental health. • Each footballer should take care of their own personal and professional development. • Cristiano Ronaldo is a great example of taking care of himself physically and mentally to be the best version of himself. He's a phenomenon. • You should be aware of your rights as an employee when you're a footballer, you have rights in your working environment in the way that you are treated. • Clubs have a duty of care with their players whether they are 16 years old or more experienced.

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. Dr Gio Valiante is one of the most prominent sport psychologists in the world. He has worked with many of golf's top players, including Matt Kuchar, Justin Rose and Davis Love III. His clients have won a host of PGA Tour and majors. Gio applies the best ideas in psychology to coach not only some of the worlds' best athletes but investors, sales forces, and executives too. Anywhere there is a scoreboard that rewards competitive excellence at an individual and team level he thrives, helping people live fearlessly, strategize deliberately, and apply effort consistently to push themselves to ever higher peaks. Gio is also the author of 'Fearless Golf' and 'Golf Flow.' In episode 17 of Demystifying Mental Toughness, David questions Gio on his approach to helping the world's top golfers. By listening you'll understand some of the common fears golfers experience, you'll begin to appreciate that fear in golf and in sport and life in general is universal. You'll also learn about flow states. What "the zone" looks like and how a sports psychologist moves athletes from fearful to fearless, and finding flow states more regularly. Essential Learning Points From This Episode Golf will identify, expose and punish over confidence, under confidence, lack of self awareness, if you're risk averse and if you don't learn from your mistakes. Solve your habits and learn from your mistakes and you will get better at the game of golf. Fear is a universal theme in golf. Virtually every golfer has something they're frightened of, and most golfers don't know why they get afraid. Whether you are motivated by mastery or ego orientation this will determine whether you are fearless or fearful in the game. Ego orientation, trying to seek the need for approval means you can become riddled with anxiety. Love from parents or partners being dependent on achievement is not a healthy approach. Sport will do it's best to knock the confidence out of you. Low confidence is super dangerous and can ruin skill. How long does your flow state last for? Adam Scott's flow state lasts for around 5-6 holes and Arnold Palmer's lasted 20 years! Flow states are characterised by paradoxes – time, effort and heightened awareness. Part of a Sports Psychologist's role is to help athletes go from feeling fearlful to experiencing flow states more regularly. For golfers who are struggling there are ways to help you get in the zone and experience flow – read Gio's book Golf Flow to understand how. Get clarity about what motivates you to play golf by understanding your why. Be careful about your reactions after you hit a bad shot or play a bad round, you condition a fear response in the brain if you respond on a regular basis with highly negative emotions. Golf will beat you up by itself, don't help it! Make fearless swings at precise targets. Useful Resources: Fearless Golf Golf Flow

David Charlton helps people to reach their goals, faster. Supporting footballers, golfers, rugby players, motor cyclists, triathletes, cricketers, boxers, gymnasts, tennis players, swimmers, surfers and many more highly motivated athletes and coaches. Some of whom are motivated youngsters, others are dedicated amateur athletes and others are at the top of their sport at elite professional level, playing in the Premier League, European Golf Tour and Rugby Premiership. As well, David supports business professionals and executives who are looking for a mental edge in order to improve their performance and/or well-being. David is a fully approved Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the BPS and a HCPC Practitioner Psychologist. In this episode, David Charlton reflects on Karl Morris's podcast "How to Stay Present like a Major Champion" and discusses how you as an athlete, coach or professional can increase your own awareness so that you develop the character trait of learning orientation. Meaning that you are more effective, you learn from mistakes and go on to perform better. That's right by listening to this episode and then taking action you won't keep on repeating mistakes like many people go on to! Essential Learning Points From This Episode • If you score high in learning orientation you are good at reviewing failures and respond and thrive off setbacks. • Ask yourself the following questions: What mistakes do I keep making? Do I get too emotionally involved after an error? • Having increased awareness of your thoughts, emotions, arousal levels and responses by simply observing your behaviours will help you take control in high pressure situations. • Take your self-awareness to the next level by making notes, before, during and after performances or during your days. • When you do use journaling – check if your thoughts are past, present or future based. If these thoughts are helpful or unhelpful. • By journaling you'll realise how much your reality and sense of identity has been influenced by your thoughts. • Noticing your thoughts prepares you for positive changes. • Neuroscientists believe that we have approximately 60,000 individual thoughts per day. • 95% of these thoughts are considered to be repetitive. How much are you hynotising yourself! •A staggering 80% of our thoughts are believed to be negative often ingrained from childhood. •Your challenge for the next 7 days is to journal your thoughts – take it seriously and write down your thoughts and emotions over 3 sheets of paper per day – don't be lazy as this could be life changing for you!

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfil their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. Nick Grantham is a performance enhancement specialist. His career spans four Olympic cycles and he is a founding member of the United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association and an accredited Strength and Conditioning Coach (ASCC). He has become recognised as a specialist in athletic preparation and has a wealth of knowledge in the physical preparation and injury rehabilitation of high performance athletes at the most elite levels; including professional sport, Olympic, Commonwealth, European, and World Championship standards. Nick has worked closely with professional, National Governing Bodies and home institute medical teams assisting in the management, monitoring and implementation of injury management programmes. He continues to develop his knowledge of advanced training concepts and evidence based training principles. A sought after 'expert' he has presented seminars and practical workshops for the Football Association, BASEM, British Olympic Association and UK Strength & Conditioning Association. In this episode, Nick and David go on to discuss where highly motivated and hard-working people can go wrong, challenges that they face and the importance of rest and recovery to optimise their performance levels. Nick goes on to share helpful information around the recovery pyramid which provides a structure for tailoring interventions and practical solutions. If rest and recovery is something you can improve on this is well worth a listen! Essential Learning Points From This Episode • Fatigue is multifactorial both physiological and psycho-social. • In team sports the individuals needs can sometimes be ignored, an ice bath doesn't work for everyone. • Look after your sleep, take care of your nutrition and body management first then look at other things such as compression garments, hydrotherapy… • Be brilliant at the basics! • If you can find ways to relax you're going to make better decisions when you train and compete. • Being professional around rest and recovery can help the longevity of an athlete's career and help them maintain consistency of performance. • Coaching messages and the organisational culture, as well as where athletes seek out messages can impact their perceptions around rest and recovery. • Endurance athletes can be obsessed with putting in the miles where resting up or doing a short session may be a better answer sometimes. • Athletes and support staff can sometimes lose sight of what is important and what actually drives performance. • Look to monitor and measure with a training diary recording your day to day thoughts and feelings. • Ask yourself the question - how do my current recovery strategies make me feel? Useful Resources: The Strength And Conditioning Bible

David Charlton helps people to reach their goals, faster. Supporting footballers, golfers, rugby players, motor cyclists, triathletes, cricketers, boxers, gymnasts, tennis players, swimmers, surfers and many more highly motivated athletes and coaches. Some of whom are motivated youngsters, others are dedicated amateur athletes and others are at the top of their sport at elite professional level, playing in the Premier League, European Golf Tour and Rugby Premiership. As well, David supports business professionals and executives who are looking for a mental edge in order to improve their performance and/or well-being. David is a fully approved Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the BPS and a HCPC Practitioner Psychologist. In this episode, a bite of Mental Toughness, David Charlton shares 3 tips to help you mentally prepare better and overcome mental game challenges that you encounter. Frequently he refers back to discussions in previous episodes and other case studies to get his point across. The strategies are very simple, yet practical and can help athletes of all ability levels. Essential Learning Points From This Episode • In supporting athletes with mental preparation developing self-awareness is key. • Ask yourself the question: How do I enhance my self-awareness? • We all get comfortable and fall into bad habits, reminding yourself of the controllables is a skill that you can develop. • Having a good support team around you can help you challenge faulty expectations and unhelpful stories that you tell yourself causing havoc with your self-confidence. • Most athletes visualise in one way or another, though often it isn't much help. • Systematic visualisation or imagery in a controlled manner seeking to improve the vividness of images can help you in many ways. Examples include: • For commitment - intensifying your focus on tasks (passing, shooting, driving, putting, batting) or daily routines in practice or when training in the gym. • For confidence, improving your self-talk, body language, rhythm and timing. • For control, seeing yourself bounce back from mistakes in a calm and composed manner. • For challenges, when your B or C game shows up helping you deal with those situations in advance freeing you up when they occur.

Demystifying Mental Toughness is for people who want to reach their goals faster and are curious what high performing athletes and professionals do to fulfill their potential. David Charlton shares insights, strategies and stories from leading athletes, coaches, psychologists and specialists to help you perform to your optimum level on a more consistent basis. If you're a motivated athlete, coach, sport psychologist, mental game coach or executive listen in for proven and practical advice in this podcast. Karl Morris is not a Sports Psychologist but a PGA Golf Professional specializing in Performance Coaching. Widely regarded as one of Europe's leading performance coaches. Karl delivers cutting edge methods of peak performance and goal achievement to a range of clients across sports and business. From the world of professional golf, Karl has worked with multiple winners including 6 major winners Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood. He has also supported top class amateur golfers, including numerous Walker Cup and Curtis Cup players. As an author Karl has written several books including The Lost Art of Putting and The Lost Art of Playing Golf. In golf and across other sports you often hear the words "being present" and the ability to "stay in the moment" mentioned. In this episode Karl and David discuss common mental game challenges golfers, even major winners experience and strategies to help you manage your emotions and thoughts better on the golf course, essential ingredients of Mental Toughness. By listening to this episode and heeding the advice there is no reason why you can't reduce your scores by a few shots. The tips also overlap to other sports, business and life in general and can help you take your performances up a notch or two. Essential Learning Points From This Episode • Every shot has 3 parts there the process that you go through on the shot, the execution and your reaction to the shot. • What happens after the shot is often overlooked. • Golfers are trained by commentators, analysts and golf professionals to look to diagnose swing faults and not consider our reactions. • Ask yourself this question – If you didn't improve your golf swing at all are you getting the best out of your golf game right now? • "I feel sorry for the golf swing it always gets the blame" – Pia Nilsson • Play a round of golf and simply observe and make a note of your reactions to shots. • Engage your competitive side by using a mental scorecard scoring your reactions on the course. Tick if you handled things well and cross if you behaved like a child after a shot. • When practicing a great thing to do is measure your performance. • If you swing it well and react well, you start getting very close to your true capability. • Good players do get ahead of themselves. We all do. But good players are very good at noticing their mind has jumped to the future or is stuck in the past. • Good players are able to "RESET" and focus on the next shot asking themselves a great question such as "What is this task?" • Graeme MacDowell on winning the Scottish Open in 2008 had a thought on the 15th tee that he was going to top it and then he started shaking but then he quickly reset. • When you feel uncomfortable or shaky you can still get the job done. • "You don't always have to believe what you think." • Putting your mind into your body is potential great support for staying in the moment. • You aren't going to do many things worse by being present! Useful Resources: Attention: The Secret To You Playing Great Golf The Lost Art Of Playing Golf The Lost Art Of Putting Golf In The Zone