Evidence of the work

Last season was probably one of the more challenging seasons I’ve had personally. My role changed and there were times where I had to deal with things not going the way I wanted or expected. Working with Frankie helped me take a lot of the emotion out of those moments and understand what was actually going on for me. A big thing was learning what I could control and what I couldn’t. Instead of wasting energy fighting things outside of my control, I got better at focusing on how I wanted to respond and what I could bring to the team. Frankie knows me really well now, so he also knows when to challenge me and when to just listen. Our work has definitely helped me become more aware of myself, not only as a basketball player but away from the game as well.

Moving overseas to play football has been an amazing experience, but there are definitely challenges that come with it that people probably don’t see. You’re away from home, trying to perform, adjusting to a new environment and dealing with all the normal ups and downs of professional sport. Frankie has been someone I can speak openly with about all of it. He’s helped me understand myself better and recognise some of the things I do when I’m stressed or putting too much pressure on myself. I think I trust myself a lot more now. I don’t overthink everything as much and I’m getting better at communicating what I need rather than keeping everything to myself.

I’ve worked with different people around performance before, but my work with Frankie has been different. There’s no bullshit with him. We can have a real conversation about what’s going on without everything needing to turn into a technique or something I need to ‘fix’. He’s helped me understand some of my patterns, especially when I’m under a lot of pressure or frustrated with myself. I still get pissed off. I still have bad days. The difference is I catch myself a lot quicker now and don’t let one moment turn into three bad days. That’s probably been the biggest thing for me.

I’ve played basketball in a lot of different places and every team and country is different. Different coaches, different teammates, different expectations. One thing Frankie has helped me with is understanding how I react to all of that. I’m a competitive person and I care a lot, so sometimes that can work for me and sometimes it can work against me. We’ve worked a lot on recognising those moments earlier and not reacting straight away. I’m definitely more aware now of how I communicate and the energy I bring when things aren’t going well. For me, that’s been really valuable.

For a long time, football probably had too much control over how I felt about myself. If I played well, everything was good. If I didn’t play, got dropped or had a bad game, I’d carry it around with me. That’s something Frankie and I have worked on a lot. I still care massively about football and my performance, but I’m getting better at separating a bad performance from thinking there’s something wrong with me. It sounds simple, but it’s made a massive difference. I enjoy football more now and I think I’m actually better under pressure because I’m not constantly judging myself.