The Success Nuggets

Success Nuggets #44: Mental Mastery: The Psychology of Elite Performance Professor Adam Nicholls

• David Abel

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🔥 The Psychology of Winning—Why Toughness Alone Won’t Cut It

What really separates the elite from the rest? When the pressure’s on, it’s not strength or skill—it’s mental mastery.

On The Success Nuggets Podcast, Professor Adam Nicholls—sports psychologist and Jiu-Jitsu competitor—dives deep into the psychological edge that turns good into great.

🚀 Resilience isn’t just pushing through—it’s knowing how to respond.
🚀 Your environment shapes your mindset—are you setting yourself up to win?
🚀 The best leaders don’t just demand results—they build trust and belief.

From elite rugby stars to world-class coaches like Steve Kerr and Carlo Ancelotti, the truth is clear: People perform better when they feel cared for.

The key to peak performance? Rewiring your brain to see pressure as a challenge, not a threat.

🎧 Listen now and learn how to train your mind like a pro.

Nugget of the day:  "Respect everyone. Fear no one. That’s the mindset of a champion." 

With thanks to One Golden Nugget and Maxwell Preece for editing, support and artwork

#SuccessNuggets #SportsPsychology #MentalEdge #WinUnderPressure


Speaker 2:

From Olympic champions to weekend warriors. Mental toughness separates the good from the grey. But what if we've been looking at resilience, pressure and performance? All wrong, welcome back to the Success Nuggets where ideas spark and stories shine. But what if we've been looking at resilience, pressure and performance? All wrong, welcome back to the success nuggets where ideas spark and stories shine. Today, we're diving into the psychology of elite performers with none other than professor adam nichols, a sports psychologist, author and expert on the mental game of athletes. Hello, adam hi david.

Speaker 1:

Uh, great to meet you. Thanks for inviting me on here brilliant to have you, adam.

Speaker 2:

I've I've called you on the show today because your LinkedIn has been nothing but inspirational. The amount of stories from coaches and players to even just new techniques like mental imagery is a really exciting time. How we can make a big difference in our progress how we can make a big difference in our progress.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, thank you, david. I'd like to share kind of evidence-based practices on LinkedIn, so backing it up with what famous coaches say, and then identify why that's good practice and then what other people can bring in and outside the sport into their leadership. So, yeah, I quite enjoy posts on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

So I guess, if we were to put the timeline on this, being young and early youth is a good place to start Learning resilience. How young do we learn resilience?

Speaker 1:

And that's a really big part of this some setbacks really in how quickly you adjust and how well you adjust to continue, and so I guess it depends on a number of factors. So, firstly, what experiences you go through. So are there any opportunities for you as a child, an adolescent, to build resilience? I think probably now we protect our children a lot more than you know what we maybe once did generations ago, so maybe they're lacking that opportunity to develop resilience. And then it's also about people having the capacity and the ability to learn how to cope and how to respond effectively. Quite often people don't respond well when it's maybe their first or second setback, but over time they can develop experience and learn what went wrong and put that right, and some people just don't have the awareness to be able to do it at all naturally anyway without the support of somebody and are there any sports that kind of speed this up?

Speaker 2:

I know like surely, if you play doubles tennis versus singles tennis, there must be a lot more to unpack between you.

Speaker 1:

Tell you it all boils down to to the experiences. But, yeah, I think when you're an individual sports it is harder, uh, so I competed at the, the jiu-jitsu british open in 2021 and, uh, in my age group, but not weight category, was a former england international union player who retired. So obviously I stood next to him. We were in different weight categories, but I got the chance to speak to him and I just said how does this compare to running out to Twickenham in front of 80,000 people? And he actually said this is harder. I said what's? It's harder now. Well, I don't know how many people were there 1,000, maybe 2,000, thousands of them. They certainly wouldn't all be watching us because they'd be there for their own families. And he just said yeah, but when you're playing rugby for England, you've got all your teammates your 14 teammates to support you, so this is much harder. So, yeah, probably individual sports are harder to a certain extent because you're more in the spotlight.

Speaker 2:

I would say what was your success through Jiu-Jitsu? How did you win and progress so far?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I've been training now for eight years. Being a trained sports psychologist has helped me in the sense that being able to adapt, understand as well what I've done. That was wrong, in fact. I was just reflecting on this today. I've been training before we recorded this, and the last British Open I competed at was in 2022, and I'm competing again in this year.

Speaker 1:

What I have been doing is reflecting on what things went wrong. So my conditioning wasn't maybe as good, but I also made mental mistakes, such as I had a game plan but I didn't stick to that. I just ended up brawling, which went out the window. The red mist came. I know I won't say I was angry, but yeah, I just I wasn't thinking clearly and I just I'd say I probably lost it for the bout and then ended up not sticking to my claim plan, blowing out in about three or four minutes when you know you shouldn't be doing that.

Speaker 1:

So it's about learning from that, reflecting on that and then adapting my mindset in preparation for that. I knew from other competitions that I needed to work on things, so adapting my mindset when waiting, so focusing on the challenge, what I want to do, what I want to do right as opposed to well, I could get injured here or I could make a fool of myself. So I did that last time and I improved on that. The result doesn't really matter, but I'm looking forward to actually seeing whether I can implement my game plan this time and have a mindset that I'm happy with. You know, controlling my emotions, controlling the not rage, because I didn't get mad, but equally it was just.

Speaker 2:

It's like yeah, and we all lose our lines and think we're in control of it or you know, are we managing it or were we coping with it are very hard lines to see, and even if you were coping four days before, that could be how you still go into the competition. Do you do coaching as well? I know you work at the university of home yeah.

Speaker 1:

So in the past I've worked with a lot of professional athletes professional reunion players, professional athletes for all different sports and, more recently, working more with coaches and leaders, particularly in sport, to help them with communication, with delivering messages, the way they deliver messages, their behavior, structuring sessions that is more impactful providing feedback.

Speaker 1:

So I'd say I'm kind of moving more into that space, but, you know, always working with athletes and coaches when I have time, but more so with coaches and having written that, the last book I wrote was psychology and sports coaching, which is a book for sports coaches, and that's an area that I'm really interested in now because I think it has the most impact. You can work with one athlete and you can support them, which is brilliant, but if you work with a coach and a leader, they can impact 10 or however many people within their team or organisation, and sometimes you might spend a lot of time working with an athlete, but then if you don't know the coach, you don't have a relationship with the coach. He or she may undo all that good work that you've done, whereas by having this relationship with the coach, it gets more impactful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm an advocate. I was actually trying to work out what is this role that probably should be in a number of businesses now just as a standard. That's not hr, but it's really like that. It's a coach that gets everyone there, that can really see. You know, I give this example just this week I passed the business owner a bottle of water and I said, look, that's easy for me to pass to you. But then I said, watch this. And I stood at the back of the room and said, now catch it. And I went to throw it really fast at him and I said you see, the difference between passing the ball, trying to. I always try to take on like football styles and try and simplify the analogy when coaching I think that's a really good way of doing it and I think you're right.

Speaker 1:

I think in businesses, I think one thing I get when I write about my post on LinkedIn they're all about sport, because that's what I know I get a lot of business people, business leaders, saying, yeah, this applies to, really applies to business, but there's no one in this space to do that, and I think it's just about helping people deliver the messages clearly and just being aware of how they interact with this. The impact it can have. It's massive and I often think, in my experiences where I've worked, people just don't the leaders don't understand the impact that they have on people and it not only affects the success but actually affects the wellness of people.

Speaker 2:

This is the big point. I want to advocate coaching and find out where are the health benefits. Write this into the script. You know the good leadership has health benefits. We don't want to see people burning out 55, 60, whether they've made it to retirement or not. It was just one project. People as well. Leaders. They look at people like they have a golden circle, but I think they sometimes look at you like they don't understand you, whereas they have children your age.

Speaker 1:

I completely agree, and I think the best leaders across all walks of life get this. You look at I know I write about Steve Kerr, who was a coach in Golden State Warriors, the US Olympic coach, carlo Ancelotti, razia, rasmus, mike Torwin they've all got very, very different backgrounds, but the one thing they get is people. I think a lot of leaders think the louder I shout at somebody, the more I tell them off, or the more impossible goals I set them to achieve, the better they'll perform. No, people perform better when they feel cared for, when they feel trusted, when they feel empowered, and that's a completely different approach to what I often see. That goes on at most in organisations from a leadership perspective. But the very, very best leaders get that and that's how they operate and that's one of the reasons why I think they're so successful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. Right, it would be wrong to leave without having a bit of fun. So Chris Brown, who was the retail director at Ted Baker, one of his sort of nuggets was you've just got to always believe as in, like somebody could still come through the door at six o'clock, and that does. They're coming. We know they're coming as a fan. The team goes three nil down and it gets to three, three like why do they happen and why are they so great?

Speaker 1:

yeah, they're so great because we're so emotionally invested in what's going on ordinarily, three nil down you make. It would have been normal that you would come back, so you'd generally be experiencing anger probably disappointment, upset, because you care about your team, so when they turn that around, it's just the elation of relief, potentially of not having this expected, but it feels so good and it is amazing. As a sportsman myself, it should. Yeah, nothing gets you like sport, does it really?

Speaker 2:

it doesn't. It really is every time something amazing like that happens. Have you ever practiced mental imagery or coached it, or all I heard hands on feedback about?

Speaker 1:

all of the above. Really, I'd say I probably taught and coached it first before I did it myself. So as a as a sports psychologist working when I first started, first qualified, I worked predominantly with professional athletes, academy players, and I taught imagery as part of what I did because I strongly believed in it and the evidence backed it up and then having practiced it myself through my training. So when I'm learning new techniques I will go away and visualize them. When I'm giving talks I wouldn't say I'm naturally a good talker, so I will use imagery and I'll visualize the talk. I'll visualize the room, what it looks like, visualize how I'm going to feel, and then I visualize myself going through the talk, looking at the slides, and then I found that really really helped. So by the time I get to doing the talk like I'm prepared and ready to just let it go and just do it and I think sometimes when I've done that, I've had the best talks but how would you turn left and not right?

Speaker 2:

I'm sure I've visualized the whole room and then the next part is visualizing all the bad stuff and the nerves and all of that. How do you get past that to visualize the goal?

Speaker 1:

you know I'd say it takes time. Uh, when, when visualizing, we know as well that guided imagery or guided visualization. So having a recorded script is much better than just sitting down and or trying to do it myself, because that's when there's a tendency to focus on the negative, those things that could go wrong, whereas when you're listening to a script and that's what I do with athletes I'll record scripts or coaches and get them to listen to those scripts, and so when they're listening to the scripts, basically you're engaged in with the scripts. So and I will put probably prompts in there or if you start looking into a negative thought, just take a breath and come back and then focus on what we're you know you're listening to, but it is hard I'm not saying it's easier, you know it to think about the negatives and I'm a keen advocate, as well as something I've done in my own jiu-jitsu journeys about developing challenge states.

Speaker 1:

There's two states. We could be in a demanding situation, we can experience threat, so this is where we're focusing about what could go wrong. You know I could forget my lines, I could trip over, I could injure you, so I could get subbed out in 10 seconds the worst case scenario, and we know that that has an impact on our not only our mental state, but also our physiological state, and we don't want that because it's not conducive to performance. So what we want to generate is actually what is known as a challenge state, and this is where we start focusing exclusively on what we want to achieve.

Speaker 1:

How are we going to do it? How are we going to see ourselves doing it? And that is all that's in our life, and there's, of course, there's a tendency to go back to the you know the negatives oh, what happened? Now stop, this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to make it happen From a sporting perspective, that actually sends more blood to the muscles where we need it, more blood to the brain where we can concentrate, and away from our internal organs when we're in a threat state. So it's actually conducive to performance to focus on what we want to happen. It's not easy, but that's what we should be aiming for. That's the aim.

Speaker 2:

That's great. I'm going to watch this episode back again and again and follow those paths. I think practicing positive self-talk is great. I get really excited when I saw Anthony Gordon talking about 50,000 people boo him or stuff like that. You know you miss a shot in the fourth minute and you're not going to get another go. How you talk yourself round, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's the best, not just the best athletes, but the best athletes, the best people in any walk of life can do that because they have this inner belief in their ability and that comes from their preparation. So if you're an athlete, the training, if you're a businessman, the work you've put in, the time you've put in the belief in your product, that you don't let the setbacks get you down and you don't let it get you down by engaging in this positive self-talk the next chance I get, I'll make that. The next opportunity that I get, I know I can achieve that, as opposed to oh, it's all going wrong for me today, I'll never score, or if I get another chance, I'll miss it. It's just not an optimal mindset to have. We know that positive self-talk there's lots of evidence-based for it, that it has a big impact on performance via reducing anxiety and boosting our confidence.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful right. There's a win-win-win in there. The last question I've got is one you know is a little bit close to my heart as well. It's achievements versus identity. I guess when we talk about the corporate world and people retiring but not really having any hobbies but with sports people as well, that's a whole new way of life. What's the coping message for anyone?

Speaker 1:

This is something again that I'm really interested in. Again, some of the top coaches speak about this Joe Mazzella, who won the NBA with Boston Celtics. I'm not a basketball coach, I'm a person, I'm a dad, I'm a husband and and I think if we tie our identity down to our achievements, that is when we could. I know it's hard not to do that, but your identity is if it's linked say, I'm a footballer well, no, you're more than a footballer. What are the other things that relate to you? You're more than a businessman, you're more than a ceo. What are these other? And I think it's important to do that, because that is when you can struggle. If you retire and you don't have, I was a ceo for the last 30 years. I'm retired, I I'm no longer a CEO. What am I? What is my identity? And I think that's when people can really struggle. It's just about trying to find your identity.

Speaker 2:

I think you're not having it tied into performance and your job.

Speaker 1:

It's hard though, isn't it? It's not easy.

Speaker 2:

Well, I've actually had a very similar exercise. A good friend of mine, hasea Atherton and a good friend of mine, hasea Atherton, she'll love the shout out she said to me give me write down four words that describe you. And she said but they can't be Dave the dad, dave the husband, dave the employee, dave the boss, none of those. And I came up with. In the end I had them all in a different order.

Speaker 2:

I just put fun, loving, adventurous spirit. I was like all right, and then maybe there's a few that could actually get in there as time goes on. But it took me one week to get that and when I found it fun-loving, adventurous spirit, all my posts just had that splashed on it, just to put it out in the universe. There it is. But you know, now when I meet someone who's adventurous, I'm adventurous. And Mr Joey Foster, the founder of Reebok, his, his like way for progress was just develop relationships, because people you find with things in common with you light you up, that's what you like, and so you just find more and more of it. So, yeah, if anyone's fun or loving or adventurous or even a bit spirited, you know, let's connect and, um, I'm going to do it on myself.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Yeah, after this four weeks.

Speaker 2:

Four weeks and, like I said, it took me a week. I wasn't, I was in um, I was in a not like a difficult place, but you know I had a lot of turmoil going on so it wasn't the best week, and other going on so it wasn't the best week, and other people tell you on the spot and I always think, nah, you need to think about it. Yeah, do, let do, let me know. Um made that how it is. And finally, the last question I have for everyone is what is your one golden nugget? What is your piece of advice for life that others can follow?

Speaker 1:

I knew this question was coming, so I spent a bit of time thinking about this and about there's lots. Let's be kinders, you know all things like that, but yeah, and they're good. But one thing that it comes from my old pd teacher and he used to say this to us before every match, regardless of the sport, is respect everyone and fear no one. And you know what it's really good it's like. We should respect everyone, we should be respectful. Yeah, equally. Don't be scared. Don't be scared to say anything, no matter who you are, who they are. You know, I've met some people of ours that I've only ever seen on TV in my job as a sports psychologist and can't be scared of them. They're people.

Speaker 2:

But, of course, respect everyone, but just don't be scared. Uh, there's another one from buddhism, just very similar to that. They said never be afraid of anyone, how big they are, and never despise anyone, no matter how small they are. Yeah, no, that's good. Yeah, which is a stunner, although I am sure I took that as, just when you're being short with people, you know that's the end of the show. Is there anything else that is mind-blowing that we haven't covered from sports psychology?

Speaker 1:

No, I think we've covered some really good stuff. A lot of the things we've talked about are evidence-based. I'd say there's a lot of people out there who talk a lot of nonsense and don't offer any practical stuff, but the things we've spoken about today are all bats that.

Speaker 2:

Professor Adam Nicholls on LinkedIn as well. You will not be disappointed, Adam. Thank you again for coming in. That was lovely having you on.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, David. Great to speak to you. Thank you.