You know those moments where you wish you could go back, undo a decision, or handle a pressure moment differently? Dan Abrahams knows them well. As a world-renowned sports psychologist who has worked with elite athletes across tennis, football, and rugby, he’s turned those experiences into a framework that reshapes how top performers think, prepare, and show up.
Hear why your mind is a time traveller (and how Novak Djokovic proves it), what mindfulness actually is beyond the clichés, and how to finally anchor your own mental skills practice so it actually sticks.
If you’re serious about performing under pressure, this conversation gives you the tools, language, and mindset to start today.
00:05 Dan on the setbacks that shaped his mental skills practice.
03:35 The mind as a time traveller & mindfulness vs meditation.
16:45 Domain-specific mindfulness explained.
22:45 Anchoring your mental skills practice in a framework.
30:30 From golfer to coach & the athlete he wished he worked with.
36:00 Coaching unicorn-level players & the pitfalls to avoid.
41:00 Attention, intensity & intent: the three pillars of performance.
50:00 How performance moments and frameworks guide his day.
56:30 The power of a “game face” in high-pressure moments.
1:04:30 Roy Keane & the use of an alter ego on the pitch.
1:14:30 Why he always starts with the strength and conditioning coach.
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What is Performance Intelligence?
There's IQ. There's EQ. Introducing PQ. All things human performance with PQ founder, Andrew May, exploring the latest in human performance with an all-star cast of subject matter experts covering physical and psychological wellbeing, performance psychology, sport, business, entertainment, the performing arts, leadership, and science.
Learn valuable lessons that can be applied to optimising performance in your personal and professional life. Performance Intelligence applies to the way we turn up in relationships and the way we turn up at work, it applies to the way we perform in front of 10,000 people and the way we perform in front of one.