Mastering the Mind Podcast

Ep. 19 | Professional Wheelchair Tennis Player | James Shaw

In today’s episode, we welcome professional wheelchair tennis player, James Shaw, to the podcast.

🎾How James got into playing wheelchair tennis & how he managed to reach the highest level.
📚James’ decision of quitting his university studies to solely focus on his tennis career.
✈️What it is like to travel the world & compete in different countries & the mental demands that come with this.
🧠Psychological strategies he uses regularly before & whilst competing on the court in order to perform optimally.
🗣Experience of working with different sport psychologists, one of which was ex- GB wheel chair tennis psychologist, Karl Steptoe (who’s actually our supervisor at university), who he is currently still working with.
⭐️James’ activities outside of sport, being a regular public speaker, helping & inspiring others & creating content on his Instagram page (@topathletemindset) where he gives athletes sport psychology tips & tricks to help them reach their maximum potential.

Ep. 18 | Olympic Bronze Medalist | James Austin

Hi guys! Today we welcome english judoka, James Austin, to the podcast.

🥋How James got into Judo & how he went through the ranks, to then competing at the highest stage at the London 2012 Olympics .
🧠What circumstances he experienced stress & pressure when competing & how he went about overcoming this in order to focus on the task at hand; winning the bout.
🤕James experience with injury, where he shares with us how he managed to mentally overcome these difficult periods as these were an important factor as to why he retired.
⭐️Plans after his fantastic career being the host of the Original Judo Pod & being in the process of becoming an accredited sport psychologist.

 

We really enjoyed this episode as James asked us to share with him our experiences regarding with pressure and sports injuries as well as what our aims were with the podcast and what we hoped to achieve in the future, creating a lovely venue for discussion. Thank you so much for your time James, it was an honour.

Ep. 17 | 2x Olympian & European Champion | Andreas Vazaios

Today we welcome Olympian Andreas Vazaios. Andreas has represented Greece in the London 2012 & Rio 2016 Olympics & in many other major european & international events.

🌱The growth mindset he has learned to develop, helping him cope with the pressures of competing for & representing his country during the OLY Games 🇬🇷
😄The importance for him to have fun when competing
🧠 Andreas’ current “mental weaknesses” he is working on which are appreciating the moment more when competing & learning to love himself & his accomplishments
📚Balancing the demands of studying & being an OLY athlete
🇺🇸His experience of competing in the NCAA
🧠His ambitions of wanting to become a sport psychologist

Ep. 16 | Italian Professional High Jumper | Alessia Trost

Ciao everybody! Today we're going international by welcoming Alessia Trost to the podcast!

🌎Experience of consistently representing Italy at major events such as european & world championships & has also competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
🏃‍♀️How Alessia got into high jump, her biggest inspirations, the struggles of balancing university studies with a professional athletics career.
🗣The relationship she had with her coach, Gianfranco Chessa, describing him as being a father figure 🙌🏼.
🧠Alessia's HUGELY famous pre-performance routine, which she has used for years and years now whilst competing.
🍕🍝Alessia's plans for after her athletic career & her experience studying a Food Tech degree😋🍝🍕.

Ep. 15 | Former Team Canada Snowboarder | Natalie Allport

Today we welcome Natalie Allport to the podcast. Natalie is an athlete, entrepreneur and former team Canada snowboarder!

🇨🇦How she got into competing in snowboarding, the dangers of the sport & the reasons why she pre-maturely retired.
🤕Experience of suffering from with various injuries & her difficulties to overcome this re-injury fear when returning.
😕The difficulties of her transition to retirement.
🏋️‍♂️Passion for CrossFit & competing in various competitions around the world.

Ep. 14 | Catch up Episode!

WE. ARE. BACK. After weeks of grinding on university assignments, we are back with a FRESH episode! In this episode, we simply just take the time to catch up and talk about what has been going on in each other's life lately. We also talk about what type of sport psychologists we'd like to be in the future and what philosophy we resonate the most with for the moment (spoiler, we're the complete opposite). We then go onto discuss the topic of our research projects that we're super excited to work on over the summer and through which we hopefully make an impact to the sport psychology literature when completed! God it feels good to be back after 4 weeks and we're super excited to release the next guest episodes we've got lined up for you in the coming weeks! Take care guys!

Ep. 13 | Joey Hewitt

Hello guys! Today we are welcoming Joey Hewitt to the podcast. Joey is a basketball players who’s played high level basketball back in the States being one of the most decorated alumni to graduate from Whitman College. He decided to pursue his basketball career playing in Australia, however, due to the arrival of COVID, his basketball season was ended pre-maturely. He has since moved to the UK to finish his studies by undertaking a Master’s degree at Loughborough University. In this episode we talk about Joey’s journey, his early encounter and practice of sport psychology helping him not only in his sporting career but in his everyday life, we talk about confidence being one of his favourite topics which he’s struggled with all his life, we also talk about identity in sport and the importance of being able to take positives away from negative experiences and setbacks in sports. Being involved in sport psychology in both America and in the UK Joey provides us with some great insight on the differences on how it is delivered to athletes. Banger of an episode, thanks so much Joey!

Ep. 12 | GB High Jump Talent | Emily Borthwick

Hello everyone! Today we welcome our 5th guest to the podcast, Emily Borthwick. Emily is a professional GB high jumper and is currently 8th in Europe.

💎Emily’s thoughts on competing in her first diamond league in the coming weeks.
😍What it was like to achieve her PB on her final attempt in her first European Championships.
🧠The importance of having a flexible athletic identity and having other interests outside of sport.
💪🏻What it is like being a self-funded athlete and the challenges that come with it. 
👥Emily’s mission in attempting to reduce the gender gap in sport and encourages young girls to take part in sport. 

Ep. 11 | Former Man Utd Academy Player | Kenji Gorré

Today we welcome our 4th guest to the podcast who is professional footballer Kenji Gorré.

🔴What it was like to be told by Sir Alex Ferguson that he would be released from Manchester United's Academy at the age of 18 after having spent 11 years at the club.
⚽️How he bounced back & of transitional issues & the importance of identity in professional football. Kenji encourages pro footballers to widen their identity as much as possible for the reasons explained in the episode.
🌱Kenji's battle with gambling addiction & what made him overcome this difficult period of his career & life.
🗣Being the founder of On the Ball Squad & KONVERSATIONS WITH KENJI providing professional footballers from around the world with a safe space where they talk openly about their experiences & help each other with any hardships they are facing.

Ep. 10 | 3x Olympian & Tokyo 2020 Bronze Medalist - Holly Bradshaw

WOW what an episode! Today we welcome pole vaulting Olympian, Holly Bradshaw to the podcast. Holly is the current British record holder in the event indoors and outdoors and has competed at both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Holly is currently training for the upcoming Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games whilst finishing off her MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Loughborough University. This episode was packed with super interesting topics where Holly shared her experience of being a professional athlete. Holly shed some light on the sometimes negative aspects of the (social) media, how she got into pole vaulting, her injury experience, dealing with lockdown, her biggest inspirations, issues related to athletic identity in athletics and her ambitions of helping upcoming young pole vaulters best adapt to the elite level.