Thibo David is a personal trainer and coach based in London, who works with global stars in sport, business, and touring musicians. Most famously, he has been working with pop star Harry Styles, who surprised both the running (and non-running!) world a few weeks ago in the Berlin Marathon, posting a hugely impressive sub-3 marathon in only his second attempt at the distance.
While Harry's efforts have rightly garnered the plaudits - he did the work himself after all - there has been less coverage in the press about the man behind creating the sufficient training, fitness, and resilience to allow Styles to smash his personal best by 25 minutes, on a stifling and unseasonably hard day. To find out more about the specific training, protocols, and workouts of his success, go to https://substack.com/home/post/p-174321236 but if you want to find out about the man and methods behind the success and learn how to run like Harry - then this is a completely different way of seeing the World, run training, and how to think about yourself as an athlete and performer. Thibo's approach using 'The Pouvoir method' is based on his time in the Green Berets in the French army, which might surprise you. As a sport scientist, it makes perfect sense, but this is very different from what you might expect!
His ethos is: "We assist ambitious Humans in recalibrating their bodies and minds so they can lead with clarity and precision under pressure."
We hope that your pre-conceptions are challenged and that you enjoy the show.
To find out more about Thibo, follow him on instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/thibo_david
or go to his website to go in more detail and sign up to work with him:
A one off special collaboration between ‘The Slice of Pie’ Psychology podcast and The Focused Mind. Host of SOP, Pete Jackson, interviews Endurance Mind Coaching founder, Stu Holliday about his unique Endurance mind management programme for runners, cyclists, and triathletes, called ‘The Unbreakable Athlete.’
Pete delves into to ask:
What is the programme?
Who is it for?
What psychological problems does it solve for endurance athletes?
How long does it take?
Why did you develop it?
What are the results like?
And, how does it benefit people who take the course and implement the training?
As a specialist in Sport Psychology for endurance athletes, Stuart has worked in the field for over 12 years and the modular course that athletes complete at the same time they are doing their training for endurance races, he knows what techniques from mainstream and sport psychology best help athletes ‘get out of their own way’ and maximise their potential to deliver their best results under pressure, with true confidence and consistency.
In the episode, Pete uses his psychological training and socratic questioning to find out the methodology behind Stuart’s approach to test it’s validity against research findings and best practice for elite sport with a programme that can benefit all.
If you are chasing targets for marathons, triathlons, sportives, or criteriums, this is an episode not to miss.
You can find out more about Stuart and about the Unbreakable Athlete programme at https://endurancemindcoaching.com or on instagram @endurancemindcoaching
You can listen back to Stuart’s first appearance on Slice of Pie at:
Professor Andy Lane’s article in the New York times, can be read here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/well/mind/sport-psychology-performance-tips.html
The R.E.S.I.S.T project can be found at:
Endurance Mind Coaching Founder, Stu Holliday, talks with Fraser MacDonald Oulds again, about the mental capacity that endurance athletes build not just in terms of physical, but also psychologically during build phases. We discuss practices that free up space, such as limiting social media, as well as growing capacity through emotional flexibility and broadening our training opportunities to allow for performance bests and improvements to occur.
A lot of what we discuss was covered in the classic book: Endure: Mind Body and the Curiously Elastic limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson. In his opinion, one of the major factors we should consider endurance pain non-judgementally and as emotion free as possible. We hope that our conversation helps you think a little differently than before.
Endurance Mind Coaching Founder, Stu Holliday, talks with athlete, Fraser MacDonald Oulds again, about the mindset shift that has to occur when an athlete gets injured and needs to mentally pivot to rehabbing. As a Sport and Exercise Psychologist, sadly injury is an occupational hazard, but we can help athletes get favourable outcomes, expedited by individuals treating their rehab just like training, cultivating an optimistic mindset, avoiding spiralling into a mentally bad place. In this interview we explore how Fraser will use the Unbreakable Athlete training course to help him get back to competitive racing in a different way to most. The lessons within are universal, wherever you are in your training.
Endurance Mind Coaching Founder, Stu Holliday, talks with all round athlete, Fraser MacDonald Oulds, about how he has cultivated mindset shifts associated with improving his performance across his swimming, water polo, and running. Within running, from track and road transitioning more to hill, fell, and ultra distances.
Steve Hobbs (of The Milestone Pursuit run coaching company), speaks to Stu (Founder of Endurance Mind Coaching) about the benefits and things to learn about goalsetting, whatever level of endurance athlete you are.
Paul Benney describes himself as having spent 30 years at the coalface of music, media, and acid house.
If you’re into electronic music, you’ll likely know his work as a co-founder of seminal 90s magazine Jockey Slut and its associated club night, Bugged Out!, which began in Manchester 30 years ago. Since then, Bugged Out! has held residencies in Liverpool and London and now hosts a weekender event, next taking place in March 2026 in beautiful Bognor. Most recently, Bugged Out! curated a day celebrating its 30th anniversary at the Stonebridge tent at Glastonbury Festival.
After Jockey Slut folded in the 2000s, the spirit of the brand was revived post-pandemic as Disco Pogo — a more grown up electronic music print magazine published twice per year. It’s a coffee-table-quality publication featuring long-form writing on all things electronic music, both past and present. Disco Pogo has also published books on Andrew Weatherall, Daft Punk, and Aphex Twin.
As a journalist, editor, promoter, manager, record label founder, publisher, and distributor, Paul has remained constantly active. For the last five years, he has been developing a hybrid artist services company and media platform DMY.
In our conversation, we explore the mental health challenges that come with maintaining such boundless energy, especially after burning the candle at both ends in his 20s and early 30s. He shares how becoming a father, moving out of London to Leigh-on-Sea, and taking up cycling helped him adopt more sustainable physical and psychological habits.
Ryan Morley is a cycling coach, bike fitter, data analyst,and former RAF serviceman. Ryan began his racing career in time trials at the age of 15 and entered the world of road and criterium racing shortly after. As a junior, Ryan raced extensively, competing for the Welsh national team.
Having worked within the cycling industry for several years,he then pursued a career in the Royal Air Force. Which was then ended when he was diagnosed with an underlying heart condition that prevented him from ever riding again and forced him to leave the service. Unwilling to leave hispassion behind, Ryan chose to apply his extensive knowledge and analytical mind to coaching and bike fitting.
In 2023, Ryan took the plunge and launched the Ryan MorleyCycle Centre in Wrexham, North Wales, at the same time as becoming the Head Coach for the Invictus Games, for Team UK.
We met as I was the Sport Psychologist for the squad and helped Ryan and his athletes prepare for the games. This conversation is all about developing a mindset for coaching, cycling, and life. Ryan is a hugely engaging characterand someone I’m proud to have supported over the years.
This is the first episode of a mini series on the Focused Mind Podcast that talks to high performers across the music business who talk about their life, mindset, and skills they've developed to have long careers. We look at what individuals have done to look after themselves and what they'd consider helpful for working in the industry in the current day. In the series, we’ve got interviews with people in roles, including DJs, performers and producers, Distributors, Marketers, Engineers, Booking agents, Tour management, and music journalists and promoters.
Our first guest is Nick Huggett, one of the best-known A&R and Artist Managers in the World. He discovered, signed and developed Adele, as well as Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, MIA, Jack Penate, Rizzle Kicks, Kenya Grace and Lola Young.
In 2000, Nick was offered an A&R job by James Lavelle at the Mo Wax record label, before going on to join XL in 2003. Subsequently, Huggett has held senior A&R positions at Columbia, Island, and Parlophone. Nick has now established his own independent company, bringing to bear his wealth of label and management experience in every aspect of artist development.
Nick’s Contact details
https://www.nickhuggett.com/
https://www.instagram.com/nick_huggett
Nick’s perfect concert lineup
CURRY MAN
GABRIEL DE ROSSA
GILBERTO GIL
ARTHUR VEROCAI
The insights shared in this series are for information only. If you are experiencing any difficulty or distress with any aspect of mental life, we recommend you speak to your GP or licensed professional, such as can be found via the likes of https://www.musicindustrytherapists.com/ or https://backline.care/
Mario Fraioli is the host of The Morning Shakeout podcast and the author of the weekly newsletter of the same name. As well as these well-known endeavours, he spends the majority of his work as a full-time endurance running coach.
In this episode, timed to drop a month prior to a number of major marathon races Worldwide, FMC podcast host Stu Holliday wanted to discuss with Mario about how athletes can set and shift their mindset at key stages of the marathon training cycle and in readiness to race. Reviewing each other's practice and guidance for athletes working as a coach and sport psychologist respectively, Stu and Mario cover how athletes can improve their thinking about their training, and race mentality, and marry this with their robust fitness to try and achieve their performance best - regardless of what the time says on the clock at the finish!
Mario has over 20 years of experience coaching and offers incredible wisdom and advice to complement whatever level of training or athlete you may well be, whether that is an elite or amateur, experienced or novice.
This was a great episode to record and Mario's insights, wisdom, and guidance around mindset development are superb. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording.
Sign up to the Morning Shakeout newsletter: https://themorningshakeout.substack.com/
Listen to the Morning Shakeout podcast:
https://themorningshakeout.com/category/the-morning-shakeout-podcast/
Follow Mario on Instagram: https://instagram.com/mariofraioli
Follow Mario on Strava: https://stories.strava.com/profiles/mario-fraioli
In this mini episode, Sport and Performance Psychologist Stu Holliday answers the question: Why should everyone know about the Valencia marathon? And the second question... and why should they care?!
Whether you are a runner or not, this event is unique in the World of endurance sport and in the imaginations of the organisers. They put themselves in a different place to nearly all other marathon planners in so far of their aims to make the race 'The Everest of Marathons' for all runners. But what does that mean? Why does it take the effort of the city and regional council to support these aims and what, fundamentally, does it mean in relation to how our environment massively influences our thinking, how we behave and what implications that has for performance in life (across all domains!). I believe that the story of what the organisers of the Valencia marathon have done to elevate this small (in size standards) city in relation to elite sport, aiming to facilitate World Records, and creating a destination event has lessons that we can all use to understand how the environment in which we want to perform can have a huge influence on outcome. Dive in to find out more!
Show links:
James Moles is an athlete and run coach with his own company (https://www.jamesmolesrunningcoaching.com/)
James Power of 10 performance page: https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=324086
Lewis Moses is the MD of New Levels Coaching - The UK's largest run coaching company.
Lewia Power of 10 performance page:
https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=6495
Articles cited in episode:
Let's Run 'How did Valencia become the ciudad del running?' https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/12/how-valencia-became-the-ciudad-del-running/
Running Magazine Canada: https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/valencia-marathon-sees-record-number-of-sub-three-hour-finishers/
Nick Steel is both a rowing and executive coach in sport and business respectively. Having had a career in the energy sector all over the World, he dug into his love of rowing to set himself up on his return to the UK providing rowing training to all levels of ability.
Last year he was selected as the rowing coach for Team UK at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf (and again for Invictus 2025 in Canada). At the 2023 games we roomed together and shared many hours talking coaching, psychology, sport.
As you’ll hear in this episode, Nick is articulate dispelling myths about the sport, about his work on the board of Love Rowing, which tries to bring rowing to all, as well as his reflections on the demands of the sport, the mental capacity needed, and skills required to be your best in the discipline.
As I tend to work in the Endurance field, it was a conversation taking me out of my comfort zone. I hope that you can also be open to hearing about the mindset required for a sport that you may not know much about, have a passing interest in, or be a passionate enthusiast for. We hope that you enjoy the first show to kick-start to our new series.
Links:
Nick Steel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-steel-a3992013/ Love Rowing: https://loverowing.org/
Hugh Jackman talking about rowing (Tim Ferris show):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzF8StNS_aw (at about 1:19:10)
Stu Holliday, Noel Brick, & Dan Robinson ‘The Psychology of Running’ podcast.
This episode supports your understanding and use of the Psychology of Running book!
Show Notes
RESIST VIDEO LINKS (as discussed in the episode): https://resiststopping.wixsite.com/resist/videos
BOOK LINK (30% off):
Following on from previous guest Chris Madden (Episode 20), we wanted to bring the head of MITC (https://musicindustrytherapists.com/), Tamsin Embleton on to have a more in-depth discussion on the work we do in the music industry supporting artists, staff, and crew in person, virtually, at festivals, and how needed the work of caring professionals is a necessity in this modern day and age.
Tamsin gives us her background working for the likes of Anna Calvi and Standon Calling, and a bit about her working practice and style of work. This episode is aimed at anyone in the music industry, music fans, the psych curious, or who wants to know how their favourite bands, labels, or artists may have people like us supporting them.
We talk more in-depth about our respective training, how we got into the industry, and the importance of our own self-care and emotional management, working in an industry renowned for pushing its employees' work hours, sleep patterns, and overall well-being (which is all covered in more detail in Tamsin's book 'The Touring Manual').
As you'll hear, this was a fun episode for us to have the time and space to connect and share what we do behind the scenes to support other people as a group of practitioners. We hope you enjoy it.
Links:
Jonah Hill Stutz documentary:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81387962
MITC (Music Industry Therapy Collective: https://musicindustrytherapists.com/
The Touring Manual: https://www.touringmanual.com/
Chris Madden, Psychotherapist: https://chrismaddentherapy.com/
Stuart Holliday, Psychologist: https://www.focusedmindcoaching.co.uk/
Sean Warburton (@seanaldo26.2) is a Manchester-based runner and podcaster (The Local Runners), who has completed 38 marathons, and holds a PR of 2 hours, 38 minutes. In this 3rd episode of the mini-series on Autumn marathon, we turn the spotlight on how to cope if you get injured in the build-up to your main race of the year. How can you mentally cope better, to improve both your overall well-being, and how you come out of the injury into your next training block?
What tips, techniques, and strategies has Sean applied to help him overcome missing out on training for this coming weekend's Berlin Marathon and instead focusing on coming back stronger for a Spring marathon next year? How has his psychological training skills that helped him PB twice in succession (in his 37th and 38th marathons!) transfer to the injury rehab process? Listen in to find out how.
Podcast & Book links for listeners:
The Local Runners podcast episode 46 (where I guested): https://open.spotify.com/episode/6buasVtVpb1ejzj3izxnCt?si=40c7f186940f4085
The Strength Running Podcast by Jason Fitzgerald
Endure by Alex Hutchinson.
The Comeback Quotient by Matt Fitzgerald
Ross Braden is an elite British marathon runner who finished in 12th place in 2022's London Marathon (in a time of 2:14:32). A client of mine, Ross has broken client confidentiality to talk and reflect on the psych skill training we worked on together in preparation for that event, and in preparation for his upcoming 2023 Amsterdam debut appearance, he is an exceptional talent and we discuss how he works on his mental fitness in order to help him fulfill his potential on race day.
This episode is part of the Autumn 2023 marathon preparation series by Focused Mind Coaching in order to help athletes at all levels mentally train their fitness, resilience, and flexibility specifically at this time of the calendar season. With the GOAT (Eliud Kipchoge) racing Berlin Marathon on the 24th of September, attempting the World Record for the marathon distance, we aim to show how you can take a little from his thinking and my work and research and apply it in your discipline, training, and racing.
Matt Fitzgerald is a running coach, retreat owner, and to most psych-curious runners and triathletes, a prolific author on how to improve performance. A dedicated, evidence-based, (and non-academic) researcher of how to wring as much out of your discipline as possible, his pithy, and eloquent prose has helped runners at all levels improve, covering topics including training, diet, and mindset.
As a professional Sport Psychologist, I’ve wanted to interview Matt for a long time, as he has the mass reach that a lot of academics and pros don’t, but does have the respect of his Worldwide audience and athletes. This interview, from the tale end of 2022 covers his last book ‘On Pace’ which offers runners tips, tools, and intel on how to best dose out the right speed across your specific discipline.
We also cover his time training with former Focused Mind Podcast Ben Rosario of the Hoka NAZ elite which he wrote about in ‘Run like a pro, even if you’re slow’ and ‘Running the Dream’ as well as his work as a run coach with his company 80/20. We delve deep into matters of the mind that he and I respectively face as a coach and Sport Psych.
Towards the end of our interview, Matt reveals information about his latest venture, ‘Dream Run camp’ which is a runners retreat in Flagstaff, AZ, which he has set up with his wife, and to date over 20 runners have been put through their paces to make gains in their overall performance.
Links:
https://mattfitzgerald.org/ Matt’s personal website
https://www.8020endurance.com/ - Matt’s Coaching company and website
https://dreamruncamp.com/ - Matt’s runners retreat
Sarah Broadhead is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist based in Sheffield, UK. With extensive experience in business and sport (including 3 Olympic Cycles as the Psychologist for GB TaeKwondo), she set up ‘Broadhead Performance’ 5 years ago.
In November 2022 she published her first book, Perform and Thrive: A Sportsperson’s Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing, aimed at athletes, coaches and psychologists at all levels. In our conversation we discuss her background, history, and we can all improve our performance by having sound mental health as a platform on which to build. For avid and aspiring writers, she gives great advice about how you can improve your mental health in the writing process!
A former manager of mine, I’ve been wanting to get Sarah on the podcast to catch up with her on sport, business, and psychology, and this interview didn’t disappoint! We hope you also enjoy.
You can find out more about Sarah via her Website: https://broadheadperformance.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarah-broadhead-9952417
Instagram: @sarahbpsych
Chris Madden is a Counselling Psychotherapist based in Leeds. He helps clients explore and navigate new insights and perspectives to bring about a better way of relating to themselves, others or situations they may find challenging.
He works with clients from all walks of life and has significant specific experience of working therapeutically with clients from the music, live events and other creative industries. We recorded this conversation in the week that would have been DJ and Producer Andrew Weatherall’s 60th birthday. Chris worked with and knew Andrew well (and I’m personally guided by his philosophy and work), so it was timely and appropriate for us to meet and share our respective experience of working with musicians from a therapeutic perspective. Chris’ experience and back story is well worth your time, and his sensitive consideration of his practice serves him and his clients really well. We hope you enjoy our conversation.
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You can contact Chris at https://chrismaddentherapy.com/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrismaddentherapy
Chinwag Interview with Andrew Weatherall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v7yP2ugmFE
A Tribute to Andrew Weatherall (Leeds inner city electronic music conference). Lead by Chris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3Zd5_w0SI
Simon Freeman is the Editor and writer for Like the Wind magazine. It is a long-form magazine, printed every quarter 'for runners, by runners' including notable figures from the sport including Dick Beardsley, to interviews with Lance Armstrong, and Courtney Dauwalter, amongst many others covering 'why we run' rather than how to run. Digging into people's motivations, experiences, and how running plays a part in their overall life. Since starting 10 years ago, it now is self-sufficient, with a staff of 5, sponsors, and Worldwide distribution. If you like running, *you'll probably like it!*
Co-founded with his wife Julie initially in London, they now live in Switzerland and run in the mountains there, really enjoying the trails that their surroundings offer. A very focused runner in his early 30s, going from an unhealthy, overweight smoker, Simon pushed his marathon time down to a highly respectable 2:37 and has taken that drive, energy, and determination into his business. As friends of over 13 years, we took the opportunity to take stock, reflect on his own personal journey, and try and map how his thinking has evolved to help others take the lessons from endurance sports into other domains of their life, such as work, play, and business.
Probably my most personal of episodes, I hope you enjoy our conversation and learn more about the psychology of endurance to weave into your life and help develop your focus.
Simon can be found @likethewindmag on social media channels. Excitingly, he is also contributing quarterly to @theamshakeout podcast with Mario Fraioli where he has been a guest on 2 episodes that I recommend you check out if you like this one.