The High Performance Podcast

Steve McClaren has lived the full arc of elite football, from the immense pressure of managing England to lifting trophies in Europe and standing alongside Sir Alex Ferguson during Manchester United’s historic Treble campaign.In this episode, Steve takes us inside the uniquely brutal world of the England job and World Cup expectation, describing the psychological weight of carrying 70 million people on your shoulders and breaking down the volatile mix of camp chemistry, player fitness, and sheer luck required to win the 2026 World Cup.The conversation shifts to the blueprint of a modern rebuild, analysing the early signs of structural alignment at Manchester United under INEOS. Drawing from a lifetime of experience, Steve explains why tactics and staff are fundamentally useless unless the entire hierarchy of a football club is pulling in the exact same direction.He also shares what he learned inside Ferguson’s machine, from total trust in his staff to a relentless hunger that reset the standard the morning after the Treble. This is a conversation about pressure, standards and what it really takes to build sustained success at the very top of the game.Steve McClaren has joined Rotherham FC as Head of Football https://www.themillers.co.uk/Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au XTB 👉To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-au  AG1 👉Head to http://drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We packed up the studio in the Vauxhall Combo electric van and travelled to the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre for a deeply reflective conversation with Team GB athlete Georgia Hunter-Bell.Away from the heat of competition, Georgia opens up for the first time about a chapter of her life she has never publicly revealed before. She shares her experience going through dark times after walking away from the sport that had defined her identity for so many years.Georgia also explains how navigating that dark period allowed her to return as "version 2.0," armed with a powerful new perspective on what it truly takes to be an elite athlete as she looks ahead to the LA 2028 Olympic Games.This episode explores the mental battles of elite performance, reflecting on Georgia’s resilience through her darkest chapter and how she rebuilt her identity.In Partnership with Vauxhall. This special episode was made possible by our partner, Vauxhall, the official automotive partner for Team GB through to the 2028 LA Olympics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trust is the single most important currency in sport, business, and life - and in the age of AI, it's becoming scarcer by the day. This week Jake Humphrey is joined by producer Will to dig into why.Drawing on some of the most powerful conversations in the High Performance archive, they explore what trust really is, how it breaks down, and whether it can ever truly be rebuilt.Featuring:Rachel Botsman — Oxford lecturer and world expert on trust — on the three stages of how trust collapses.James Timpson on why the most successful culture he ever built ran on just two rules.Stuart Broad on the quiet act of leadership that holds a team together when everything falls apart.And Martin Lewis — widely regarded as the most trusted person in Britain — on why you cannot market trust: you can only earn it.Plus: why Southampton's Spygate is just the catalyst for a much bigger conversation, what the rise of AI means for human credibility, and the difference between performative trust and the real thing.🔗 Rachel Botsman: https://pod.fo/e/1179ff🔗 James Timpson: https://pod.fo/e/c4dbd🔗 Stuart Broad: https://pod.fo/e/2093a6🔗 Martin Lewis: https://pod.fo/e/22a519🔗 Damian's habit series — Why Building Trust Beats Being Liked: https://pod.fo/e/323b0dPostcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-auAG1 👉Head to http://drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packsXTB 👉🏻 To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Justin Cochrane is one of elite football’s most respected coaches and a vital part of the England Men's backroom team. Justin’s leadership focuses on reading a squad’s emotional temperature and providing players the freedom to be themselves.In this episode, Justin shares the moving story of losing his wife Leeanne to cancer and how her selfless approach to her final days redefined his perspective. He discusses the "medicine" of football, explaining how returning to coaching weeks after her death provided the stability needed to carry immense grief while operating at the highest level.Justin also speaks to Jake and Damian about how personal trauma made him a better leader by shortening the gap between disappointment and recovery. From raising his three sons alone to preparing for a World Cup, Justin offers a masterclass in resilience, guided by Leeanne’s final gift: the reminder to always have "someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to."Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-auAG1 👉Head to http://drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packsXTB 👉 To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-auGo Henry 👉 Grow their skills and their money at gohenry.com/highperformance with £5 FREE to get started! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ronda Rousey is back in the spotlight on Netflix this weekend — and it felt like the perfect moment to revisit this conversation we had with her in Hollywood - one of the most funny and honest conversations we've ever had on this show.Sitting down with Jake and Damian in Hollywood, Ronda reveals the secret she hid from everyone: that she fought the final chapter of her UFC career already concussed, shutting herself in dark locker rooms between rounds to hide the damage. She talks about losing her dad at eight years old, the coaches who dislocated her jaw, the 14-second armbar she invented on the spot that's still the fastest title submission in UFC history, and the moment after her defeat to Holly Holm where she genuinely thought dying would be preferable.Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au AG1 👉 head to drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packs.XTB 👉 To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone talks about what it takes to win. Nobody talks about what comes the morning after. In this episode, Jake and Damian go deep into the HPP archive to explore one of the most uncomfortable truths in high performance: why the moment of victory so often leaves elite performers feeling empty, lost, and at a total loss for what comes next.Featuring conversations with Yaya Touré on the strange emptiness of retirement, Ben Ainslie on the post-Olympic blues that hit 24 hours after winning gold, Ian Thorpe on walking away from a sport that stopped feeling like his own, Héctor Bellerín on why your value should burn like a candle - steady, never spiking - and Billy Monger on finding purpose after having it stripped away entirely.Jake and Damian also get into the psychology of why we delay our happiness, what self-determination theory tells us about intrinsic motivation, and why the people who handle the end of peak achievement best are the ones who were never only defined by it.The question isn't really 'what do you do the day after you win?' It's 'who are you when the goal is gone?'Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au AG1 👉 head to drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packs.XTB 👉 To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-auListen to the full episodes:Yaya Touré https://pod.fo/e/3f55a1Ben Ainslie https://pod.fo/e/661e6Ian Thorpe https://pod.fo/e/d9a3aHéctor Bellerín https://pod.fo/e/d3369Billy Monger https://pod.fo/e/a8d2c Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Wight, known to millions as “The Big Show,” is one of the most recognisable figures in sports entertainment history. In this episode, Paul reveals the stark reality of a life lived under a terminal diagnosis, opening up about the decades he spent assuming he wouldn't grow old and the grueling work he is now doing to rebuild a body he never expected to still be using at 53.He discusses the radical selflessness that defined his thirty-year career, where he viewed himself as the "wall" for others to break through rather than the destination. Paul shares his unique three-step formula for success and explores the hidden psychological weight of consistently prioritising his opponents' glory over his own world-title ambitions.Paul also reflects on a profound emotional breakthrough that arrived uninvited on a film set, shattering a lifetime of performed toughness.This is a rare, intimate look at a man finally pursuing a path entirely for himself, trading the wrestling ring for Shakespeare and discovering who he is when he no longer has to make someone else look good.Paul Wight will be returning to London for All Elite Wrestling’s record breaking show AEW All In: London - taking place over the bank holiday weekend on Sunday 30th August, live from Wembley Stadium. https://www.livenation.co.uk/Widely regarded as one of professional wrestling’s greatest “big men” of all time, the iconic Paul Wight has done it all in and out of the ring, holding 23 total championships, headlining the world’s biggest shows and appearing in dozens of films and television shows over his 30-year career.Wight shocked the wrestling world in February 2021 by signing with All Elite Wrestling, and has since served as a coach, mentor, commentator and wrestler in AEW, as well as an on-screen authority figure for AEW’s sister promotion, Ring of Honor. Standing in at 7’0”, Wight is one of the most recognisable figures in wrestling history and has brought decades of knowledge and experience to the blooming AEW roster.In limited AEW action, Wight has defeated QT Marshall at AEW All Out in 2021, and was a key figure in AEW’s cross-branded Yakuza: Like a Dragon Street Fight in November 2023, where he took a body slam onto a car from Powerhouse Hobbs.On the silver screen, Wight is known for performances including the legendary Captain Insano in The Waterboy, as well as appearances in Jingle All The Way, episodes of Saturday Night Live, MADtv, Hollywood Squares, The Weakest Link, Psych, Conan and headlined Netflix’s The Big Show Show.Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au AG1 👉 head to http://drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packs.XTB 👉🏻 To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special roundtable episode explores the vital role of mental fitness in reaching and sustaining peak performance. In this special roundtable episode, in partnership with BetterHelp, hosts Jake Humphrey, Spencer Matthews, and Matt Willis reframe therapy as an essential "performance tool." By comparing mental maintenance to physical training, the trio highlights how proactive support is key to navigating the pressures of modern life and sustaining peak performance.This conversation explores personal breakthroughs, from Jake’s experience with "Pure O" to Matt’s discovery of the power in asking, "How do I feel?" They discuss the value of having a "mental adult" in the room, a confidential professional who allows you to offload internal noise without the fear of burdening friends or family.Whether you are facing a crisis or simply seeking self-understanding, this episode demonstrates that therapy provides the clarity needed to show up as your best self. It is a raw, unscripted reminder that seeking support is a proactive choice for anyone committed to long-term resilience and growth.Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-auNeed help?If you or someone else is in danger, call 999 or go to A&E nowIf you need urgent help for your mental health, get help from NHS 111 online or call 111: https://111.nhs.uk/triage/check-your-mental-health-symptomsYour mental health is as important as your physical health. You will not be wasting anyone's time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What separates the athlete who cheats from the one who doesn't? And is the answer as simple as character — or is something else going on entirely?This week, Damian sits down with sports journalist James Witts, author of Dope, a book that goes deep into the culture surrounding elite sport and the forces that push athletes across the line.They get into the Enhanced Games arriving in Las Vegas, the staggering gap between how many athletes self-report doping versus how many ever test positive, and why doping in a contact sport like boxing is a fundamentally different moral question to doping on a bike.Jake and Damian also bring in archive clips from legends Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson — two athletes who faced the question head-on, and answered it differently. Plus: your questions from the comments, what Jake and Damian have been watching and reading this week.Dope by James Witts is out now.Listen to full episodes:Usain Bolt https://pod.fo/e/279623Michael Johnson https://pod.fo/e/254ca8Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Heights 👉 Get 20% off your subscription by using Code: HP20 here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp_heights_au3Go Henry 👉 Grow their skills and their money at gohenry.com/highperformance with £5 FREE to get started! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bjørn Mannsverk is the former F-16 fighter pilot who swapped combat missions for football kits to lead Bodø/Glimt on a historic rise. Under his guidance, the small Norwegian club achieved the impossible, dismantling giants like Manchester City, Inter Milan, and Atletico Madrid despite a stadium capacity of just 8,200.In this episode, Bjørn explains how he transformed the team by strictly banning the word "winning" and replacing it with a performance-driven culture built on "awareness training." He breaks down his "Fighter Pilot Method," including high-pressure "friction meetings" and the on-pitch huddle known as "The Ring" that refocused his team after every goal. Bjørn also explores how treating a dressing room like a combat squadron drove the club’s revenue from €4.2m to €80m and why letting go of ambition is the ultimate key to elite success.Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-postcode-au Heights 👉 Get 20% off your subscription by using Code: HP20 here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp_heights_au3Go Henry 👉 Grow their skills and their money at gohenry.com/highperformance with £5 FREE to get started! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.