NEWS
Coaching me effectively: An ADHD athlete’s guide for coaches
What helps me perform at my best ADHD is not a lack of effort, discipline, or commitment. It affects attention, memory, emotional regulation, processing speed, organization, and motivation. When coaching works well for me, I can be highly driven, creative, resilient...
Review: One Step at a Time by Dr Pippa Moran
“Connection before Correction” This book is so needed that I have already recommended it three times – and I only finished reading it a few hours ago! The formal summary would be that it gives parents a roadmap to follow after their teenager has been diagnosed with...
ADHD: Do my traits help in sport? Or hinder?
Helps my sportHinders my sportDon’t notice thisCommentsConstantly moving Behaviours which disrupt others Easily bored Regular brain fog / headaches Suffered a...
Book review: 31 Days by Allie Bailey
I loved Allie’s first book (There is no wall – review here) and invited her onto our podcast in September right after her Dragons Back race. It was an emotional episode. You can listen here. On the episode she mentioned she was working on her second book and...
Values, Strengths, AI & Lessons: September Performance in Mind newsletter
A career for life? I am a mum whose daughter has three more years at primary school. In our bit of west London the planning for senior schools starts early and trying to figure out where a child will thrive early on is hard. How can you possibly know what will help...
BBC Today programme
The two hardest exams in the world
Performance in Mind July newsletter Academic exam season is over for another year. Parents rejoice, teachers and lecturers breathe a sigh of relief (or start marking contracts) and students get to go back to all the other things they love. Yet in some professions the...
March 2025 newsletter: Webinars, books and podcasts
Free webinar on ADHD in Sport: Strategies for Success. In 2023 I started to notice that a number of the athletes I was working with who were struggling with high levels of performance anxiety were also showing a number of traits we would see in those with ADHD. After...
January 2025 Newsletter
Six reflections on starting out in a new career Sleep Tool to try: Cognitive Restructuring Coaching Cards: Now available to purchase Interview to read: Cath Bishop with Dr Kate Hays Book review: Teenagers Site of the month: Women’s Sport Collective Jobs board This...
Gift guide for the athlete in your life
Children Working on the mental side of sports with children can feel scary but the younger they are when you help them understand their emotions, see their strengths and learn how to handle worries effectively then the easier they will find the sporting environment....
Throwing your toys out of the pram…
On Sunday night two football managers (Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel) watched their teams play at the Chelsea v Tottenham game – lost some emotional control and had a bust up. They both received Red Cards. I rarely comment publicly on the psychology of football...
Finding purpose
One of the hardest areas I find to work on with athletes is purpose. Why should they care about that when they just want to run fast / score more goals / jump better? But those who do want to figure out there find so many benefits. A powerful purpose gives you a...
What makes a great leader…
The current political situation in the UK means there is going to be a lot of chat and analysis over the next few weeks on what makes a good leader. From all the research I did for The 10 Pillars of Success here is why I think good leadership needs to be based around...
Performance Postcards
For every race or challenge we need to enter into it being clear what we want to achieve and remembering all the efforts we have put into achieving that goal. It can really help our confidence. With my clients (and for my own races) we complete these postcards. On the...
New book: Power Down to Power Up
The last two years have been ummm… interesting. For some they have been really tough. For others just different. A few thrived despite all the ambiguity. Most of us didn’t. I loved the phrase being used a lot at the start of the pandemic of ‘we might all be in...
27 free courses in sport, psychology and wellbeing
Sport Psychology and coaching Exploring sport coaching and psychology Open University This looks at the influence of coaching and psychology through the lens of sports people and teams who have been successful. In it you focus on coaching practices used with young...
The 10 Pillars of Success
Sport psychologist Dr Josephine Perry spends her life working with exceptional performers. She has identified ten psychological pillars that the ultra-successful have ingrained within their approach. And the good news is that we can all learn these mental building...
8 things I loved about the Tokyo Olympics
Dan Walker and Sam Quek on the BBC Coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics I was one of those who was never quite sure the Olympics would happen this year so hadn’t built up excitement – but now it is over I feel sad that cartoons will be back on our screen over breakfast...
10 tips for running a virtual marathon
Come Sunday morning there will be a few dozen elite athletes preparing to run 19.8 laps of St James’ Park and 45,000 everyday runners from all over the world, heading off to run their own version of the London Marathon. I have a mixture of excitement and nerves about...
Why exercise is vital during lockdown
If you dare to look at your local Facebook group, or the rants on Next Door forums you would find there is a new ‘enemy of the people’. Not a politician, or someone failing to deliver PPE, but ‘joggers’. Who knew someone exercising could be so vilified? The walkers...