Duncan Simpson, Assistant Head of Mental Conditioning at IMG Academy, is passionate about working with people to maximize their potential and help them accomplish what they haven’t. In this interview, he talks about how focus, not confidence, is the most important mental skill. The best focus on the right things at the right time. The key is to detect distractions and dial in for 1 minute.

Duncan describes that confidence is a belief state. Confident is not an emotional state. It doesn’t matter how you feel. When we are performing, there is no reason to change how we feel. Instead, he suggests we move on and shift our focus.

Towards the end of the interview, he describes that motivation is a lie. It is discipline that is key to high performance.

Other gems that Duncan discussed include:

• His “Time Machine” exercise
• 4 parts of a routine: physical, technical, tactile, and mental.
• How to layer imagery
• His epic failure that helps him get to where he is today.

Head over cindrakamphoff.com/Duncan for a description and summary.

You can follow Duncan on Twitter @SportPsychDunc or email him at duncan.simpson@img.com.