Testimonials
Sports testimonial – David Wyeth (Endurance runner)
“I am inquisitive about all aspects that contribute to performance. In the build-up to London Marathon 2017, the hard physical work was done and I wanted to figure out a robust mental strategy to get me through the final weeks and the race itself. I was made aware that Stuart, a highly experienced performance coach within the group I occasionally train with could advise. I reached out with the curiosity of a recommendation for a good read. I found Stuart to be incredibly engaging. I followed his recommendation to read up on Professor Steve Peters’ approach to mind management given his experience as a mentor for the company for the Rio Olympic Cycle, the England Netball team and for Liverpool FC.
Stuart generously invested time to understand my motivations and approach. His persistence is to his credit. I’m not typically one to open up about my hopes and fears, but Stuart’s approach put me at ease and I found it easy to exchange ideas and explore what may lie beneath as my primal ambitions, and how these can be understood and managed.
This intervention gave me a reason to step back and rationalise why I do what I do and how I might channel my anxieties when they occur. As a consequence of our engagement, Stuart armed me with the tools to develop a mental race plan. My first marathon experience had taught me that you need to be able to handle some tough spells and dig in, especially to run to your potential. As a consequence, I am strong of the belief that this exercise and planning helped me to execute a race plan that allowed me to successfully test my physical boundaries. In itself, I appreciate that might not have resulted in an outcome I wanted or anticipated, but it does demonstrate the effectiveness of harnessing mental resolve in conjunction with a deep-seated aspiration to achieve a particular goal.
Perhaps, surprisingly, is how this mental coaching benefited me in other ways. On the day, my race didn’t work out as I expected. You may have seen the events in the video (above) on the news or social media!
From that moment that went viral, it led to a dizzying sequence of events and attention that I neither anticipated nor solicited, at a time where I was most vulnerable and fatigued (e.g. finishing a race in a state of extreme energy depletion and in urgent need of medical assistance to begin to recover). The coaching I had received, helped me to face up to the media attention the following day: an overwhelming experience in front of cameras and microphones non-stop from 7 am for the next 5 hours. I didn’t and couldn’t comprehend the sudden attention. The single mantra I lived by that day was to deal in truth.
Stuart remains a firm friend: we both run for Chorlton and enjoy sharing our aspirations and training goals. Stuart works tirelessly to serve and support the interests of his clients, as well as his club mates. He has a great aptitude to listen and allay fears to open up and speak in confidence. He can contextualise the perfect normality in what one might consider their dysfunction from his wealth of experience working with top sports and business people. I encourage you to open up and give Stuart an opportunity to support you and your interests, in the quest to fulfil your goals, whatever they may be.”
If you need to improve your confidence, focus, resilience, consistency or like David, prepare a mental plan, contact Stuart on +44(0)7956 382936.
