Sholto Carnegie
GB Olympic Mens Team
Olympian
2 x Senior World Champion
Multiple World Medalist
Multiple Henley Royal Regatta Winner
Working with Stephen has been instrumental in improving my focus and attention. He has helped me be more present and use pressure as a motivator, enabling me to bounce back from the disappointment of the Olympics and become World Champion. He taught me a simple framework for conditioning my attention, giving me effective tools to excel and enjoy my time as an athlete.
Knowing when my attention is drifting has greatly impacted my consistency. By setting clear intentions, I've been able to avoid overwhelm and complacency. Moreover, being mentally and physically focused under pressure has allowed me to perform at a high level on the world stage.
This focus has kept me grounded during selection and allowed me to progress throughout the season, leading to winning the World Championships. Reinforcing humility and maintaining a hunger for improvement will ensure I continue to lift the bar for the next season.
Calvin Tarczy
Harvard University
Silver Medallist at Senior World Cup
4 x World Champion
World Record Holder
2 x National Champion
Henley Royal Regatta Record Holder
I have worked with Stephen in both a team environment as well as on a one-to-one basis. In both cases the work I have done with him has been extremely beneficial in developing a winning mindset that has gone on to be the foundation of my subsequent performances.
The work he did focused on helping me develop tools for myself that I could use across all environments and situations to help me keep a grounded, objective opinion on my process. These tools have helped me to deal with obstacles in a more efficient manner without letting them get the better of me.
Stephen’s work helped me to look inwardly at myself and my performances. The tools we developed were incredibly useful in allowing me to lead my own progress. The techniques I developed not only have helped me to evaluate both the positives and negatives but have also been invaluable in developing new tools to help move myself towards repeating the positives rather than the negatives.
In addition to this, these tools aided me greatly in overcoming potential obstacles to my progress. This has been particularly useful since having to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. His work with me helped me adapt to a constantly changing training environment brought about due to government restrictions as well as allowing me to lead my own recovery from Covid.
The work Stephen has done with me has given me a greater level of resilience and flexibility, which has allowed me to be more consistent with my training and performance. This has given me greater confidence to push myself in all my efforts and the ability to keep making improvements whatever the circumstances
Catherine Blazye
Middlebury College
3 x NCAA Semi-Finalist
2 x All - NESCAC Team Player
4 x ITA Scholar Athlete
44 - 4 College Singles Record
Varsity Women's Team Captain
Stephen worked with me throughout my college tennis career. I had experienced the very highs of the sport and then hit the very low. After one of my most successful seasons, I suffered from post-viral fatigue syndrome. Stephen gave me the tools to continue improving and succeeding as an athlete despite not being on the court. He is motivational but at the same time very honest and real. This is something that I really appreciated and valued.
Once back on the court, Stephen helped me build my performance by focusing on the simple things and the things that I could control. I can honestly say that I came back a stronger player because of this.
In addition, tennis can be tricky- it’s both an individual sport and a team sport. Navigating this can be difficult at times and Stephen gave me the opportunity to utilise my leadership skills alongside my tennis ability to better my performance.
Sean Bowden
Oxford University Boat Club
Chief Coach
Stephen started working with the OUBC Squad at the start of the 2019-20 season and has been able to influence both individuals as well as the team's behaviour from the start.
With the Blue Boat selected, his close work with the crew clearly helped them to challenge themselves allowing them to see greater opportunities for improvement and control of their performance.
Consistency of performance in elite sport is a necessity and something that many athletes struggle with often seeing outside factors as dominant leaving them as some kind of passive victim.
Much of Stephen’s work addresses this issue increasing the skill and belief of the athlete to fix problems and appraise performance correctly.
Stephen’s use of formal psychological constructs delivered in a language and style that connects well to the athletes allows for an effective working relationship to flourish.
The rowers respond well to being challenged and Stephen delivers his message and ideas in a way that appeals to anyone driven to succeed but perhaps just not quite sure of how to get there.
Tobias Schroder
Oxford University
GB Olympic Mens Team
World Champion
Stroke Seat Winning Blue Boat 2022
The work Stephen has done with us at OUBC over the last few seasons has been invaluable.
It has been the first time in eight years of rowing that I had coaching for my attitude to training and racing.
Stephen met with us regularly throughout the season, first as a whole squad and then in a smaller group with more detailed discussions after we separated into the Blue Boat to prepare for the Boat Race.
He helped us to build one killer instinct that we brought to both training and racing. When we had this attitude we knew that we would produce results. He put our performance in our control.
Too often in my past seasons and teams, we’ve been waiting to find the mindset needed to win. Stephen facilitated conversations between athletes that showed clearly what needed to be addressed to bring the best out of ourselves.
Stephen didn’t build anything that we didn’t already have: he made us aware of what needed to be done to succeed at the highest level and helped us bring that attitude out from within ourselves.
The result was a boat that was like no other I’ve experienced in its passion and motivation to be the best it could be.
Photo by AllMarkOne ©
Bobby Thatcher
St Paul's School
Director of Rowing and 1st Eight Coach
Conditioning performances in work and sport comes down to the simple fact of developing into a better version of oneself.
Stephen has been a valuable part of the team working with SPSBC since late 2017.
He has taught the seniors to become more self-aware and intrinsically focused, ensuring a simple process when it comes to performing under pressure.
In turn, it has reinforced the consistency and increased performances both on the water and their academics.
Photo by WEROW ©
Douwe De Graaf
Harvard University
4 x World Champion
World Record Holder
2 x National Champion
Henley Royal Regatta Record Holder
Stephen was a hugely useful component of our training programme for the 2018 season.
From day 1, in our first few whole team discussions, he helped us to slowly gain an idea of what we wanted to be - both on and off the water - to ultimately make us reach our full potential. The idea was to create a “Paul’s Mindset” which the whole team could buy into. This mindset evolved over the year but the main principles were constant. This not only strengthened team spirit but increased consistency.
Although very useful in maintaining consistency - Stephen was probably most useful in the run-up to races. As nerves increased and tensions heightened this was the time that things could fall apart most easily. He helped us enter a race day with the exact same expectations of ourselves and of our teammates. This made sure we were all on the same page as we got onto the start line and confident that we all knew exactly what we were doing and that everyone was backing each other up.
George Dickinson
Princeton University
World Champion
2 x National Champion
Henley Royal Regatta Record Holder
Lightweight Junior 2km National Record Holder
Working with Stephen early in the season significantly improved the group's overall consistency he was able to keep us focused on the end goal when we were far out from the racing season
I also thought it takes time before we start seeing more actual boat speed from working with Stephen and I’m glad we had since the end of our 2017 season
Specifically, I thought the times when Stephen made the most difference was before SHORR 2018, focusing on simple aspects made a huge difference for the race.
Another example was Henley when we talked about the process of preparing for the race and managing ourselves throughout.
Our talks before big races managing people’s nerves and building confidence about doing what we would do on a regular basis and having a set plan around racing.
Ollie Parish
Cambridge University
World Champion
World Silver Medalist
National Champion
Henley Royal Regatta Record Holder
Boat Race Winner
It was great working with Stephen over the last 2 years.
The impact on me directly was pretty stabilising, over the course of the 2 years I feel like I've become more self-aware with my actions and how they impact the people around me. Having the tools to really get the boat around me moving was instrumental in the success there.
Being intrinsically motivated was another really simple one, able to be bulletproof in the face of any setbacks.
On the group as a whole, I think there was definitely a big impact, especially when we separated into a first 8.
I think regards to building performance and consistency he has helped a lot, having a very very clear focus for each piece or each session just to get one thing right really boosts engagement and progress. Having a defined process each session we do really helps with nerves and confidence when it comes to racing as well, especially at Henley.