University of Staffordshire's Performing Under Pressure Podcast

In this episode, Wolves Women midfielder Merrick Will joined Dr Paul Mansell in the studio to share her reflections on performing under pressure. Merrick has previously spent four seasons in the Championship with London Bees and has also represented Coventry United, Oxford United, Millwall and Watford.

Merrick describes how she prepares for an important game by detailing her use of imagery. Having completed a Sport Psychology MSc herself, Merrick offers some detailed thoughts on the role of psychology in women's football such as the extent to which a sport psychologist should be embedded within a club.

Just prior to recording the episode, Merrick had experienced an ACL injury, and as a result, she provides some useful guidance as to the best way to support a player that is experiencing a serious injury. Merrick also explains to Paul about the importance of being a team rather than a group.

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In this episode, we welcomed Nick Welch into the studio. Nick has had a distinguished career in the military, reaching the rank of Major General as part of his 35 years of service.

Speaking about his views on leadership in what is perhaps one of the greatest situations of pressure, Nick describes his approach in leading others in missions in Afghanistan and Bosnia.

Nick has also had a range of experiences in the world of business and is now the Chief Executive Officer of Komodo Bikes Limited. 

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Professor Matt Slater and Dr Paul Mansell welcomed Dr Martin Turner back to Staffordshire University to tap into his extensive knowledge on wellbeing and performance under pressure.

Author of phenomenally detailed book 'The Rational Practitioner', Martin has made a significant contribution to the field of sport psychology through his high quality publications on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT).

In this episode, Martin explains the premise of REBT and how it can influence the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals as they strive towards their athletic goals. Martin has also contributed heavily to the topic of challenge and threat appraisals and we discuss how he uses this in his practice.

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In this episode, Dr Katie Sparks and Dr Paul Mansell spoke to international swimmer Jamie Ingram about his experiences of performing under pressure. Jamie won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as part of the 4 x 100m men's freestyle relay, has competed at the Swimming World Cup on multiple occasions and has been swimming at national level or above for the last twelve years.

Jamie narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games and describes how he has dealt with the disappointment of this. Adding something different to the experiences of previous guests, Jamie describes the idea of 'pain mastery' and how he manages his challenging physical training schedule. The trio also discuss the importance of recovery and Jamie goes into detail about how he uses imagery as part of psychological preparation for an event.

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According to The Times, Geir Jordet is the 'world-leading expert on the psychology of penalties'. A Professor of Football and Psychology at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Geir is also the author of the acclaimed book "Pressure: Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout".

Dr Paul Mansell had the opportunity to interview Geir at the FEPSAC conference in Innsbruck, Austria, and in this episode, Geir explained his research on penalties and how this can inform the art of taking penalties under intense pressure. Rather than focusing on technique per se, Geir has been fascinated about the psychological challenges of this skill and explains what is the most anxiety-inducing aspect of this process.

Geir has also conducted a wealth of research into 'scanning' citing ex-Barcelona and Spain midfielder Xavi as one of the greats at this, and explains what this is and how it can be trained to enhance performance. 

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Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Prof Matthew Slater and Dr Karla Drew invite Olympic Gold medalist, Helen Richardson-Walsh, into the studio.

Helen was part of the GB women’s hockey team that worked hard and proactively to create a culture of belonging, openness, and vulnerability. Alongside pressure training, imagery, self-talk, Helen explains how this was developed and how it was the foundation to their amazing success!

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Derby County defender Kane Wilson joined Dr Paul Mansell as a co-host in the studio to pick the brains of experienced sport and performance psychologist, Dr Tom Bates. Tom has had an extensive career in this field and has worked with Aston Villa, Brentford and Sheffield Wednesday in football, whilst consulting at the Olympic Games for Team GB. This is a bumper episode with so much to unpack, however, several key themes emerged during the conversation.

Tom is a proponent of mindset and labels it as something that defines performance whilst also highlighting the importance of humility, learning and curiosity as tools to promote continuous improvement. The trio discuss the meaning of pressure and the utility of pre-performance routines, and Kane offers his reflections on working with Tom as a young player. Tom provides some strategies for dealing with over-thinking and how reappraisal of emotional states can be useful when the stakes are high. Finally, Tom describes the challenges of working in elite sport.

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In this bonus episode of the podcast, three members of the sport and exercise psychology team sat down to share their ideas ahead of presenting a symposium at the prestigious FEPSAC conference in Austria. Entitled ‘A to B to C – stress and performing under pressure’, the purpose of the symposium is to describe how beliefs (B) about an adverse event (A) may lead to thoughts, emotions and behaviours as consequences (C).

Dr Paul Mansell shared his thoughts on stress mindset and outlined the role in which beliefs about the nature of stress can shape our wellbeing and performance. Paul shared some of his recent findings from working with academy footballers in the UK and Portugal. Dr Andrew Wilkinson focused on the physiological consequences of certain beliefs and attitudes and explained the role that such responses play in performance supported by his research work with high-level cricketers. Turning to creating more adaptive beliefs for wellbeing and performance, Dr Katie Sparks spoke about self-compassion and how this might be able to help individuals in sport and beyond. Katie revealed some of her recent results in applying this strategy with students ahead of their examinations.

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Episode 24 of the podcast is an international edition as Dr Paul Mansell travelled to Porto to interview Beatriz Gandra. Beatriz is an expert in nutrition with a specific interest in football. She has provided nutritional support to FC Porto's academy and is now employed full-time at Futebol Club de Famalicão as the women's first-team nutritionist.  

Located in the north of Portugal, FC Famalicão Women play in the top tier of Portuguese football. In this episode, the holistic nature of performing under pressure is evident and Beatriz outlines not only how nutrition benefits the players, but how she integrates psychology as a core part of her work with the players. Indeed, this really underscores the important role that psychology has to play in any role that involves working with athletes.

We discuss the differences in working with male and female footballers and how to encourage adherence to a nutritional plan. Beatriz describes the 4R's that underpin effective nutrition in football as well as the importance of timing when it comes to preparation and refuelling. Finally, Beatriz provides some useful advice about the role of caffeine in performance and wellbeing that are relevant for everyday life as much as athletic training.

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From growing up in Staffordshire to playing darts at a good level himself, Shaun Rogers now runs his own darts coaching academy, and in this episode, host Dr Paul Mansell asks Shaun to explain how he uses psychology to enhance his coaching and as a result, the performance of the players that he works with. Being an individual sport and one that is so different to the other sports that have already featured on the show, this provides a novel perspective on coaching for performance under pressure. A topic that is discussed in detail is the need for a pre-performance routine and Shaun offers his insights as to what constitutes an effective one. Shaun also shares his views on how he integrates psychology within skill acquisition and the need to have a 'magpie mentality' to borrow the best bits from coaching in other sports. Finally, Shaun explains how to create pressure in training situations.

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