Josh Warrington on the mindset of a champion - Handpicked

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1:53Hey there, welcome along to another Friday episode of the High Performance Podcast. Look, we know that you can't always spare an hour or an hour and 20 minutes to listen to a full episode. So we like to just bring you shorter episodes on Fridays just to give you a little hit of high performance ahead of the weekend. And someone who might need a hit of high performance ahead of this weekend is Josh Warrington. And I'm here with Professor Damien Hughes because you're going to take us back to an old episode and we're going to relive a few moments and relearn a few lessons. And it just so happens to be a man who has a really big weekend coming up.

2:25Yeah, I love this series, Jake, where we go back into the archive and pick out some of our favourites. And one that stands out for me was when we met the brilliant Josh Warrington. So he's from Leeds, but he came over to Manchester to sit down with us and share something of his journey. He's a real anomaly in the fight game. He was a dental technician while he was also studying at university and also pursuing his career as a professional fighter. So he's a guy that's had a full agenda, but he's made the most out of every opportunity that he's had. And when we sat down with him, I just thought he was so rich in his stories and the lessons that he taught.

3:00What should we have first? Well, given that he's fighting Lee Wood tomorrow night, that's going to be a seminal moment for all fighters. And there's that great saying that a fight is never won in the dressing room, but it can be lost. and we spoke to Josh around how he handles those moments before he has to step out under the bright lights, how he keeps his confidence and his nerves in check to be able to go out there and deliver a performance and the way he explained to us that process was really rich for any of us that are ever finding ourselves in a pressured situation, how we can control our thoughts more effectively.

3:34Let's have a listen to him. How did you go through that process of learning to control those nerves to be able to be ice cold in your execution? Trying to jog my memory back from a kid. You know, you take bits of confidence from having victories in the ring. You take bits of confidence when you're sparring and you're working alongside people who are better than you as a younger lad. So my dad never wanted me to just go in and spar with lads my own size and weight. beat them up and then yeah give me a pat on back you know i'd always find reason or room to criticize and then and i always wanted to make sure i wanted i wanted praise off my dad i wanted him to say fucking well done that lad but he always wanted to push me as well so i'm i'm not sparring lads my own way i'm sparring lads are heavier than me more experienced than me and i'm having hard hard nights um but then when it comes to the fight that's where he's bit of mastermind as you you know, fucking psychologist as my dad and as a trainer worked.

4:41He used to say to me, walking to the ring, he said, this lad's not been mixed in the same company with what you've mixed in. You've been mixing with pros. You've been sparring with lads who are national champions. What has this lad done? He's not even got to that level. And you're thinking, he ain't been on the same level. He ain't put the same kind of work in. I've been coming on from school. I've been coming on from work and going straight to the gym. I've been doing that before. He ain't been to where I've been. and all of a sudden you start adding that and then you get a win, then another win and you're never winning it.

5:11That keeps on building and keeps on building. That kind of idea of grounding yourself in those really huge moments is probably vital. You talk a lot about the difference between the red brain and the blue brain. The red brain takes over and causes problems and the blue brain is the smart part of your brain. Is that really what he's doing there? He's trying to stay in that sort of blue brain thinking. Yeah, so to build his confidence, he's almost reminded himself of the hard work the sacrifices that he's done rather than allow himself to focus on what he can't do or what the gaps in his knowledge might be he's focused on the solid foundations that he's bringing into the ring is there also something in that though that he by reminding himself of all the hard work that he's done and the journey he's taken to get to this point it just adds a layer of confidence and a reminder that you know the imposter syndrome might be there the fear and the doubt might be there but he and anyone else that is in that position has earned the right to be there yeah well that reminds me of another clip that i want to play where he speaks very much around taking responsibility for his preparation and his performance as a fighter let's listen to him explain that in more detail as a kid growing up in leeds on you know a council estate it's easy to get fought you know it's easy to fall into what everyone else is doing so what everyone else were doing on our estate were nicking cars, sniffing glue, smoking, whatever, drinking on a Friday night.

6:37And why do you not want to do that? Everyone else is doing it. You know, it's the end thing. Why do you want to spend your time three times a week going to a boxing gym? Well, why don't you go play football with everyone else? As much as I would like to have played football, I just didn't have the talent. Walked into a boxing gym and, you know, played at it. Just an energetic kid. how old were you when you were seven years old and my old fellow used to turn around and say to me listen don't waste time you're wasting my time for me taking you to the gym he said you're wasting the people who are looking after you in the gym you're wasting their time he said if you're gonna do it don't do it if you want to go and play with your mates well fucking go play with your mates you can't come downstairs and say to me dad I wanna go to the gym tonight and then I wanna go two days later he said you either do it or you don't do it you know you're wasting everyone's time and you're wasting your own time most importantly and instantly at home with that it didn't take much for me to you know i have to be told again that would it if i was going to be a boxer then i was going to be a boxer so from like i think he said that about eight years old and i've been playing for about two years but that would it i would dedicate it to it then you know um when i would get into a teenage lad hanging about with my mates yeah they'd be having a drink and go to house parties on friday night but instead of me having a drink i'd take a bottle of water me i'll take a bottle lucas said instead of getting the bus home you know bus three miles home i jog home instead and that was just my mentality i didn't want to be wasting anybody else's time powerful that isn't it well really powerful because how often have we heard that saying that excuses remove the learning and what josh is saying there is that he has to take complete accountability for what he does in the shadows always emerges under the bright lights and that's what he's saying that if he's if he's taken a shortcut doesn't matter if anyone's allowed that to happen or they've turned a blind eye to it he's the one that's going to have to live with the consequences of it so i think understanding that again builds his confidence that he knows that he's not taken a shortcut he's not done a misstep he's not try to take the easy route so that when it gets tough in the fight he knows that he's got the capacity to go to those dark places and i think all of us can learn a little bit from not going to that place of blame and fault and you know using excuses which does remove the learning you're right which also is us relinquishing control anything else you'd like to share i think one of the most powerful extracts from any of our 200 plus episodes jake has been the conversation Josh shared with us about the power of friendships.

9:21As a young lad, I can find countless scenarios where I was thinking, I can't do this no more. At one point, I was studying Leeds University. I'm doing me, anyone who studies at university knows them 3 ,000 word assignments, especially when it's on fucking teeth and the mandible. It's not the most exciting thing when you go into lectures and you're listening to teeth and the structure of a tooth and a root and that. I mean, you could fall asleep just me insane talking about that. Doing that, working four days a week, nine to five, sometimes 10 to six, training every day and also trying to promote myself as a boxer.

10:01So going out selling tickets, going out selling people to follow my journey, going to pubs all around Leeds saying, listen, do you like boxing? Do you remember watching Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank? listen, that's what I'm trying to do for Leeds now. You know, bringing Leeds a bit of glory. There's no football team, it's not great, but follow my journey, mate, and I'll have some good times along the way. Trying to do that on times when I should have been really spending it with my pals, should have been spending it with Natasha. Going to work, knackered. Going to gym, knackered. Going to university, falling asleep.

10:37But thinking to myself, it'll all be worth it, it'll all be worth it, it will all be worth it in end. and I remember going to drop some tickets off to one of my pals and I picked him up and everyone was going to this party on the weekend, come in and I remember saying to him, oh, you must be buzzing for this party. I've got it, I can't go, I've got it, I can't go. I went, oh yeah, you'll be training more, you'll get ready for your fight. He says, yeah, yeah, how's it going? I said, yeah, yeah, I'm just a bit tired, I'm a bit tired. And he looked and he said, listen mate, don't fucking worry about this party.

11:07He said, same old, isn't it? Same old. I said, yeah, I know, but everyone's going to be there. I just wish I were going. And I think he just said to me, listen, same old. We've been doing the same thing since we were 18. For three years, we've been going to the same places, same people, doing the same thing, getting pissed at me and hang over. He says, it's fucking boring. So let me tell you now, from my point of view, any one of us looks at you and thinks, how does he do it? And we all look at you and think, wow, we could be in our shows. You know what? I wish I'd have not got into this drinking and carried on with my contracts with Yorkshire Amers as a footballer because who knows?

11:47I could have been somewhere where you are now. Fucking hell, it would have kicked up the arse what I needed just at that moment in time.

11:56I remember, you know what? I hear that back now and I remember how I felt listening to him talk like that. We both actually were buzzing at the end of that episode because it felt like we were talking to a boxer but there were just so many brilliant relevant lessons and stories that we could all take into our lives yeah it reminded me of that scene you know from the film goodwill hunting when matt damon's character has a conversation with ben aflack and ben aflack says if you're still here in 20 years time i'll be furious at you you've got such rich potential don't squander it and there's almost a filmic quality to the way josh told that story and i took away from it that we can all be the Josh character in that somebody that's going after our goals and needs a friend but we can also be his friend as well and encourage other people that are going after their dreams and aspirations and just let them know that we recognize it and we admire them for what they're doing great listen mate thank you so much for sharing that archive episode from high performance with us no it's been a pleasure Jake I love doing this one because like I say Joe Malone told us once that you can learn all these lessons and then sometimes they slip through your fingers like sand and I think when we go through this we just remind ourselves of some of these powerful kernels of truth that we've been lucky enough to witness and we're recording this 24 hours before Josh goes back to the ring so obviously we both wish him the best of luck yeah definitely I feel like I'm in his corner and I wish him all the very best

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