The Mental Toughness Coach Behind Mahomes, Embiid, & Shaq: What All Elite Performers Have In Common — Paddy Steinfort

How do the best athletes perform under pressure, and can you train your brain to do the same? I sat down with mental toughness coach Paddy Steinfort, who went from being cut by Richmond in the AFL to coaching Patrick Mahomes and Joel Embiid.

Paddy breaks down his EASE framework (emotion, attention, strategy and execution), the 20-minute writing exercise from James Pennebaker he uses to clear stuck emotions, and why your brain can hold only a few things at once, the lesson Mahomes says he still uses. He shares what he learned watching an anaesthetist keep a patient alive during open heart surgery, why positive thinking won't help you in the moment, and why he disagrees with Ego Is the Enemy.

He also tells how one kind email introduced him to Adam Grant and Angela Duckworth, and how a three-day trek in Nepal taught him to stop racing everyone.